Hi

An idea still in my head is to model the near future

With schemes like HS2 being proposed as an example

The layout could have some dramatic civil engineering ideal for N

Stock could be based on the current latest trains available and the likes of the ICE

A different approach than looking back!

Views?

A brilliant idea! 

A wide choice of what you run, as it's the future no-one can disagree.  And what an act of creativity!

The only down side I can think of is that when the future arrives, what you have done will look quaint - an example of this is the old channel tunnel models which now look strange.

Don't let that stop you though!

Cheers  Jon 

Don't forget to park a Delorean in the car park of the hover train station!

A great idea, but as has been said it can have pitfalls.

I for example have an NSE era layout bassed on the Henbury Loop being open to passenger traffic. So looks like that's not going to happen 

Skyline2uk

If you can get to the Andover show on 5th & 6th September 2015 you can see Choates Lane which is based on HS1 (at the end of London Tunnel 2) in 2016. It does need a Class 92 though. Has anyone got one to loan?

Predicting the future is notoriously difficult...  Von Braun had detailed plans for humans on Mars by the 1980s - we still haven't even been back to the moon!

And no science fiction writer of the 40s, 50s, 60s,and 70s ever predicted the internet, yet alone it's profound effects.

Having said all that, your plans are a little more modest and certainly interesting. Good luck! 

I think it's a great idea.  After all, mathematical or computer modelling can be about exploring what is possible, rather than predicting what is actually going to happen. Why can't railway modelling be the same.  ?If, in the future, someone says "Well, that didn't happen, did it?", just point out that it probably did in a parallel universe.

According to the prevailing theory on such things, it's a mathematical certainty it DID happen in another universe!

Skyline2uk

That's the great thing about railway modelling. You create your own universe.

And I don't necessarily mean rule 1.

Choates has got ICE, TGV, and Spanish AVE's on it.

 

Go for it!

Boldly go for it !

I have made a start on a very modern viaduct for this layout - but stalled a bit for now as doing a bit of major DIY / extension on the house

Generally all model railways are from the imagination, unless you are out there measuring up a site that already exists!

Even working from drawings and photos for a long gone location needs some imagination

Like everything it is making it convincing!