I was talking to my father the other day about new loco releases, and said I couldn't understand why the manufacturers had ignored Scottish engines.  His reply - "Because there are far more modellers in the South-East than in Scotland".  I hadn't thought of it like that, but looking around I get the impression that many modellers tend to build models based in an area they know well, often the place where they live. So just out of curiosity, a question for forum members - what geographical area is your model set in, and why did you choose it?

My own layouts tend to be set in North Northumberland.  I first visited the area some thirty years ago and fell in love with it.  Also heavily inspired by the layouts that Ian Futers built in the 1970s (Otterburn, Longwitton etc).

Although I used to live in Wolverton on what is now the WCML, I travelled to Oxford many times as a youthful trainspotter, mainly because you could see traction from 4 regions there - WR, SR, LMR and ER.
My main layout 'Kimbolted' is subsequently based very loosely in the Oxford area, although it does cost me rather a lot as, not only do I have 4 regions to cope with, but I also have 2 eras (1950s and 1960s[pre BR Blue]).
There's not a huge amount of difference between the 2 eras but enough to make life fun!

Wotcanappen is purely fictitious and as such rule 1 will always apply. Martini Holt is loosely based around the area west of Swindon and if you can find that well done
Graham 

Foster Street is set in the 40's in the Northwest so mostly LMS for me, as for why, all you need to do is look at a Crimson Jubilee or Duchess....need I say more?

Came from up that way, Durham /Northumberland.

Love layouts that capture  the atmosphere. 

I grew up at Maidenhead, the original terminus of the GWR out of Paddington. I road on the Marlow branchline a few times and was intrigued by the closed section from Bourne End to High Wycombe. I guess my love of all engines with copper caps started there.

I also have a soft spot for NSE in the sectorisation era as those are the trains I grew up riding. The 321 was my favourite EMU for quite a while. The Revolution model looks ever so tempting but sadly I lack the funds to model a second totally different era/area.

My layout is based on a station a few miles from where I live in South Warwickshire between Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon.  I liked the idea of doing somewhere local, I also wanted a simple track plan (as it was my first layout) and something with good availability of suitable RTR stock.  There is plenty of stock for GWR and BR Western Region lines available new or second hand, which certainly swayed my choice.

I wanted a mix of steam and diesel power which is why my layout is based (roughly) in the 1960s.  Although it can be anything from 1945 to 2000 if I want.

If I were to start another project it would probably be based on somewhere I already know, which could be Western, Midland or Southern.  I don't have enough experience of Eastern or Scottish region railways for them to capture my imagination.

@paulprice I do 'get' the love of LMS, my most prized loco when I was young was a Hornby Class 5 in non-prototypical but very handsome Crimson.  It was probably an odd choice for a boy living in the South East but I think that's why it appealed.  Crimson locos and coaches seemed a world away from blue/grey electric multiple units.  Although I think the LMS used to run the Gravesend-Tilbury ferry, which connected with the London-Tilbury-Southend railway line (way before my time) on the other side of the river from where I grew up.

Quote from: belstone on June 21, 2016, 09:48:15 AM
So just out of curiosity, a question for forum members - what geographical area is your model set in, and why did you choose it?

Errm areas - Japan, Germany and the UK. As I've lived in all three countries and like the trains. All three are orientated to areas I live / have lived in/am familiar with, and which had/have an interesting variety of trains an history, so it feels natural to orientate myself to that. Had I spent most of my life in locales less inspiring in railway terms, I suppose I would have searched further afield for inspiration. I do occasionally collect trains outside of my core interests, I seem to have ended up with a small fleet of US locomotives as they were dirt cheap and kind of interesting, but don't feel the slightest urge to model anything American as it's all foreign to me. Though I could say the same of Scottish trains or those funny 3rd rail things they have south of the Thames.

Period is also a factor - not having lived in the UK since the early 1990s all these fanciful post-privatisation liveries and class 60-something diesels are mightily strange to me, so my British collection is orientated towards the BR blue/sectorisation I'm familiar with.

I'm modelling the area local to me (albeit fictional) but in an earlier era - 50s/60s ex-L&Y/LMS. I did briefly consider doing a GWR layout, because I really like the look of the stock, but there was no other reason to do so (I don't really know the area at all).

My dad (who died 9 years ago) used to model LMS, but in OO gauge. I now find myself buying rolling stock in N that he had (and that I played with a lot) in OO, and it reminds me of him, and those times. Without wishing to get all soppy, it's made me realise just how much I miss him.

Quote from: belstone on June 21, 2016, 09:48:15 AMI was talking to my father the other day about new loco releases, and said I couldn't understand why the manufacturers had ignored Scottish engines

What do you define as a "Scottish engine"?
I define it is a locomotive built in Scotland
I had to go to a museum to see a "real one"

However, if you mean a locomotive "operating in Scotland", then what era / period?
I agree there is a minority of coverage, but it is there

Personally, a RTR (ready to run) model is just a base, like a model kit
Take it out of the box, then change it to what you need

My current layout is based on Glasgow Queen Street in the late 1980s / early 1990s
At the moment I have just five "unmodified" locomotives, but that proves they do exist

Quote from: mjkerr on June 21, 2016, 11:34:58 AM

What do you define as a "Scottish engine"?
I define it is a locomotive built in Scotland
I had to go to a museum to see a "real one"

However, if you mean a locomotive "operating in Scotland", then what era / period?
I agree there is a minority of coverage, but it is there

I was thinking steam rather than diesel - having said which there doesn't seem to have been much interest in the proposed crowdfunded NBL Class 29 which counts as throughly Scottish in all respects.

Steam wise there is nothing in OO let alone N for the North British, Caledonian, Highland, GNoS or GSWR.  All those lovely 4-4-0s with beautiful names and ornate liveries, and not even a hint that any manufacturer might think them worth producing. As far as I can tell the only Scottish pre-grouping loco ever made RTR was the old Triang Caley single.

My layouts have all been based in God's country the southwest of our fair country, Why because I am a westcountry person having lived most of my life in Devon,Cornwall,Wiltshire. I have lived else where Scotland,Kent,Hampshire and Gibraltar but the westcountry is home.

Quote from: jrb on June 21, 2016, 11:03:57 AM
My dad (who died 9 years ago) used to model LMS, but in OO gauge. I now find myself buying rolling stock in N that he had (and that I played with a lot) in OO, and it reminds me of him, and those times. Without wishing to get all soppy, it's made me realise just how much I miss him.

I can relate to that, jrb.  I have two OO locos that I inherited from a good friend who was a father figure to many more than just his immediate family.  One is a Fowler/Hughes Crab and the other is a Royal Scott; I have an N gauge Crab and will get a Graham Farish Scott at some point.

Mine have always been based around the East Dorset area, a couple have been based on prototype locations but most  on the lines of "Based on" or "What if " scenarios.

East Dorset is homeland for me, train spotting in 1940s set me firmly on SR/LMS (S&DJR) stock. First layouts were set in late 50s, as there was not enough pure SR stock available then, but I've gradually shifted the time back to 1930s I don't like Malachite!

Quote from: mjkerr on June 21, 2016, 11:34:58 AM
What do you define as a "Scottish engine"?
I define it is a locomotive built in Scotland
I had to go to a museum to see a "real one"

Oh, I think you're being deliberately mischievous there! I think you'd agree a Class 26 or 27 is a Scottish diesel, notwithstanding their short term use around London. The 26s and 27s were built in the Midlands, so by your standard they're not Scottish, but so far as the modeller goes, you'd need to be modelling a very specific time and place to put them on anything other than a Scottish (or at least Borders) layout.

Conversely, the Western Region's Class 22s were built in Glasgow, which is definitely in Scotland, but would you consider them a Scottish locomotive? I think not. In fact I'm pretty sure that the Glaswegian manufacturers provided locomotives to the various parts of the British Empire as well as places like Argentina and Japan.

Quote from: Dorsetmike on June 21, 2016, 01:22:20 PM
East Dorset is homeland for me, train spotting in 1940s set me firmly on SR/LMS (S&DJR) stock. First layouts were set in late 50s, as there was not enough pure SR stock available then, but I've gradually shifted the time back to 1930s I don't like Malachite!

I do think Dorsetmike nails it here. There's a massive amount of nostalgia involved in selecting a region. Sometimes it's not even real nostalgia, but a longing for something that passed before the modeller got to see it. My first love is the diesel hydraulics of the Western Region, and while I've seen them on preserved railways, I was a bit too young to "spot" them in the wild. So my layouts tend to combine diesel hydraulics with the beautiful Quantocks countryside I did grow up enjoying.

That said, I'm totally happy to run a loco I like on any layout. My current project may be Somerset-centred, but that doesn't stop me running a Swiss 'Krokodil' and Pullman coaches when I want to! Rule #1 overrules everything else.

Cheers, NeMo