Something I'm considering, and I was wondering if anyone else has done, is splitting a 4 x 8 layout into two different themes. Just for the sake of argument...maybe there would be a mountain/tunnel situation where on one side of the tunnel it will be the American Southwest and on the other side it will be the countryside near Wiltshire, England.

I have a sort of split layout with my current 3 x 6...the region is the same but I have it split into two time-frames.

So, does anyone else do this? Is it dumb? Has anyone seen anyone else successfully pull this off with a seamless transition from one theme to the next?

The fabled Trans Atlantic Tunnel 

If you bisect the board with a back scene or something m there's no reason it shouldn't work. I'm not sure I'd try for a transition unless you have huge amounts of space.

Not sure it'll ever be seamless though, the trains will look hugely out of place on 50% of the layout.

Think of all the differences between UK and US outline e.g. buildings, road markings, cars etc and try to avoid them as that's where one sort or another would look out of place. Providing it's just scenery I see no reason why it wouldn't work but I don't/won't run Rule 1.

All you need is a Flying Scotsman with a bell at the front. 

And a cow-catcher

Does "Rule One" trump an "Executive Order"?



Mike

Before coming to N I toyed with the idea of having two separate Terminus stations set in different time periods.

One station was to be 1950's and the other 1980's with the main line being generic enough that it wouldn't be one period or the other.
The idea was to be that the trains shared the loop but never each others stations.

Your scenics may not allow this. Another suggestion would be see if you can make both sides generic enough so you can swap any buildings around depending on which side of the Atlantic you want it to look like.

Of course if you have a scenic divider  you are only going to see one side at any one time!

One of my thoughts is: When the British image stuff is in North America, it's an excursion type situation. Some eccentric Train loving rich dude bought and restored some old British equipment and runs excursions, and visa-versa when the NA stuff is in the British half of the layout.

Just brainstorming...not sure if this can/will work out...but it's fun thinking about it and fun seeing everyone's responses.

I think I am correct in saying US stuff wont fit the UK loading gauge.

Quote from: Snowwolflair on February 03, 2017, 04:00:49 PM
I think I am correct in saying US stuff wont fit the UK loading gauge.

Correct, not by a country mile! I've posted this before, but here's a Dash-9 with a load of BR266s (class 66s).



If you want to do it OP, I say go crazy, that's the fun of it after all, you'll never ever come up with even a vaguely plausible justification for it though!

I keep an eye out for a well priced Southern Pacific AC12 Cab Forward, which is so incredibly far removed from my post-2010 West Coast Main Line setting it's not true, but I'd still probably run it occasionally!

You could do the Flying Scotsman visiting the USA?

Good idea! I can't believe that didn't already get mentioned

I'm  in the process (early stages) of building a layout in my loft which will be along these lines.  My plan is to have a yard in the middle of the layout, in one direction from this yard it will all be American, in the other French. 

The prototypes won't mix as such, when I use the French part the yard will be full of stock for that and vice versa when I'm using the American part. 

I have only just started building the far end of the American part (picture below if I can work out how to do it.)  Construction has really been on a roll in the last couple of weeks and I have made significant progress.  The town, not yet named, will have a large autoparts plant and a smaller food related industry.  I'm really enjoying building this and hope to have the town finished by Easter.

Delfin

Quote from: scottmitchell74 on February 03, 2017, 01:27:52 PM
So, does anyone else do this?

(Raises hand) I'm going one better and will have Japan, Germany and the UK all on the same loop.

Quote from: scottmitchell74 on February 03, 2017, 01:27:52 PM
Is it dumb?

It's fun, though "proper modellers" will no doubt turn their noses up.

Quote from: scottmitchell74 on February 03, 2017, 01:27:52 PMHas anyone seen anyone else successfully pull this off with a seamless transition from one theme to the next?

I'm vaguely considering removable backscenes to isolate the British and German sections when I'm in the mood, but otherwise I'll have to live with the visual discrepancy Operations-wise (if such a fancy word is appropriate) I'll treat the rest of the layout as scenic storage when running trains from a specific country. Disbelief will be completely suspended when running the small collection of US stock.