When does a train set become a model railway?

[Komata]

This is of course a very old discussion that has been going on for years...

FWIW, my few cents:

As others have already noted, the transition from 'Train Set' to 'Model Railway' seems to be made when the owner of a 'train set' decides that they want to replicate in some way 'real' full-sized  trains that they have seen - either in 'real life' or in a magazine or electronic media.

This places their interest at a level slightly-above that of the 'circle of track and a clockwork mouse'. epitomised by the 'train set' as it is received, and indicates that the 'interest in trains' is developing.  Whether anything ever come of this interest is of course dependent on a variety of factors, and as such it is outside the cope of the question.

As I said, FWIW, my few cents...

[scotsoft]

Your friends and family call it a train set but you call it a model railway.

I think it becomes a model railway once the track is permanently laid onto a baseboard with some sort of plan in mind.

Well said Veronica, once you start to plan a track layout then, I feel, it goes from train set to layout.  I know there are many layouts that take a very long time to progress from this state but not everyone can envisage what they want to achieve in the end.  Therefore running trains on some track laid out on a board gives scope for changing the plan again and again and again.  This is one of the reasons I like Kato Unitrack, a few clicks, you have a siding, a few more, you have a small fiddle yard and so it grows till you are happy with your efforts then buildings and scenery can start to be added and moved around.

cheers John.

[Lawrence]

When it stops being fun and starts getting ruddy frustrating 

[Bealman]

Aye. And when you're getting older Yer prefer the trainset.

[Pengi]

If SouthWest Trains refer to their EMUs as train sets then that is good enough for me

I have a train set (and also a tram set)

[Komata]

Pengi

Re: 'If SouthWest Trains refer to their EMUs as train sets then that is good enough for me

I have a train set (and also a tram set)'

I see, therefore it's a case of 'Train, Set, and Match....'?

Well played, sir, well played.

[Karhedron]

Personally I think that scale length trains and accurately representing reality are perhaps a bit too restrictive. A great many excellent layouts involve some selective compression, even in N gauge.

For me it is when you start trying to represent the world beyond the edge of the tracks. Once the track is permentantly fixed to the board and you have made a start on some kind of scenery then it is a model railway rather than just a train set. You may have a long way to go to reach the standards of some of the layouts on the exhibition circuit but you have taken your first step into a bigger world.

Don't have space for a 12-coach passenger train but want to use a Type-4 diesel? Then milk tanks or nuclear flask trains could be options, depending on your era. I like milk trains a lot precisely because of this; the other day I came across a picture of a 'Duchess' class Pacific on the front of a trains consisting of maybe ten milk tanks and a three-axle 'Stove-R'-looking brake van! Since a loaded milk tanker weighs about the same as a loaded Mk 1 coach, that's actually a fair-sized train, and without refrigeration needed to be run at express speeds, hence the need for a bog engine at the front.

I agree, I like milk trains for the same reason and you can get even more extreme examples than that. Here is a GWR Castle with just 6 tanks, a can and an old Collett BG. And this is at the London end! 

[Tdm]

Just to add my 2 cents worth to the debate.
When you come back in to the main part of the house (or whatever) with your hands full of glue, paint, and sores - then you have been working on a model railway, and the misses tells you off for ruining a perfectly good shirt "playing with your trains!" as she puts it, instead of helping with the housework.

[Silver Line]

When I told my daughter I was going to buy my grandson an OO gauge DCC starter locomotive set for Christmas the comment was he is too old for a train set. He is 22 years old but with slight disability. I replied I am not talking about a train set but a model railway where he will learn skills such as wiring, painting, soldering, carpentry and more but she was still sceptical.  He is building it in a spare bedroom at my home with supervision. I think she is pretty impressed with what he has achieved now. Unfortunately he got me hooked to so I am building an n gauge one. I thought N gauge may be a bit small for him to handle but he is better with it than me. I wish I had started him with N gauge now as there is so much more you can fit onto an 8x4 base.

Alwyn

[Claude Dreyfus]

I would say a train set becomes a model railway when two things happen. The set up become permanent and when you are trying to portray something other than a bare circuit of track/tracks, and give it some life (scenery etc.).

Then again, some people still call their models a train set, include a couple of club members who have constructed a scale model of Hawkhurst in SR days!

[Dock Shunter]

When I told my daughter I was going to buy my grandson an OO gauge DCC starter locomotive set for Christmas the comment was he is too old for a train set. He is 22 years old but with slight disability. I replied I am not talking about a train set but a model railway where he will learn skills such as wiring, painting, soldering, carpentry and more but she was still sceptical.  He is building it in a spare bedroom at my home with supervision. I think she is pretty impressed with what he has achieved now. Unfortunately he got me hooked to so I am building an n gauge one. I thought N gauge may be a bit small for him to handle but he is better with it than me. I wish I had started him with N gauge now as there is so much more you can fit onto an 8x4 base.

Alwyn

Well done Alwyn...
Just goes to prove you are never too old to get involved in this wonderful hobby.....

...Ste

[Silver Line]

Thanks dock shunter I am a 72 year old grandmother  We have been teaching eachother

[Agrippa]

According to the OED a model is a three dimensional representation of something ,
thus a train set with a loco , 2 coaches and a circle of track is a model railway.
Though not necessarily prototypical.

[Claude Dreyfus]

According to the OED a model is a three dimensional representation of something ,
thus a train set with a loco , 2 coaches and a circle of track is a model railway.
Though not necessarily prototypical.

Ah yes, but a model of a Farish class 47 is a model; be it on a beautifully landscaped, prototypically run work of art; sitting in a display cabinate; in its box in a drawer or running around a circuit of track with a couple of carriages. Therefore your example is a model, running as part of a train set - i.e. something which exists in its own right purely to run the model. The model train running on a model railway is when the circuite of track takes on some context and meaning.   

[Zogbert Splod]

What is it, for you, that defines where 'train set' stops and 'layout' starts?  Are they different expressions for the same thing?  Is it a layout as soon as the track gets attached to a baseboard?
Is there actually a definition that is universal or is it an individual, personal thing?
Did you notice that every sentence in this post ends in a question mark? (No need to respond to that last one coz now it doesn't.)

Regards, Allan.....