Choosing a region to model

Komata · June 22, 2016, 06:56:14 PM

FWIW (and as one who 'freelances' in 'N') when attempting to determine where 'my' railway was to be placed (the options being NZ, Australia, USA, UK, Continental Europe or even 'Somewhere East of Suez'), I repeatedly came back to two questions: 'What area do I know most about?' and what 'railway' do I know most about'?

The answer, no matter how I framed it (and tried strenuously to avoid) was always 'my own country' and 'my own local railway system'. This realisation (which took literally years to finally sink in) eventually formed the basis for what subsequently occurred, and the development of NZN-Freelance.

On that basis therefore (and if the literature is to be believed) it would seem that we tend to 'model what we know' and while this may not be our immediate local area, it is usually somewhere within our own regional or national borders.

All of which means (of course) that those who model 'other countries railways' (the US in particular) probably put in double the effort when compared to us who model our own 'local / national' scene. On that basis, the 'locals' would seem to get off relatively lightly...

As I said, FWIW; it's an interesting topic.

Buzzard · June 22, 2016, 09:33:58 PM

For years I'd been waiting for the right models so that I could model my home turf but modern, post 1990, Southern region stuff wasn't on the horizon. I wanted refurbed CEPs, EPBs, VEPs. MLVs etc. Oh and a decent Crompton.

So I thought with what's available where could I model, the answer I came up with was the West Midlands.

Plenty of DMUs could be had, I have 150s, 153s, 156s, 158s and 170s. How long would a hard pressed Southern modeller have to wait for five different classes to be available rtr?

As for locos and freight well almost anything goes around Brum so having more than I can run at one time means I can ring the changes to keep from getting bored.

OK so I have a fictitious layout, but then again who hasn't, which is my Rule 1 on which I attempt to run prototypical trains.

If my layout is ever thought good enough to be invited to an exhibition at least the punters will see something a lot more modern to look at than the usual fare round here of 009 mineral lines and GWR BLTs.

And of course for the "next" layout I have a couple of Pendolinos on order to go along with my 350s.

Nigel

belstone · June 22, 2016, 09:44:32 PM

There's a pattern developing here, and the pattern says my Dad was right. People model what they know. I'm not sure that was always the case - 30 years ago everyone seemed to be doing Great Western branch lines or the LMS regardless of where they lived - but maybe that had more to do with the very limited range of RTR stuff in any scale. I would take a guess that there are more modellers in the South-East than anywhere else, but not long ago there was almost nothing available for the Southern. That is no longer so.

Maybe my next layour should be set in Lincolnshire seeing as that is where I grew up. Actually that's not a bad idea (rushes off to research the Horncastle branch on the Internet.)

Newportnobby · June 22, 2016, 09:49:22 PM

If only the right RTR stock was available I'd love to have a crack at modelling Wolverton station as it was in the 1960s before they ruined it, as in very close proximity was a canal, the football stadium and BR tennis club a stones throw to the west of the fast lines and to the south there was the carriage & wagon works with its 'subway' entrance/exit along with the branch line to Newport Pagnell via Bradwell and the turning triangle.
Sadly I can't see anyone making the AM4/AM10 OHLEs I used to travel on so much

If EM1/2s were on the market a Manchester-Sheffield-Wath layout would also be on the cards!

As I live in a small bungalow perhaps it's just as well these are pipedreams.

belstone · June 22, 2016, 10:21:20 PM

EMUs are still a black hole for RTR. Probably because there were so many different designs all confined to small areas. Still I would have thought the Mk2 family EMUs (310 / 312) would sell well enough. They turned up in lots of places and had a long life. I sketched out a layout based on Hadley Wood in the late Deltic era which would be fabulous, but without 312s it isn't going to happen.

kirky · June 22, 2016, 10:55:26 PM

Quote from: belstone on June 22, 2016, 09:44:32 PM
There's a pattern developing here, and the pattern says my Dad was right. People model what they know. I'm not sure that was always the case - 30 years ago everyone seemed to be doing Great Western branch lines or the LMS regardless of where they lived - but maybe that had more to do with the very limited range of RTR stuff in any scale. I would take a guess that there are more modellers in the South-East than anywhere else, but not long ago there was almost nothing available for the Southern. That is no longer so.

Maybe my next layour should be set in Lincolnshire seeing as that is where I grew up. Actually that's not a bad idea (rushes off to research the Horncastle branch on the Internet.)

I was kind of thinking the same thing me self, that there seems to be almost no GWR layouts. Surprising that. We don't tend to see so many GWR layouts up here but they do still appear with regularity in the modelling press.

Cheers
Kirky

Komata · June 23, 2016, 04:14:44 AM

kirky:

Re: 'We don't tend to see so many GWR layouts up here..'. Unsurprising really, they've all been exported to the colonies. Rest assured that the GWR (in all scales) is very much alive and living in New Zealand...

There ARE an awful lot of them around. Not exactly sure why; perhaps expats were so attached to them that they brought them with them when they left Home...

Thought you might like to know; England's loss is NZ's gain...

kirky · June 23, 2016, 07:12:40 AM

Thanks Komata. Interesting indeed. Still dont believe that most expats are from the south west corner of Britain though.
I guess with Peco being based in Devon, then we should expect Railway Modeller to be weighted towards that region. But that still doesnt explain why on this thread GWR seems to be under reprresented?

Cheers
Kirky

railsquid · June 23, 2016, 08:00:15 AM

Quote from: kirky on June 23, 2016, 07:12:40 AM
Thanks Komata. Interesting indeed. Still dont believe that most expats are from the south west corner of Britain though.
I guess with Peco being based in Devon, then we should expect Railway Modeller to be weighted towards that region. But that still doesnt explain why on this thread GWR seems to be under reprresented?

Small sample size?

If it helps, the British part of my layout will be set in a semi-fictional ex-GWR location, albeit not a bucolic branch line, more urban grit (or grot depending on point of view and temporal setting). I even have some GWR-style fencing somewhere.

Thorpe Parva · June 23, 2016, 09:09:06 AM

My layouts have always been set in my home County of Leicestershire. I have plans in my head for future layouts and they are also set in the same area. It confirms my view that, as for most modellers of my age group, I am re-creating what I remember from my trainspotting days.

Les1952 · June 23, 2016, 10:02:55 PM

I'm originally from the area of the country described as "that narrow band of civilisation that separates Scotland from Yorkshire"- i.e. the real North East. Not such a narrow band as Darlington to Berwick is almost 100 miles....

So what area was my first post retirement layout based on? - the Black Forest of course.

Since then I've returned to my home county for Hawthorn Dene - which is made up of two words both of which seem beyond the ability of southerners to spell correctly.

An excursion into OO is nearly ready for showing. This is also based on County Durham - "No Place", which is a village near Beamish Museum also known as Co-operative Villas.

Back to N, and construction has started on yet another County Durham layout, Croft Spa, this time modelled on a real location rather than an impression of it. It is also on the East Coast Main Line allowing me the excuse to run ex-LNER big engines on proper big trains in the right setting.

All I need is a B16, an Ivatt 4MT and Thompson coaches, plus Dave Jones's Q6 and Clayton and I have all the trains I need. The advantage of keeping to a theme..

Les

Simon D. · June 24, 2016, 04:17:58 PM

An odd route back to the N after 40+ years.

Last year I was watching Better Call Saul (the prequel to Breaking Bad) and the main character came into Albuquerque by train. Curious, I looked it up and found this awesome picture of the Super Chief in 1943. Still addicted and some thousands of pounds lighter!

Byegad · June 24, 2016, 04:59:20 PM

My present layout is German. I've visited on holiday a few times, but never lived there. My next layout is going to be set in Doggerland, as it may have been if the North Sea hadn't appeared! This will allow me to run French, 3 locos and some rolling stock, German some 30 locos and lots of stock and British, some 35 locos plus rolling stock, into the same 'Doggerland' station. All I need then is an excuse to run some Japanese trains...