Just curious, but do any of you model elections (presidential or otherwise) on your layouts? It seems to me that election signs, banners, billboards and posters would not only be a great way to add detail but would also instantly identify the era in which your layout is set.
I have an “I Like Ike” thumbnail size poster, but you’d have to be looking for it to find it. Fits right in on my pre-1960 layout.
Mike
I prefer to leave ‘politics’ in the real world and off my layout.
When’s the last time anyone ran a whistle-stop campaign? WAAAAY before my time! Wayt before the time I model too…they even had radio AND even TV when I was kid!
The current Walthers HO catalog has election banners/signs for a number of presidential elections
Oh, I’ve got lots of politics on the layout, but I tend to discuss that in person…[^o)]
A good topic, so I’ll try to stay on-topic.
Having a specific campaign works well if you want to narrow things down. However, like many people, I tend to model with a wider temporal lens than real life. Putting a firm date on things might ruin the magic for me.
One thing I do is that I model the more modern on the standard gauge in Durango. Then you go back in time on the narrowgauge to Silverton. Finally, you get really old heading up further into the mountains on my Silverton Union RR. So maybe I could do the 1960 election in Durango, 1956 in Silverton and 1920 in Red Mountain?
I’ll have to think about that, but figured I’d throw it out as another way to handle this. There are certainly some great old ads out there. Always a good way to start a conversation you probably shouldn’t have here.[;)]
Both Barack Obama and George W. Bush incorporated whistle stop tours into their campaigns. They both used privately owned cars. Although neither one amounted to any length of time or distance, they both had them. You can find photos of them if you do a Google search for images. I’m not sure about campaigns before that but obviously airplane travel put a big dent in campaigning from a train.
My club’s layout have a few Nixon and Kennedy campaign posters slapped on the side of buildings but they aren’t real obvious. Every once in a while a visitor spots them and comments or chuckles.
Reagan did it also with the Magellan for one day. October 12, 1984.
I’m not sure how old you are but Clinton ran one in '96. We went down to the yards in Pontiac, MI to see it roll through.
No…I don’t want to be reminded of politics when trying to relax and having fun.
Wayne
I can’t for the life of me remember where it was, but I remember seeing a really nice model of the Lincoln Funeral Train. It might actually be in the Museum of Funerals just outside the cemetery in Springfield Illinois where Lincoln’s tomb is situated?
Never have so far. If I do, it’ll be Eisenhower vs Stevenson.
Enjoy
Paul
Well it could be fitting since we have an election here today in Queensland!
I have a swamp. Is that close enough to politics?
You hit the nail on the head…[:-^]
Wayne
“We have met the enemy – and he is us!”
[similar to a famous Pogoism, which may go over the head of those too young to remember, but seems to sum things up in a very non-partisan way [swg] ]
When I model my little neighborhood police boxes I’ll include a little detail that’s peculiar to my prototype time and location.
Right next to the building, I’ll put up what looks like a short piece of fence, marked off in vertical rectangles 300x400 (scale) mm. It’s the neighborhood political poster board. Come election time, each candidate gets a rectangle to post his/her mug shot and a few carefully-selected quotes. At other times, they’re just blank.
Since it’s September, the posters aren’t up yet - and never will be.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
CR&T in circa 1956 means “I Like Ike” on billboards – Not to mention how 1956 is convenient for maximum flexibility of motive power for traction, steam, and diesel!
To my mind that would limit the time to a election year and that would be to limiting for my modeling style.
Hi,
Obviously a subjective question with no right or wrong answer - so let me give my view.
On MY layout, I choose to avoid all things controversial or troubling with the real world. Soooo, there are no elections, prisons, houses on fire, cemetaries, or poverty stricken areas.
Of course that takes some aspect of realism out of the layout, but that is sure ok by me.