I’m building in N scale on a 4’ X 7’ table. The general idea is to have a German Village type tourist attraction at one end of the table. The other end would be a small residential area in a generic style that would look like it could be in any time period from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. There are still a lot of neighborhoods here in the Dayton area that conform to this pattern. One side of the table is becoming a light industrial strip. One corner has a hill with an un kempt yard and an abandoned house that looks down on the residential area. This was my first and only, so far, attempt at landscaping and came out pretty well. The center and other end and corners would hold farmland, rural scenery and anything else that might fit in.
The main reasoning behind this generic build is that I could run certain locos and cars from the 30’s to the 90’s with a still reasonable view towards realism. Only cars and locos appropriate to a more narrow time period would be run at the same time, of course. No mixing anachronisitc rolling stock. This generic outlook would also let me run different rail lines. I’ve found so many different logos and markings appeal to me that I hate to be tied down to only a few lines.
Has anyone here ever built along this concept of generalization and not specialization? If so all hints, advice, suggestions and criticisms will be welcomed.
FritzvB
Years ago, the variable or flexible era concept was discussed in the model press in several articles. Most seemed to follow what you have suggested, residential and industrial buildings that existed at both ends of the time period. Even going so far as to have some buildings removable and another scene or building of a different era that could be substituted for your era’s operating session.
Also, don’t forget the road vehicles when changing an era.
What you describe has certainly been done before. In the 60th aniversary issiue (Jan 1994 I think) there is an artical about a quite large HO layout that is similarly of generic tone.
His favorite roads were the Milwaukee, the Rock Island, the Mo Pac, and the Burlington/BN He had a quite large roster of equipment so he could hold an operating session with a complete look from any time from the 1930s to the Mid 1980s. While One road was the “Home Road” for his mood, he used the other three for the “interchange” And when His moods changed He would change everything out to fit his new time period he wanted to portray.
So what you propose has been done, quite successfully. However, It seems like an aweful lot of extra work to me.
James
Sounds like you have a pretty good layout that provides a lot of variety. I have done something similar. Many of the building in my town of Royal Oak have were built in the 20s-50s. The GTW Holly sub runs right through the city and has been active for around a hundred years under various ownership, so these buildings have seen a great variety of engines and freight.
I can just as easily change my layout from steam to transition to modern if I only had enough money.
I am really building my layout to learn some skills and see what I like and don’t like. My dream layout is still being worked on in my head.
My layout is set in the 1960’s, but there’s not much there that couldn’t have been around 30 years earlier. As was already mentioned, the trains and the cars are the big thing, and those can all be pulled off and replaced. I didn’t start out to do this, but 2 things have combined to make this a goal, once the layout is more-or-less done in the 60’s. The first is sound in steam engines. Suddenly, steam is much more desireable, so I need to figure out a way to use it. The second is the layout photography of Bob Grech, which has really turned me on to the Jordan vehicles. So, when I’m putting anything together now, I try to make sure that it would still look right, regardless of which era I put it in.
An excellent point. Thank you and thanks to all of you for your replies. I started out with only diesels but steam locos take me back to my younger days. When I was on the safety patrol in elementary school once a year we got treated to a Cincinnati Reds ball game and the trip was always via steam. When I came home on leave for my granfather’s funeral it was via steam on the Atlantic Coast Line to Richmond, Virginia and then on the B & O (C &O) to Cincinnati…
I guess you could modify the old Chevrolet commercial to say, "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet and steam locomotives.
FritzvB