Haveing been to a few model railway exhibitions and seen a few on Utube.
The layouts fall loosely into two catogories model railroads and show layouts.
Its easy to tell the difference one looks like the layouts we aspire to.
The other one has clear differences meant to create an entertainment experience, and I have noticed that prototypical operating in the yard doesn’t hold the public interest for long.
Why is it do you think the differences are so clearly marked.
What do you think should be on a show layout to hold the public interest, for more than 5 minutes.
most people attending train shows like to watch trains run - not necessarily in a prototype fashion, more like a rail fan watching trains in a spectacular scenery. Only a true blooded aficionado will indulge in observing the local spotting a box car at the local industry for more than 20 seconds.
A typical show layout thus incorporates lots of action to be observed - be it trains, be it animated gadgets. To get a feel for that, take a look at the layouts displayed in the ONTRAX! model railroad show, held annually in the railroad museum in Utrecht/The Netherlands. You´ll find plenty of videos of this event on Youtube!
Sir mad dog got it right. At shows, it is about running trains and from what I have observed, that rivets and holds interest is a 100 car train snaking and threading its way along one of the giant modular layouts.
The other draw is the giant G and F layouts with super high scale giant and hyper-expensive engines and cars with fabulous DCC operation and their associated “big sound” and super lighting details.
Most folks who watch for 5 minutes or less are not real model rails.
Ultra boring, formal, real switching in yards or assembling trains or working a car into a siding will usually garner a 30 second glance and a quick move over to long trains running on another layout.
At shows it is about mindless loop running of long or specialized larger models moving about.
I agree with Ulrich. One thing at a train show I went to I kinda got a kick out of, they had real water in a small harbor scene. There was a “creature” (fake) under water, like a giant salamander. It was pretty well camoflaged, but a sharp eye would find it. That’s a train show thing.
For statistical purposes the sample, so far does not really meet the 3% margin of error but as there have been replies from Europe , the US and now a small island nation in the South Pacific, there appears to be a trend.
…and at speeds approximating Warp Factor 9.
To be fair when we exhibit we generally stick to about 35 -40 scale mph and get a reasonable number of favourable comments.
Cheers, the Bear.
When I belonged to a club in Toledo, Ohio we built a modular trolley layout that was over 20’ long and we could run 4 cars at a time using the Detroit System. Cars were always always running under wire, we had passing siding controlled by spring switches and over and under section and reverse loops all on 4’x2’ modules.
We always had a crown around that layout especially with the one club members old Kemtron Toonerville Trolley with Micky at the helm. By the way always had four cars running to keep the onlookers interested.
One simple word ‘‘animation’’. Watching a 100 car train, most people will lose interest quickly…especially youngster’s…but crossing gates and flashers and bridges going up & down, subways, starting and stopping any type of movement, rather than trains running around, same train…same scenery.
Over the years I been doing open houses there’s three things I found out that’s contrary to popular belief.
The general public isn’t all that interested in watching that 50 car coal train run laps at Mach speed.
They enjoy asking questions about the hobby/layout so,replace that frown with a warm smile.Don’t boast or push your modeling ideals… Give simple and realistic answers.
They do enjoy watching switching it seems to fascinate them more then anything. I have switch a yard during open houses and had a nice audience watching my every move-even one mother remarked to her child “Look,that’s what Grandpa does when he’s at work.” I never will forget that comment…
My New layout for train shows is my version of chicago. In time it will be all decked out with all the cool stuff. After building it for less than a month before the show, alot of people liked it. Kids liked that the trains ran underground. The adults liked the direction it was going.
The layouts i take to shows, i make based on if i see them alot at shows. Kids tend to like overall giant cities or military. Parents like that the kids are interested in the layouts. Adults like the amount of details that you put on or how you change it from year to year. The worst thing to me to see at a show is the same layout with little detail year after year with no sign of anything new on it.
At the annual Kern County Train Show here in Bakersfield the one thing that really grabs the attention is a Club Modular with an automated storm with an animated tornado, lighting and thunder. That grabs so much attention you have to wait in line to see it. Many will watch the tornado do it’s thing several times before moving on, many return for another look.
This is a link to local TV coverage of the show, please excuse the Bakersfield TV Station ding dongs. The last few seconds of the 2:42 minute clip show the tornado.
Out of the 8 or so modules set up at the show none have yards close enough to be viewed, the two largest have large yards in the center of the module with no access to view them closely. All modules have long freights moving very slow with steam and diesel.
On my own layout visitors go for animation over trai
Having club members ready to answer questions is the most important aspect of an open house.
Many years ago my wife was a museum professional and she read an interesting study about the visitor experience. The study concluded that:
The typical museum visitor remembers the guide, not the exhibits.
Another useful approach was to have members of the senior curatorial staff take the public tours and listen to the questions that the guides were asked.
I think the lesson for us is that if we really want to know what works best for the public’s enjoyment of the railroad, take off the engineer’s cap and mingle with the visitors as they tour the layout.
One nice touch at a recent club show was to have each member wear a name tag.
Some time ago my local club appointed an official greeter as a means of making the public feel welcome.
I haven’t been to a show in a number of years, but used to go to as many as I could. The layouts that caught my attention were typically large and creatively scenicked and “kept up”. Having train(s) running around them was the icing on the cake - especially if they were pre 1960 types.
Since all the train show visitors are allowed to do is look, you’d better incorporate something entertaining in your layout to catch/keep their attention. Put a throttle in their hands and see just how interested they’d become in switching trains! One club at a recent show actually did that for a couple of hours, inviting kids to take a throttle (under supervision of course) and try running the trains. Not only did that club hook a number of future model railroaders but they got to see how truly interested visitors became in the operations instead of the “show.”
I have not had a layout of my own for years. I also tend to shy away from Model Railroad clubs because most of the groups I have witnessed tend to be a lose conglomeration of members that barely tolerate each other. When I attend show and visit club layouts, I tend to look at the scenery. I like to see scenes that are very realistic. It doesn’t matter if it is a countryside scene or a town block, if it looks realistic, I am hooked. I will check out the details and then wait for a train to come through to add to that scene. I grew up in rural western PA and we had two single track lines through town, the Pittsburg & Shawmut, and the Pennsylvania/Conrail/Redbank railroad. Double tracked (or more) layouts built in an oval with numerous trains whizzing by is unrealistic to me. I think this is why the single track Free-Mo set ups appeal to me more and more.
My one gripe is that so few Ho modular layouts will run Steam engines. I like steam engines so to see diesels almost all the time is not to my liking.
All I own are steam engines, they are not that fragile to run on a modular layout. Yes some older steam like brass and some others should not be run all the time. I run the more modern steam from BLI and MTH when at any time be it the modular club or my home layout.
That and running the same locomotives pulling the same cars every year. They remember trains like a long coal drag,a autorack train or a stack train.
During the week of the county fair I switched between SCL and Family lines locomotives and switched cars out in the train consist on a daily bases…
A word that may not be to popular…Tone down the sound on your locomotives… I have had people to ask me how I could put up with that sound all day? They’re not impress with overly loud sound.
About those engineers hats…Ditch 'em and wear a regular ball type cap with your favorite road name. The public can identify with that.
I don’t know how many American groups have operating-oriented exhibition layouts such as you often see in British and Japanese magazines. Often in those groups the members have no home layouts, so their layout is assembled at gatherings of such layouts and they shunt cars, make up trains, and do the things modelers do at true operating sessions.
More often in American, the club has a permanent layout for genuine operations, to which the public might or might not be invited, and a traveling display layout that is taken to trains shows and shopping mall events. Often those traveling display layouts have a degree of whimsy or “find the hobo village” aspect that they would never incorporate in their “real” layout. The train shows themselves might mix toy trains layouts, including toy train races, with scale modeling traveling display layouts, all cheek by jowel. At Trainfest in Milwaukee there are also guys doing on site clinics, demonstrations, special displays, and the like. The attention span of a visitor to any one layout is brief so the trains had better be running – it would not do for the visitors to not see trains running, although at a prototype-based operating session trains might not run for considerable periods while the yards are busy or whatever.
And the American members likely have home layouts as well. So the traveling display layout in American often has no compelling need by a member to satisfy a desire to be operated in a serious prototypical manner. They go to the club for that, or have sessions at their home.
The average attention span is far, far less than 5 minutes, even for someone who enjoys what they are looking at. If there isnt something new or different to be seen every few minutes, you risk losing your audience. The key to keeping folks in front of your display, is having multiple points of focus, preferably active in a rotation every few minutes. The best displays I have seen take the show beyond the trains. Artwork on the facia, colorful club members/operators, sound effects, interesting signs, etc.
Think of it like this, half of your audience wont be really interested in your display. Spouses who are not railfans, children who don’t know what they like yet, a friend who got dragged along because of the need for a ride, etc. These folks likely are not really interested in the craftsmanship or may not really like trains, but if you can keep their attention, you have a great display and may create a new member of the hobby.
A lot depends on the show and its size. Local club shows will certainly have more questions asked as one-on-one time is available due to a more limited audience. Shows with thousands in attendence is another matter. Layouts are bigger and more varied in nature scale, gauge, type, etc.
The trains usually run at 200+ mph are the O gauge lionels with 6 inch radius curves and S gauge American flyer. There are exceptions in O and S, but it is rare to see a high scale S or O modular layout even at a big show. Most large N and HO layouts are higher detailed scale and trains are typically run at more realistic speeds. All 100 car trains are typically N, but occasionally you might see a 50 car HO train.
One cool modular that I was most fascinated by at Timonium a couple of years ago was a true operating cantenary, trolly line. very realistic with a ton of overhead wire.
Few of these large modular layouts, (mostly diesel), get more than a glance from me as I am busy buying and searching out deals in the limited time I have at the largest of the shows.