What are some things that are waaay off

Folks:

One thing about clutter is that it often has a certain order to it…sometimes it’s stuff that’s being stored, sometimes it’s stuff that was once supposed to be used, like an old machine taken outside as a parts source, then left there while weeds grew up and other stuff was put in front of it.

There’s an old compressor dealer around here that would be a clutterbug’s dream, but it’s not pure disorder - you’ve got a few similar rusty machines here, a row of pipes on some skids there, etc.

I’m sorry guys, but Sedum doesn’t even vaguely resemble any elm tree I’ve ever encountered in the eastern U.S. and there were plenty around when I was growing up. Below is an image of a typical American Elm. It bears no resemblance to Sedum’s opened umbrella, essentially broad, flat-topped profile/appearance. The same goes for any of the various New England species of maples.

I can’t speak to westcoast tree species but I can’t ever recall seeing any common North American tree that closely resembles Sedum. If you are familiar with any, please post an image.

CNJ831

Sedum to this little one can sort of be seen as a ‘Tree Foobie’—but not even a close approximation there of----[xx(]

Vertical rock faces next to the track with not a sign of a borehole…

Bridges (usually, but not always, modified kits) that would collapse like cardboard if a train ever rolled over them in 1:1 scale.

Tall, spindly wood trestles under later generation diesels.

Towns without clearly-identifiable post offices, municipal offices and cop shops. And, even more so, no fire halls…

NO vehicles marked for the local utility companies, plumbers, electricians or tree services…

‘Eclectic’ architecture - New England saltbox next to an adobe, with a southern plantation house right across the alley…

And everybody’s favorite, the little people, each standing in a personal mud puddle - even on concrete sidewalks.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with scenery when i get a round tuit)

Eh, this I can just assume that there’s lots more of the town, just not visible on the layout (this is fairly necessary if the town consists of 4 houses and 3 stores… 60 homes and 10 stores is probably more like it for a small village)

  • No mud people for me - I ground off the bases of the handful of Bachmann (some are nice enough, but generally they lack enough detail to be the ol’ “Eyes without a face”) and Lifelike, use mostly Preiser and Woodland scenicss, and tack 'em w/ rubber cement (eh…there’s gotta be a better way).

Anyway, I’m not that big a fan of outmoded and obsolete practices on layouts representing a modern era - such as shipping non-alcoholic items in wooden barrels, small freight stations (not team tracks or the like), funky wooden crates on said freight stations, (US) freight cars w/ roofwalks after, say, 1990, icing platforms and so on. Also, it’s true businesses here and there have cutsey or punny names, but too many and too obvious ones are just cringe-inducing (for some reason the poster child in my mind is the old ‘W.E. Snatchem’ funeral home).

Garages plopped in middle of field—with NO way to get to it[%-)]

3 choked yards on a layout only needing 2 lokes—having 19 lokes on 19 trains[sigh]

Come now—do you need a full fledged town every 5 inches?[sigh]

Trying to cover ALL seasons on a single 4X8[soapbox]

Getting a SD90Mac and thinking that a couple of them should go around an 12" radius curve and NOT look funny[swg]

SD90MAC’s painted purple with green polka dots–hey–some guy thought this was a neato idea—if you just pictured that in your own mind you will appreciate the horrified look the guy’s wife gave him–[|(][xx(]

Crandell, I think you are referring to the Cisco site in the Fraser Canyon. Another neat aspect of that is the CN mainline goes over the CP on a bridge as they both swap sides at this point.

Pathfinder, no, I’m actually thinking of Ainslie Creek Gorge. Here is the image I took just 10 days ago.

Hand painted backdrops that include anything more than sky and clouds. Very few people have the talent to paint anything else which looks as realistic as their models and scenery.

+1 to her for that call!

What about having a scenery item that’s the flat out wrong scale! There’s a layout I saw in town here that had O scale trees on an N scale layout. Redwoods them was, as I recall the description from its owner.

Let me add an associated situation to this complaint. How about essentially vertical, heavily wooded, hillsides immediately adjacent to the tracks. While I fully appreciate that the depth of our layouts is far from infinite, it shouldn’t result in one modeling in a manner that absolutely flies in the face of real-world laws of nature.

There is a physical parameter called “the angle of repose” that limits just how steep a hillside can be and still retain its ground surface (dirt). In most cases, this is less than 45 degrees, even with trees and shrubs helping to hold the soil in place. Vertical foilage walls, except maybe in the case of vines, just doesn’t look realistic. It can look pretty bad when viewed straight on but becomes totally unblievable when seen from an acute angle.

CNJ831

The only way that a cliff face works is if the region being modelled is precisely having just such a situation—ie–there are many areas along the Niagara Escarpment where rock wall are darn near vertical and still have vegetation BUT we are NOT talking great heaping hords of the stuff! BTW–the areas of vegetation do tend to sit on 40 degree slopes intermingled with verticals–so even then–if you are going to model verticals try to consider the less than vertical as part of the overall–

If one wants to look for themselves they can always check out any good aerial mapping sites before trying to model such rockwalls to see how it really looks. Also—attached to this—talus at bottom of steep/not so steep faces–I’ve come across a few people who completely leave these things out—forgetting that, yes, mountains do, at times, have remnants of erosion and slides etc around—

I don’t like seeing driverless cars and trucks out on the highway, particularly convertibles.

And I really hate oversized Hot Wheels race cars, like 1:64 cars on an HO layout. C’mon, there really are a lot of appropriate scale models out there. Find them, and give the Hot Wheels to some kid. Even Jeff Gordon doesn’t drive a 30-foot-long Chevy Malibu with NASCAR logos to the super market, does he? (Gee, I dunno, really. I don’t follow car racing at all, but my guess is, he doesn’t.)

I guess my biggest complaint (1.) would be running through a scene more than once. If you have to do it there’s nothing for it but to do it. (2.) Big locomotives on small layouts with tight curves.

Each of us should model in the best possible way we each know how to. We should learn from others and not be critical of others. What I don’t like doesn’t mean I can’t tolerate it on someones layout but that maybe I would try in every way possible to “not do it” on my own layout. We need to remember to encourage others and not hinder their enjoyment of the hobby.

This is supposed to be a hobby, a re creation of a scene in our minds eye and it’s supposed to be enjoyable to each of us in his or her own way and remember, none of us see eye to eye on any give subject so lets be tolerable of others layouts that have things we wouldn’t have on our own. They are doing the best they know how and maybe enjoying the hobby more than we are?

The way I see trees, anything close is good enough. Well there are some exceptions… Cedums aren’t one of them. Done right with several clumps added to make one tree turn out very nicely and only “represent” a tree. :slight_smile: We only have just so much space to “represent” a scene. Each see it (the space) differently.

Bob

Coke plants without coal lorries or extractors. How exactly do you expect the coal to get in? And the Coke to get out?

I’m wondering whether someone isn’t confusing us by using Sedum to represent a ‘plain’ or, ‘Plane’, tree? They seem to be flattened at their tops----

I’d echo what several people have said about too many automobiles, especially on steam era layouts. My Dad was born in 1918, when I’d put in a layout tour video (like the “Great Model Railroad” series) that was a layout set before WW2 he’d inevitably point out that the layout had too many autos. One of the reasons you had streetcars back then is because people used them !!

BTW in my Dad’s case, he learned to drive before his Dad did. Grandpa was a milkman and didn’t learn to drive until his employer (Franklin Co-op Creamery in Minneapolis MN) changed from horse-drawn wagons to trucks in the forties. Otherwise, Grandpa walked or took the streetcar to work or wherever he was going.

A water fall that has a small pond with no where for the water to go other then that tiny pond…

Model scenery with photographic backdrops. (IMO, it s more realistic to match your skills from foreground to background regardless of your skill level) Peter Smith, Memphis

Yes but I just love to model bad housekeeping especially in the days before OSHA. Peter Smith, Memphis