After reading the “Furlow bashing” topicI know this might be a potentially controversial question, but I’ll risk it anyway. Does anyone know of any resources, internet, print, or otherwise for whimsical model railroads?
I’ll let you know where I’m coming from and the reason I ask, just in case that’ll cut down on any potential backlash.
I’m currently in that nebulous phase known as “thinking about building a layout” with no real firm timetable on when construction will begin. I’ve read a lot of books, and have been subscribing to MR for about 3 years now. I’ve come to the conclusion that prototypical accuracy or operation isn’t my focus. I think the aspect of modeling that I’m being drawn to the most is the details that can be added to a layout.
My family is another consideration in all this as well. My wife and my 4 year old daughter love model trains as well. We’re frequent visitors to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum.
So, we’d like to build a family layout that will be fun for everyone. My current thought is to have a layout that is half city/urban area and half “fantasy land” for lack of a better term. Actually, I think it would be two 4 x 8 layouts joined by a smaller section maybe 2 x 3. I’m still trying to figure out how much of the basement I can appropriate for all this.
The layout plan that is my favorite at the moment is the Carbondale Central from one of the Kalambach books. The appeal there is a simple track plan and the potential for adding lots of detail. I envision adding a track around the outside that will connect the “real” space to the “fantasy” space. We have the Hogwarts Express set, so it would be fun to try and design a hidden train station on the real side that lets the train cross over into the other half of the layout.
Something that I thought of the other day, is that the train comes out of a tunnel at the edge of the “real” layout, crosses behind a corn field where a baseball game is in progress (ala
Go for it! Model railroading is suppose to be fun. Since you have a small child, maybe you would include an animated circus. I’ve seen one on a layout tour and quite enjoyed it.
I model the Canadian Pacific Railroad and enjoy operations but I admire people who do their own thing and enjoy it. Usually those who are most critical are those who haven’t tried to build anything. we all have different skill levels and enjoyment levels.
In Britain, one of the favourites for whimsical railways is Rowland Emett. A search on his name will turn up a lot of cartoons. He drew railways as they should have been, not as they were. Some of his best are of the sleepy branchlines.
For any freelanced layout, which yours will be, the sky is the limit. I would first figure out how big an area you will have to do it. Make a list of what “scenes” you want to model then start to draw up a trackplan incorporating those scenes.
-or-
Save time and use a track plan from one of the many publications out there and then add your scenes into the open spaces on the layout.
DONT FORGET to add a scale TARDIS and a Dalek “Exterminate!, Exterminate!”
Hey sounds great, Im in same sheoes. I havent got a layout on benchwork yrt but like you Im planning one. I have my layout on paper only right now, also like you Im not going to follow any prototype layout, Basicly my laout will have 5 differant Rail Roads. Each serving a different Indrustry, Im not so conserned with having the RRs running exactly like the real thing. And my RRs names are made up. My layout will be a 4x8 model connecting to 3 smaller layouts, A 2x4,4x4 and a 1x4. I will do all this in N scale,
My first plan is to get the ok from my wife. Shes agreed to let me but only after we buy a house, which will be within the next 1 to 2 years. Anyway good luck with your layout.
Whimsical ideas can also be used in prototype modeling. On my own layout, I have plans for the following whimsical scenes:
An ASPCA facility (animal shelter), which was located right off the prototype’s main line, featuring a “dog breakout”–a few HO dogs being chased by net-carrying dogcatchers.
Two neighbors–one with an immaculately kept house and lawn, the other with a run-down looking shack and overgrown weed-infested lawn. On the neat property, a prim housewife will stand glaring at a slovenly slob sitting on the shack’s porch in an easy chair with a case of beer.
Several “inside jokes” in the form of businesses and miniatures on the layout in honor of some of my modern-day friends who have a fondness for the period I model.
A dog in the cab of one of the diesels–on the prototype, a pit bull owned by the railroad was appointed “official rodent catcher” on the railroad’s right-of-way and it often rode the rails, kind of a less-well-traveled version of the Railway Post Office’s legendary dog “Owney.” Even though the dog would have been long gone during the period I model (1947-60) the idea of having a dog riding in the cab is too cute to not model. Although I could also have him leading the pack of the dog breakout, heading straight for the railroad’s main line…
Whimsy and realism don’t have to butt heads, really–often history can provide us with more amazing stories than legend.
I’ve got Zoids and harry potter people (from some dice game that worked out the right size HO)
Still looking for Lord of the Rings figures at the moment. I have Orc’s rounding up clowns and lots more to mention!
If you like whimsical, I suggest you get yourself a copy of Carl Arendt’s two books on Micro-Layouts - they’re full of whimsical ideas for railroads. Carl’s focus is on very small layouts (4 square feet or less), but the concepts and ideas could be expanded to larger layouts as well.
Well, considering that 1947 is the beginning of the modern period of UFO sightings, something off in the background might not be inappropriate.
Even the straightest layouts can have some oddball business happening in the corner–if you’ve ever seen the California State Railway Museum’s HO scale logging-line display, if you look carefully you’ll notice an elephant hiding in the woods in the background!
My personal opinion is nobody minds whimsical layouts. The ones that drive people nuts are the guys who claim to model XYZ and claim they follow prototype rules. equipment, (fill in the blank). When you arrive at their house drooling all over yourself and the guy escorts you to the layout he has 4-4-0’s pulling 86’ box cars and diesels pulling 1800 passenger cars and wonders why you don’t have any compliments for him.
The G scalers have a magazine called AW NUTS. I’ve seen it at some train stores in the Sacramento area. They used to have a web site (Ilooked at it less than s months ago) I just searched for the link. I found the magazine listed on 4 or 5 model RR site apparently its address has been changed if it is still around.
I love this idea! I have posted my feelings about modeling fantasy before, and if I had no full-time job and loads of ca***o support myself, I’d be embarking on an adventure of this sort. The thing is, though, you face the same problem that faces all true freelancers, in that the door is wide open, and this makes it hard to know when you’ve got it “right”. What is required is a vivid and detailed imagination, and a commitment to a singular vision. If you follow all the wild suggestions here (UFO! Orcs! Daleks! Alice in Wonderland, anyone?) you will certainly end up with an incoherent collage, one that fails to persuade the viewer of its alternative reality, end thus fails to engage the imagination of others.
The Hogwarts Express is a great starting point, because there is already a lot of visual source material to draw from, in the first two movies. What isn’t shown in these can be inferred, and one could research idyllic English countrysides for inspiration. You might try subscribing to some British modeling periodicals and learn how it’s done across the pond, and also learn where to buy models of English equipment. To make it be something non-British, you might want to throw in a counter-culture influence, such as Chinese, and then mix-and-match elements. Or even kitbash rolling stock together from the two! Build your train stations as thatch-covered tudor-style pagodas! I dunno, just ruminating about the possibilities.
The point is, to narrow down your vision to something specific, then execute that. If you can make that commitment, then your work will not fail to impress the rest of us, even as determined as we are to follow our prototypes.
I’m about as far from what you want to do as I can be! But I’d like to mention by way of support that its YOUR railroad and YOUR hobby. Build whatever you want and have fun doing it. That you are considering both your wife and child in what you plan is commendable.
A thought you might consider? Perhaps as you move farther from the ‘real world’ portion of the layout the scene might become more abstract and elemental, bright colors and basic shapes. Something on the order of the landscapes in the Beatles movie Yellow Submarine or the Peter Max posters from the 60s/70s era. My daughter loved them as I recall, Yours might as well?
Have fun, you seem to have a great idea for a family railroad.
I am in the same boat as HellFire. I have already purchased a house and am planning on building a layout to go around the circumference of the room. There will be multiple railroads. So far I plan to have a roundhouse and turntable and I will be building a bridge out of styrofoam.
I recently purchased the November issue of BRITISH RAILWAY MODELLING. It has an article Under the heading of Layout Planning called Fantasy Park. The display type layout has 3 Track Guages O scale, On3, and Z Scale track with to represent a miniture railway snaking around a dinosaur model. The idea is of a hypothetical Devon Sea side Park complete with a Standard Guage Station, which interfaces with the paks theater and souvenire building, plus other buildings. Very good description of the idea testing process as well as physical test of concept features.
Thanks for the tips so far. I’ll be sure to pick up that issue of British Railway Modeling.
I was in a comic book shop today (one of my other hobbies) and they had an extensive section of war gaming miniatures. Mostly pewter, all unpainted, and a variety of sizes. Lots of possibilities there for figures. The range of styles was interesting to me since I just assumed they would all be D&D type things. But they had cowboys, spacemen, pirates, and more.