I don't know if this can described as a "trend", but there were several layouts this year that offered little operation at the front, replying on the fiddle yard operator being efficient and sending around a constant procession of trains.
Instead of operation, they provided superb scenic displays. I particularly liked Penhelig, seen above. It's a halt, and very accurately, doesn't have much other railway around it, but treated as an attractive moving picture, it just works.
I like this idea, and it's one I've pondered building in the past. You need a wide selection of trains made up, ready to be fired around the layout so the viewers aren't left waiting for some movement, but for a stock builder, that's no problem. In my head, I'd also include a couple of animated scenes to provide interest. The fun would be in the building.
A feature that intrigues me, is this coaling stage on the layout Marley Potts & Witherwack Sidings
Is there a prototype for this? It reminds me of the Hornby/Pola model from the 1970s that I built last year.
Layout quality overall was really high. Even Making Tracks was behaving itself on the Sunday when I visited, although Pete mentioned that the day before, one of the control boxes had released some of those bad electrical smells we all dread...
Food wasn't bad. Lunch was a very nice jacket potato with chilli and cheese, which looked a bit like the eggs in Alien. After this I really fancied something sweet, but there wasn't anything on offer, apart from bars of chocolate, so I nipped up to see the nice chaps of the Double O Gauge Association, and blagged a jam doughnut.
Numbers looked good, but it wasn't hard to get around. Layout watching was a little challenging, because of the numbers who are filming the models, and so have to occupy a prime spot for a long while. Grabbing a photo is one thing, long video sequences? Not so sure, especially those filming on an A4 size iPad, for whom there is a special place in hell reserved. The bit where the only model trains as N gauge GWR!
3 comments:
The coaling stage with its little mobile crane is a cute model, but seems a bit untypical in a British context to me...did these things really exist?
I've seen a number of continental kits of similar things, and assuming prototypes existed was this perhaps because steam lasted rather later "over there" leading to more mechanisation, or did they just do things differently?
This is what I'm curious about. Surely it's too different not to be based on a prototype?
There is something about a layout where you can just watch different trains, without it becoming a tail chaser
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