Making a railway layout or a diorama is actually telling a story. I found an interesting article about this subject, although aimed for writing a short story or a novel. But I have already seen some different approaches passing by on the RM web.

1. VIGNETTE

Typically, a vignette is defined as something that is incomplete, an impressionistic scene that centre’s around one moment, and gives the viewer an image of a person or place.

For my layouts and diorama’s are vignettes. The viewer of a layout will see a train pass by and fills in his own story. The same occurs when someone is looking to a diorama.

The interior of the Great Eastern pub in Bridge Street.

2. SLICE OF LIFE

Similar to the vignette, a slice of life story is incomplete in that it focuses on the common, a random series of moments or scenes. Often times these feel almost like journalism, documenting events without offering up any explanation, any thoughts or understanding of what has happened—and the story typically has an open ending.

This could for instance be the case if you look at these two pictures of Daisy Page on Station Road.

3. LIST

There are any numbers of ways to write a list story, but typically, it is broken up into either numbered scenes, or a collection of objects or ideas under one concept.

My story about Northall is actually a list story. I have broken the story up in the days of the week. In this way I will try to give a time based picture of the life of the family Page in Northall.

For this see the attached PDF.

Sunday 23 august 1959.pdf

4. LENGTH

You’ve certainly written short stories in a variety of lengths, but typically the length of a short story is supposed to be between about 1,000-7,500 words. But it is possible to use less words to tell a story.

The honourable slipper boy told by Mikkel (picture used with permission) (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/75/entry-16866-the-honourable-slipper-boy-part-1/ ) is such a short story, told in pictures and words.

For my Northall Story, that I will tell this way as a multimedia project, I have calculated that it will be possible to do it in about 3000 words.

You can find my own multimedia presentation here: https://www.facebook.com/job.weessies/videos/947390605350238/

IN CONCLUSION

The bottom line is that what form you use it has to serve the story.

I hope that I’ve inspired you to stretch yourself and experiment a bit. I’m sure I’ve missed some great ideas.

But take some chances, experiment a little bit, and see what happens. It could be fun. And don’t forget to publish it on the RM-web.

And as usual suggestion and comments are most welcome.

Kind regards,

Job