Choosing a layout name...

[The Johnster]

One of my alternative ideas before i adopted Cwmdimbath was Crusader Road, the throat of a coal storage yard in the northern inner city area of Cardiff loosely inspired by Crwys Road sidings.  Crwys, the name of a local pub as well which occasionally comes up in informal pub quizzes; 'name a Cardiff pub with no vowels in it' (not true, of course, there's an e in 'the' and both w and y are vowels in Welsh), is Welsh for Crusader.  To maintain balance these days one might have to include Jihadi Place carriage sidings...

 

This sort of thing seems to be a general theme, the subversion or adaptation of the theme of a real area to capture some of it's overall feel.  In Cardiff, as in many towns and cities with roots in the Industrial Revolution, we have groups of streets named to a them, so Adamsdown has 'precious metal' and 'heavenly bodies', Grangetown has 'counties', Cathays has sons and daughters (of the Bute family who owned the land, as does Roath, and so on.  These are a gift to modellers basing layouts in the areas.

 

Another putative never-built was 'Ynys Morlo', an island in Cardigan Bay with a Cambrian branch accessing it over a Barmouth-like bridge built along a sand bar.  This was going to have a Severn Tunnel type car ferry over it.  It means Seal Island, and was going to be a very rocky south-western extension of the Cadair Idris mountain range; the branch would have come off somewhere not far to the north of Tywyn.

 

I won't be using either of these concepts now, so feel free if they are of any use to anyone.  I haven't taken out copyright, but if they become famous successful exhibition or magazine featured layouts, an acknowledgement would be nice!

[Talltim]

Another option is to not go for a geographical name at all, go for something that reflects the feel of the layout (think Gresley Beat). Possibly harder to do well than than a place name.

[MarcD]

If you want to change the location with minimal work the most popular place name in the UK is "Newton" and the most popular road name after "Market street" is "Newton Road". My "Scratchy Bottom" layout's location changes depending on stock, buildings and signs.

 

Marc

[Guius]

'Witherslack Bottom' now there's a name to conjure with. 

 

Best

 

Guy

[rockershovel]

Ditto Posy Simmonds' fictitious Cornish village of "Tresoddit" which in reality is Port Isaac. Now better known by many as Port Wenn from the Doc Martin series.

 

I wasn't aware that Tresoddit was anywhere in particular, although I always enjoyed Posy's waspish observations on life. My good wife was a college lecturer for many years and never thought them particularly amusing..

 

Porterhouse College, Cambridge is a reference to its namesake in the fictional "Carrbridge University" which is sometimes used as a location in Cambridge Tripos exam questions. The actual location can be inferred from the various descriptions, as All Saints Garden, small triangular garden space at the Round Church end of St John’s St, opposite the college of that name.

Edited November 16, 2018 by rockershovel

[rockershovel]

My long-planned "retirement project" layout has the working title "oilpatch", taken from its theme

[Pete the Elaner]

Is that to keep it secret like Blue Harvest?

[rockershovel]

Is that to keep it secret like Blue Harvest?

Family Guy is a secret?

[steve1]

My two US layouts called Duncan's Mine were based on the fact that my wife's maiden name was Duncan. Heavy Traffic was named after a Status Quo album and featured band member's names in the industries served. My German layout is Starker Verkehr (Heavy Traffic in German) as it uses the same track plan. Catte Lane is called that because I like cats!  I quite like the "non-geographical" naming idea and will probably use it again.

 

Marlow & Maidenhead Club built a London terminus layout about 10 years ago that was called Ripper Street as it was set in East London. It was featured in RM so it can be proved to have existed long before the TV series!

 

steve

[cheesysmith]

Or just use a place name that doesn't have a railway and move it around to different parts of the country. My favourite place name I remember driving through has to be Wetwang.

 

Wetwang junction anyone?

Wetwang collery

Wetwang marketplace

Wetwang exchange

[forest2807]

 

Royston Vasey is another imaginary West Riding town, this time from the League of Friends, and so has local trains for local people and a local shop.

 

Ian

Pedant mode on: League of Gentlemen! Sorry!

[Oldddudders]

Or just use a place name that doesn't have a railway and move it around to different parts of the country. My favourite place name I remember driving through has to be Wetwang.

Wetwang junction anyone?

Wetwang collery

Wetwang marketplace

Wetwang exchange

ISTR that the late Richard Whiteley (C4's Countdown anchor for its best years) had connections there. Indeed I think he owned a racehorse called the Mare of Wetwang? And was he elected Mayor?

[MarcD]

What about using fictional place names eg."Royston Vasey"

 

Marc

[clecklewyke]

Pedant mode on: League of Gentlemen! Sorry!

 

Just testing...

 

Ian (70 this month and feeling it!)

[Oldddudders]

My own OO layout was easily named. A junction in Devon on the LSWR route. For years the signs proclaimed 'Halwill for Beaworthy' so my pale imitation is simply Beaworthy. Whether it will ever be worthy is another matter.....

[clecklewyke]

What about using fictional place names eg."Royston Vasey"

 

Marc

Please don't or I'll sue for copyright infringement.

 

See posts 22 and 24 above.

 

I hadn't thought of the copyright issue. There are plenty of examples of potential breaches - Borchester, Ambridge, Llatrggub etc. as well as my Royston Vasey. How long does copyright last?

 

Incidentally I love the idea of Wetwang and Haltemprice - my part of the country. There's also a village called Wham near Skipton.

 

Ian

[Gwiwer]

Copyright lasts 50 years from the death of the author.  Is this the same for media which is derived from a written script?  

 

Richard Whitely was indeed elected Mayor of Wetwang by the locals.  it was an honorary title as the village is not if sufficient importance to qualify for its own council led by a mayor to the best of my knowledge.

 

There is a huge number of somewhat risqué place names around the UK.  Some are well known, others less so.  Most would trigger the profanity filter here.  Wetwang is as legitimate as the tiny settlement in the Borders of Knockenshag (which I believe is no more than a farm and an estate) while Muffworthy just lends itself to the suffix Junction in my mind.  A couple of other good, though perfectly work-safe, ones are Fairlie High (which was the name of the "town" station when Fairlie Pier was still open) and Upper Upnor (which never had one).

[MarkSG]

I hadn't thought of the copyright issue. There are plenty of examples of potential breaches - Borchester, Ambridge, Llatrggub etc. as well as my Royston Vasey. How long does copyright last?

 

 

If we're going to be pedantic about it, copyright doesn't come into it. A name or title is too short to qualify for copyright protection. 

 

It is possible to register a name as a trademark, and that's not uncommon - a lot of companies register their names as trademarks, for example. And, in the field of entertainment, popular names and titles are sometimes trademarked to prevent unauthorised exploitation of them - for example, "Coronation Street" is a registered trademark owned by ITV. There's no trademark for "Borchester" per se, but the BBC does have a trademark for "The Borchester Echo" (the fictional newspaper which appears regularly in the series).

 

However, trademark protection is a lot narrower than copyright. A trademark only prevents people using the registered text within the classes. In the case of Coronation Street, for example, the name has been registered in order to prevent people making money selling merchandise (eg, t-shirts and the like) based on it without permission. It doesn't stop people using it in other areas. All the various streets called Coronation Street in the UK (and there are a lot of them!) are not in breach of the trademark, and nor is any business located in a Coronation Street which uses the street name. There is, for example, a Coronation Street Working Men's Club not far from me - so called because it is on our Coronation Street. Also, a trademark only offers protection from the name being used by way of trade (there's a clue in the name!), so a non-trading use wouldn't be covered.

 

From a modelling perspective, therefore, it is extremely unlikely that borrowing a fictional (or, for that matter, real) name would have any legal issues. A model railway layout is not, normally, a commercial enterprise, and even if it was, the probability that the trademark in question covers that class of use is also fairly low.

Edited July 22, 2017 by MarkSG

[Kelly]

Thanks for all the replies, some interesting naming decisions in there and a few ideas to think on.

 

I don't have the list to hand at present, but I've quite liked Arthur Street as one possible (my father's middle name), and a few others I've noted down from maps, etc have potential.

 

On the subject of copyright, some people will turn a blind eye to it if it doesn't harm the brand, and example being the Ankh-Morpork model railway layout, though I believe they sought permission first and Terry was rather happy with it.

[MarcD]

 

 

This could be a good place to start.

 

Marc

[Unchuffed]

Or just use a place name that doesn't have a railway and move it around to different parts of the country. My favourite place name I remember driving through has to be Wetwang.

 

Wetwang junction anyone?

Wetwang collery

Wetwang marketplace

Wetwang exchange

Wetwang had a station, it'd be pretty straightforward to model it. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/wetwang/   

[Oldddudders]

There are a couple of railway locations near Woolwich which could give their names to a station. Charlton Lane level crossing is one, and I've always liked station names that had road or similar in them. In my early yoof we travelled to Port Isaac Road on holiday, while about 40 years ago Farningham Road was on the patch where I was a junior manager. Crabtree Sidings (Ooh! Officer!) is another local location, and again a road or lane suffix would go well. Angerstein Junction, Sidings and Wharf are not far away. For some reason it was always pluralised in railway vernacular - Angersteins - and perhaps that does sound more imposing.

[unravelled]

As the layout is, (I think) a synthesis of several sections of railway in the area,  have you considered the name  "Woolwich Road"?  It locates the area closely on the North/South axis, but gives a lot of latitude(!) East/West.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[Poggy1165]

I honestly think the key thing is to look at the map. Place names are (mostly) distinctly regional; to some extent this is due to the settlement of various peoples over the years. The north generally has more names of "Viking" origin, for example. Some of those names would look very odd if applied to a station set supposedly in Cornwall or Kent.

 

There are odd exceptions where names are relatively modern. For example, Nelson in Lancashire used to be Marsden but was renamed in honour of the great man. But such places are quite rare. 

 

Copyright is a complex issue. I wrote a novel about a woman called Constance but it scarcely gives me copyright over the name "Constance" does it? But if you want to be sure, stick to the works of long-dead authors, like Jane Austen and Mrs. Gaskell. 

[tractionman]

I honestly think the key thing is to look at the map. Place names are (mostly) distinctly regional; to some extent this is due to the settlement of various peoples over the years. The north generally has more names of "Viking" origin, for example. Some of those names would look very odd if applied to a station set supposedly in Cornwall or Kent.

 

 

 

Absolutely, using larger scale OS maps with local place-names will help get the regional 'flavour' of a chosen name right.

 

Using a decent map will also help with getting a feel for local terrain and topography, ensuring the layout reflects the character of the area being modelled even if it is not based purely on a prototype.

 

cheers,

 

Keith