'Humour' on layouts - good or bad?

[TurboSnail]

What level of humour on a layout do you think is appropriate?

 

I've been wondering about this as two of my wagons are a bit 'jokey', but in different styles - one is a reference, just built to test out custom transfers, the other just a bad pun, but which will probably end up on my layout. As it's never going to be an exhibition layout, I don't have to care about how that would go down, but I think I might reconsider if it was going to be shown. I suppose it also depends on the purpose of the layout - pure entertainment or accurate recreation of a real/imaginary location. It raises another question as well, namely is it worth putting massive amounts of detail on models and accurately modelling prototype features if we're going to run inaccurate liveries, or does the same attention to detail need to go into every part of a layout?

 

Personally, I think I'll keep it on the layout as it's subtle enough to blend in so most people wouldn't notice it among a rake of private owner wagons, and really how much of a hobby is it if you can't poke fun at yourself every once in a while?

 

Of course, it also depends on whether the modeller has a good sense of humour or not...

 

[10000]

I don't have a problem with a bit of humour on layouts be it subtle, obvious or even smutty.

 

Of course exhibition layouts need to be more careful these days as far to many people seem to have had a humourectomy and take offence at the slightest thing.

 

I've no doubt that if mine was shown in public there would be some complaints as it has on it a sign, like the old neon signs, for a strip club

[MarkSG]

If I had a pound for every humorous name on a layout, I'd have, well, probably enough for another Peckett. Or even two. Used sparingly, I don't have any problem with it. Obviously, if you're aiming very strongly for fidelity to real life, then it's inappropriate. But the occasional punning wagon or shop name on a layout can be a good way of interjecting some light relief. All the more so if it's subtle and not immediately obvious - the best visual jokes bring a smile to the face precisely because of the joy of discovery. If you lay on the humour with a trowel then that effect is lost. Ideally, a good punning name is one that is equally plausible if read straight - if it can only be a joke then it tends to jar.

 

The other thing to avoid is cliches. I'd probably get most of my Peckett's worth of pounds just from shopfronts or wagons named "Norfolk and Goode", for example. It's the sort of joke that's funny the first time, but it tends to lose it with repetition.

[DCB]

You are bound to upset someone,  but if its a fictitious location why not fictitious names, John Ahearn got away with Gammon Magna as a place name which might upset some people now.   But it all good fun and at least someone is not going to tell you R.Sole and company never used iron frame wagons in the 1920s...

[brack]

Humour in little doses you can get away with.

Punning names grow tired and cringe worthy with exposure, so the odd wagon or shop you might be fine with, but calling your layout/station a highly amusing pun will not last long.

Pornographic scenes, nudist picnics or similar with little plastic people certainly aren't humour and have no place at a public exhibition. If you really enjoy that sort of thing keep it in your house.

[Steamport Southport]

Humour in little doses you can get away with.

Punning names grow tired and cringe worthy with exposure, so the odd wagon or shop you might be fine with, but calling your layout/station a highly amusing pun will not last long.

Pornographic scenes, nudist picnics or similar with little plastic people certainly aren't humour and have no place at a public exhibition. If you really enjoy that sort of thing keep it in your house.

 

Don't go to Germany then. One of their biggest tourist attractions is Miniatur Wunderland and it's full of what many Brits would probably call smut.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[kevinlms]

Humour in little doses you can get away with.

Punning names grow tired and cringe worthy with exposure, so the odd wagon or shop you might be fine with, but calling your layout/station a highly amusing pun will not last long.

Pornographic scenes, nudist picnics or similar with little plastic people certainly aren't humour and have no place at a public exhibition. If you really enjoy that sort of thing keep it in your house.

Personally, I don't mind puns or even nude scenes, but the effect does wear off.

 

What is objectionable IMO, is depicting a scene where the figure(s) are doing something dangerous on the railway. The owner/builder needs to bear in mind, that some audience members, may be professional railway people and have to deal with these very actions.

[Dick Turpin]

I love humour on layouts, especially if it's subtle and hard to spot unless you're really looking at the detail. It's the modeller's equivalent of the medieval stonemason's gargoyles, or a certain woodcarver's mouse. Of course, it has plenty to say about a particular modeller's sense of humour, so if the mood takes you, put your mark on it!

[Titan]

Humour in little doses you can get away with.

Punning names grow tired and cringe worthy with exposure, so the odd wagon or shop you might be fine with, but calling your layout/station a highly amusing pun will not last long.

Pornographic scenes, nudist picnics or similar with little plastic people certainly aren't humour and have no place at a public exhibition. If you really enjoy that sort of thing keep it in your house.

 

Dammit, there goes my idea of a sexy scene in the sleeping car! it was going to be cam operated off one of the axles...

[Nearholmer]

G P Keen, he whom the Model Railway Club HQ in London is named after, had ‘naughty’ scenes in his 0 scale Wagon Lits.

 

But, it has to be said that not very many railway modellers are seriously good comedians (Eddie Izzard is, in many, many ways, an exception) ....... what turns up is usually very weak stuff.

 

Quite how biting satire, or withering sarcasm, or sharp-as-knives wit, could be conveyed through a model railway, I’m not sure, and perhaps that the problem.

 

Maybe the excessive tweeness of many layouts is in fact ironic, but none of us have noticed.

[Thunderforge]

I like coming up with silly and funny names, and always have an ear out for something new, but I think there needs to be a mix of this at exhibitions. I really respect the modellers who recreate scale models of a certain place at a certain time, but a bit of comedy in another layout can catch the attention of a layman over, say four scale miles of Settle & Carlisle.

Colourful little Inglenooks with a cute theme can be a great gateway drug!

[john new]

I love humour on layouts, especially if it's subtle and hard to spot unless you're really looking at the detail. It's the modeller's equivalent of the medieval stonemason's gargoyles, or a certain woodcarver's mouse. Of course, it has plenty to say about a particular modeller's sense of humour, so if the mood takes you, put your mark on it!

Agree and it has to be done well. One Flatuline lettered gas tank wagon in a train will still work (as I think would the OP's petrol wagon) a full train load or a Flatuline refinery possibly not.

 

Like others have also said I'm not a great lover of the bastardised non-English names for layouts, nor many of the other puns, although some have worked. Problem is the one's that work have mostly already been done. However, that said, there was one at York this year (Eigh Bay Halt) that did work and will stand the test of time without the name making you cringe every time you see it listed again.  

Edited May 7, 2018 by john new

[John B]

Many many moons ago I was watching the Manchester Model Railway Society's "Gransmoor Town" 2mm finescale layout at a show. 

​Completely dead-pan, a train of private owner wagons passed through, behind a lovely Midland loco.

 

"Pugh. Pugh. Barney. McGrew. Cuthbert. Dibble. Grub."

 

Now that's worthy...

[MarcD]

We have a layout with to names "Lowick" and "Scatchy Bottom" both are real places but we seam to get more show invites when it's Lowick. Not sure if it because Lowick is more PC.

Marc

[10000]

Dammit, there goes my idea of a sexy scene in the sleeping car! it was going to be cam operated off one of the axles...

 

These days you probably don't need to use a cam just have easy access to change the battery!

[melmoth]

The late David Jenkinson, a man who always seemed to me to strike the right sort of balance between levity and gravitas, included on his Kendal Castle layout a number of private owner wagons named after various friends of his in the hobby. Therefore, on a layout where operators used bell codes and a timetable constructed according to a thoroughly researched traffic pattern and gradient profile, you could see wagons advertising, among others, Jack Ray, Norman Solomon, and, if I remember correctly, "Bob Essery: Shoddy and Flannel Merchant"

[jjb1970]

I like mind humour on layouts if done well, what works best in my view is perhaps less humour and more a dash of self deprecating irreverence. I think it is easy to take the hobby a bit too seriously, whilst I can respect those who go to extremes to capture a particular location and time in fine scale I also think that there should be an element of fun. The problem with much layout humour is that it wears thin very quickly (particularly zany and oh-so-funny sound effects....) and if done badly it can just become profoundly irritating.

[peanuts]

Many many moons ago I was watching the Manchester Model Railway Society's "Gransmoor Town" 2mm finescale layout at a show.

 

​Completely dead-pan, a train of private owner wagons passed through, behind a lovely Midland loco.

 

"Pugh. Pugh. Barney. McGrew. Cuthbert. Dibble. Grub."

 

Now that's worthy...

iirc didnt the larger Gransmore castle have the humorous fighting drunks in the town

[lambiedg]

What level of humour on a layout do you think is appropriate?

 

I've been wondering about this as two of my wagons are a bit 'jokey', but in different styles - one is a reference, just built to test out custom transfers, the other just a bad pun, but which will probably end up on my layout. As it's never going to be an exhibition layout, I don't have to care about how that would go down, but I think I might reconsider if it was going to be shown. I suppose it also depends on the purpose of the layout - pure entertainment or accurate recreation of a real/imaginary location. It raises another question as well, namely is it worth putting massive amounts of detail on models and accurately modelling prototype features if we're going to run inaccurate liveries, or does the same attention to detail need to go into every part of a layout?

 

Personally, I think I'll keep it on the layout as it's subtle enough to blend in so most people wouldn't notice it among a rake of private owner wagons, and really how much of a hobby is it if you can't poke fun at yourself every once in a while?

 

Of course, it also depends on whether the modeller has a good sense of humour or not...

 

WP_001349.jpg

Don't know if it was worth my while as only one person ever commented on it (and he was an old school friend well aware of my sense of humour)

But I thought the factory on one club layout should be a rope factory owned by Messrs Pierpoint

[John B]

More "well done" humour that springs to mind, from Roger Nicholls, a prolific builder of US-outline layouts which I used to see at various Northern shows in the 80s & 90s. 

 

On N gauge layouts he had various mines - the "Gerrovitz Mine" and the "Dissole-Hartov Mine" tickled my sense of humor.

 

As did, on an HO switching layout, a series of signs along the rear fence:

 

"Trailers for Sale or Rent"

 

"Rooms to let, 50c"

 

etc...

[James Makin]

I like to put in the odd bit on my layouts and our club’s Loftus Road, the fun is when it’s slightly more hidden and you have to search it out! We tend to also do more in-jokes for the gang, be it building names, road names or signage that looks otherwise innocent!

 

[Oldddudders]

More "well done" humour that springs to mind, from Roger Nicholls, a prolific builder of US-outline layouts which I used to see at various Northern shows in the 80s & 90s. 

 

On N gauge layouts he had various mines - the "Gerrovitz Mine" and the "Dissole-Hartov Mine" tickled my sense of humor.

 

As did, on an HO switching layout, a series of signs along the rear fence:

 

"Trailers for Sale or Rent"

 

"Rooms to let, 50c"

 

etc...

 

Did the same builder have an industry called Penn Paper, Inc?

[The Johnster]

At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, which may or may not be an accurate description of me, a problem with humour is that it only works once.  I smiled at Sausage Fest, but that because I'd not seen it before; heretoforward it will be old and no longer funny.

[Thunderforge]

Fair point Johnster, then it would depend on whether it was being toured around exhibitions or used by one person or club.

 

Edit: kudos on fitting ‘heretoforward’ in a sentence!

Edited May 7, 2018 by Thunderforge

[Zomboid]

At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, which may or may not be an accurate description of me, a problem with humour is that it only works once. I smiled at Sausage Fest, but that because I'd not seen it before; heretoforward it will be old and no longer funny.

But it'll just be there and won't offend, unless it has some horrific sound effect or similar.

The kind of thing which raises a smile is ok in small doses, but it's often painfully obvious when someone is trying too hard, and that kind of thing just doesn't work at all.

 

I'm planning some mild silliness on my layout, such as having "Jerry's Rice" (A reference to my NFL team's greatest player, one Jerry Rice), and some other references to other things I like. Hopefully that'll be stuff that won't bother people who don't get it...