Exhibitions Layout Features

[TheQ]

11 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Teamyakima

 

 

But, no. She was truly, deeply disappointed when we got there, because, to her, the word"show" had meant "stage; dancing; singing; glitz"  (quite how she factored "model train" into that, I shall never know, but then she was very young). 

 

 

 

Kevin

I recall reading of a MRC (Somewhere near Birmingham IIRC) that had objections to their application for change of use of a building to a MRC, the objection was that the mosque,  didn't want semi naked dancing girls and drinking going on next door..

[johnarcher]

1 hour ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Well, what conclusions can we draw from all of this.

 

There is a wide spectrum of interests and priorities within the group of people who attend a public exhibition.

 

Each layout owner will tailor their display towards one or more demographic.

 

Each will be different.

 

Whether or not I have succeeded in getting the balance just right is a question I will (hopefully) know the answer to after Warley. 

I suppose that is so if exhibiting isa big interest, part of the reason for building the layout.

Personally if I am going to put a lot of time, money and interest into making something the only demographic I'm aiming at is me, if others should also want to see it that's nice (I think Iain Rice wrote something similar about his high-level viewing amking it difficult for children at an exhibition).

[Dunsignalling]

22 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Simon,

 

Build the layout you want, we exhibit our modelling we are not entertainers. If it is a good layout then people will enjoy seeing it and you will get more invites.

With the proviso that it should be interesting to operate without becoming hard work. Two-day shows can be tiring enough without poor layout design making things more difficult than necessary.

 

Ensure you have enough operators to allow sensible breaks - tiredness leads to mistakes and mistakes lead to the layout grinding to a halt and creating an unsatisfactory impression for the visitor.

  

Keep your operators fresh so they stay engaged and entertained, and you will be half way to ensuring similar enjoyment for the viewing public. 

 

John 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

1 hour ago, johnarcher said:

 I suppose that is so if exhibiting is a big interest, part of the reason for building the layout.

 

I know I am odd in this respect, but since my HD 3 rail in my family loft I have built six layouts (not including club ones!) and they have all been 'exhibition only' .

 

I have never had a home layout - I have never, personally, seen the point of a home layout.

 

To me once I know a train on my layout will run successfully from A to B then that's it - I've seen it, I don't need to see it again. Unless there is an audience!!!

 

OK - I know I am in a very small minority and let's not take this off topic, but for ME it's all about exhibiting. I don't make this comment to start a new discussion about the benefits of home layouts, I only make it to contextualise my views on exhibition layouts and how I personally feel they should be presented to the public.

Edited November 5, 2019 by TEAMYAKIMA

[TheQ]

Not quite the opposite for  me.

Modelling is my interest, and the main home layout because of family connections with the real railway. Though while trains will run round, I'll be modelling rather than shunting or running to a timetable.

 

However having got involved with showing at our MRC show, I've decided I quite like that too. So when a model railway of a suitable size became available I got it. However I am heavily remodelling it to my interests, and redesigning it's back stage facilities for showing. ( And redesigning again having seen a good idea at Spalding)

 

As mentioned above ease of use at a show is important.

 

QR codes at shows? I think while that may yet be of use in the future, a great deal of people in the age group going to shows, don't have smart phone (I don't) and wouldn't know what a QR code is. Though the number of collisions with people looking down at smartphones while wandering around at a crowded exhibition could be a problem.

 

 

[john new]

With QR codes it takes very little time to print one. We have one laminated  on our sales stand linking to the website. (Make it big enough to see/use) Although we only see a few people using it the very big BUT is that it is a good asset for those that do.

[Clive Mortimore]

54 minutes ago, john new said:

With QR codes it takes very little time to print one. We have one laminated  on our sales stand linking to the website. (Make it big enough to see/use) Although we only see a few people using it the very big BUT is that it is a good asset for those that do.

What is a QR code, will my life be better if I had one?

 

Edit...Will my trains start with out the hand of Odin, will they not fall off the track and will the layout set itself up with a QR code?

Edited November 5, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[St. Simon]

13 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

What is a QR code, will my life be better if I had one?

 

Edit...Will my trains start with out the hand of Odin, will they not fall off the track and will the layout set itself up with a QR code?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

 

Simon

[Clive Mortimore]

9 minutes ago, St. Simon said:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

 

Simon

Ah! them little square things people point their phones at. So with one of them the person can read about the train set on their phone. I suppose the best place to display it is on the information board which will have the same words but on a sheet of paper.

 

To be honest I think watching the layout gives more information than an information board, show guide or a QR thingie.

[Nearholmer]

Did you have the panel "out front" at GETS? I have a feeling that you did, but that it was somehow squashed-in on the RHS (viewed from the front), and a bit buried because of the way your layout butted against adjacent stands. it ended-up making what you were showing look a bit cluttered.

 

My thinking would be as per sketch below, so that you get a clean "front line" on what you are presenting.

 

I'm sure that I've seen a big pre-grouping GWR layout in finescale 0, with something similar, but, of course, the control point was a beautiful mechanical lever frame, rendered in miniature. That attracted a lot of interest.

 

Of course, a high proportion of people won't "get it", they won't understand that you are doing things properly, because one computer interface looks just like another, and to many it might just as well be a proprietary Maerklin system of similar, but to the 5% who do have an interest in real-world modern railway control systems, it will be the USP of the layout.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Nearholmer

[TheQ]

32 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

What is a QR code, will my life be better if I had one?

 

Edit...Will my trains start with out the hand of Odin, will they not fall off the track and will the layout set itself up with a QR code?

No Odin had paws, he's the woof on the far left of the avatar as you look at it.. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

29 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Ah! them little square things people point their phones at. So with one of them the person can read about the train set on their phone. I suppose the best place to display it is on the information board which will have the same words but on a sheet of paper.

 

To be honest I think watching the layout gives more information than an information board, show guide or a QR thingie.

Yes, let's not encourage QR codes at exhibitions.

 

Difficult enough to avoid all the backpacks without having to avoid phone zombies who are looking at phone screens.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

At my first exhibition in May last year I had this (below) and asked for comments from my team. They said 

 

Too much text - too long to read

Text too small - too small to read

Too many photos

 

 

So by my third exhibition last month we were on v.3

 

 

The actual display is the same size but now in a frame. Less text, larger font size, fewer photos and (hopefully) more professional looking.

 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by TEAMYAKIMA

[Claude_Dreyfus]

33 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

...the USP of the layout.

 

 

All this talk of 'shows' and performing and you have a little man playing the piano in your sketch... Keeps 'em entertained.

 

QR codes have their place, I have used them in the past to link back to either the layout's or the club's website for more information.

 

Nothing beats the good old fashioned question though...

 

For me, the two most critical aspects of any model, exhibited or not, are interest ( both operation and viewing) and reliability. A layout can have lots of cameos and bells and whistles, but it doesn't work very well, you won't get any interest.

[john new]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Yes, let's not encourage QR codes at exhibitions.

 

Difficult enough to avoid all the backpacks without having to avoid phone zombies who are looking at phone screens.

Whilst I can see your point I disagree, it gives you a link in your browsing history you can then easily read when at home.  
 

I guess we all differ as to how we use the web, or in some cases even use it at all via a phone/tablet, but taking your avoidance point it is easier to read the phone in your hand than a display board part obscured by said backpack toting punters!

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by john new
Extra para added for clarity.

[Hitchin Junction]

Some off the wall thinking. . .

 

One does have to ask why so many RM WEB posters seem to want solely to build their own exhibition layouts, no matter how short and/or simple. Whereas parents/children who buy train sets for home use usually want to expand them to be as as complicated as possible in the space available.

 

Also why are most exhibition layouts short? Surely someone would want to have something  more like a long straight run the length of the exhibition hall, that trains could run along stopping at various stations along the way. Even it was beyond the resources of most individuals, some sort of co-operative could easily cook it up as a joint project. I suspect operating for fun and exhibiting for the viewers would then be substantially the same activity and interest. 

 

Tim

 

 

 

 

[TheQ]

13 minutes ago, Hitchin Junction said:

Some off the wall thinking. . .

 

One does have to ask why so many RM WEB posters seem to want solely to build their own exhibition layouts, no matter how short and/or simple. Whereas parents/children who buy train sets for home use usually want to expand them to be as as complicated as possible in the space available.

 

Also why are most exhibition layouts short? Surely someone would want to have something  more like a long straight run the length of the exhibition hall, that trains could run along stopping at various stations along the way. Even it was beyond the resources of most individuals, some sort of co-operative could easily cook it up as a joint project. I suspect operating for fun and exhibiting for the viewers would then be substantially the same activity and interest. 

 

Tim

 

 

 

 

1 because most modellers want to build their railway not what someone else wants

2 the organisation and transport of a large railway gets very expensive.

3 Most UK layouts are short to fit in a car..

4 Modular railways have been proposed and been successful abroad, but not that too successful in the UK, they tend to look disjointed as everyone models differently..

[john new]

1 hour ago, Hitchin Junction said:

One does have to ask why so many RM WEB posters seem to want solely to build their own exhibition layouts, no matter how short and/or simple. Whereas parents/children who buy train sets for home use usually want to expand them to be as as complicated as possible in the space available.

1) Given how many layouts are shown by formally established clubs or small groups collectively working together I am not sure that is a true reflection. 2) A big and portable layout also needs a big storage space, a big van/trailer/several cars to shift it and a team of operators therefore completing the circle back to point (1). 
 

Add in too that if you want to also run it home then your room space becomes a constraint. My own layouts can’t be much bigger than four or five feet long/wide in any direction (whether built as straight, L or roundy roundy) as they have to fit into the spare bedroom when up and be slotted between the other furniture that is in there and be accessible.
 

I hope in due course the current WIP project will be good enough to show but it is my space constraints that have set the size not a lack of desire for something bigger.

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by john new

[Steamport Southport]

26 minutes ago, Hitchin Junction said:

Some off the wall thinking. . .

 

One does have to ask why so many RM WEB posters seem to want solely to build their own exhibition layouts, no matter how short and/or simple. Whereas parents/children who buy train sets for home use usually want to expand them to be as as complicated as possible in the space available.

 

Also why are most exhibition layouts short? Surely someone would want to have something  more like a long straight run the length of the exhibition hall, that trains could run along stopping at various stations along the way. Even it was beyond the resources of most individuals, some sort of co-operative could easily cook it up as a joint project. I suspect operating for fun and exhibiting for the viewers would then be substantially the same activity and interest. 

 

Tim

 

 

 

 

 

Probably because we start out having train sets, then we gradually grow up and want something more realistic (or most of us do). It's like comparing Little Mix with Beethoven. Totally different audiences, but most of us are somewhere in the middle after starting with whatever pop group is popular at the time. Do people still watch the same TV programmes they liked when they were 8 now they are 30? I would guess that more 30 year olds are watching Peaky Blinders than the Teletubbies.

 

It's a bit like the GMRC TV programme. It's very popular, but most of it isn't railway modelling to me. Should those layouts be at exhibitions? Yes as that is what the general public want to see. But I personally wouldn't give most of them a second glance and would walk to the nearest "proper" layout, but my niece and nephew love them.

 

I want to see scale models whether it's 1830s Liverpool & Manchester, 1950s ECML or 2019 TPE Class 68s. Preferably run realistically with everything correct to it's era and region. Correct signalling and lamps are a bonus. Many who just want to watch trains race around probably think such layouts are boring as they don't have flashing lights and a train hasn't moved for five seconds.

 

It's getting the right balance at a show that's important. Don't forget who is paying to enter. Poor quality exhibitions/shows won't last long and I reckon most get it spot on whether it's specialist shows or ones for the general public.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[Joseph_Pestell]

2 hours ago, Hitchin Junction said:

Some off the wall thinking. . .

 

One does have to ask why so many RM WEB posters seem to want solely to build their own exhibition layouts, no matter how short and/or simple. Whereas parents/children who buy train sets for home use usually want to expand them to be as as complicated as possible in the space available.

 

Also why are most exhibition layouts short? Surely someone would want to have something  more like a long straight run the length of the exhibition hall, that trains could run along stopping at various stations along the way. Even it was beyond the resources of most individuals, some sort of co-operative could easily cook it up as a joint project. I suspect operating for fun and exhibiting for the viewers would then be substantially the same activity and interest. 

 

Tim

 

 

One needs to be a bit careful about big, long layouts at shows when it comes to public appreciation. They see them as something they could not do at home because they do not realise that it is assmbled from small home-sized modules.

[Andy Hayter]

They also tended to have less going on and are therefore less entertaining (sorry back to that word for those who object) at least in DC days.

 

The reason is that a layout built and designed by an individual or group will have different operating sections built into it.  This allows on most layouts for 2 or more trains to operate simultaneously.  In principe this can be done with modular layouts but most I have seen have concentrated in getting the train from the left of you to the module on the right (or vice versa).  A relatively few would have passing places allowing at least trains to pass.  This of course is very prototypical and also very boring to watch.  At times you could sit in front of a module for a minute or more and nothing would happen, because the train was several modules away.

 

As said it would easily be possible to do things differently but this would require quite a degree of coordination in both the planning of individual modules and the putting together of modules at any exhibition.  In some respects that counters what some see as the advantage of modules - to be able to do your own thing within the confines of the highly defined ends.

 

I have never seen a DCC modular set up and that again could well be a game changer

[Steamport Southport]

Wasn't that more of an American thing?

 

I seem to remember reading about it in magazines years ago where they would each build a layout module and meet up about once a month and put them all together to make a giant layout in somewhere like a sports hall.

 

But everything has to be to set standards.

 

https://www.nmra.org/introduction-layout-modules

 

 

 

Jason

[The Johnster]

18 hours ago, TheQ said:

I recall reading of a MRC (Somewhere near Birmingham IIRC) that had objections to their application for change of use of a building to a MRC, the objection was that the mosque,  didn't want semi naked dancing girls and drinking going on next door..

Well, I wouldn't want semi naked dancing girls and drinking going on next door, either.  I'd want them in my house...

[The Johnster]

FWIW, what I like at shows are well presented layouts which are consistent in their standard and well operated.  I like to see a 'front of house' man to field questions but appreciate that manning is not always available.  I particularly appreciate prototypical operation at scale speeds, but this can be overdone and crawling is as objectionable as speeding.  Lighting and presentation make a difference to me, and I am a fan of the Iain Rice proscenium at eye level for smaller layouts.

 

What I don't like at shows are badly operated layouts, tail chasing while the operators have a chat, overbright and especially flashing lights, rough driving, perfectly finished museum standard 7mm stock with polished buffers running on immaculate track, industrial locos running around on main lines, bell codes, railway yards and loco sheds with the walls covered in enamel adverts, road vehicles unrealistically close together (even in a traffic jam there's usually almost a car length between them), fairgrounds with roundabouts running at a speed that would fling the riders off into space, real water.  

 

A particular no no for me is the running around movement where the loco detaches from the train, runs around, sets back onto it to couple, and then continues to shove the coaches back on to the buffer stop without pausing.  You've just run the shunter over as he tries to couple up the brake pipes.  And don't set off into the wide blue yonder straight away either; your passengers have to board and you have to carry out a brake continuity test.  

 

Ok, got that off my chest.  

[TheQ]

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

FWIW, what I like at shows are well presented layouts which are consistent in their standard and well operated.  I like to see a 'front of house' man to field questions but appreciate that manning is not always available.  I particularly appreciate prototypical operation at scale speeds, but this can be overdone and crawling is as objectionable as speeding.  Lighting and presentation make a difference to me, and I am a fan of the Iain Rice proscenium at eye level for smaller layouts.

 

What I don't like at shows are badly operated layouts, tail chasing while the operators have a chat, overbright and especially flashing lights, rough driving, perfectly finished museum standard 7mm stock with polished buffers running on immaculate track, industrial locos running around on main lines, bell codes, railway yards and loco sheds with the walls covered in enamel adverts, road vehicles unrealistically close together (even in a traffic jam there's usually almost a car length between them), fairgrounds with roundabouts running at a speed that would fling the riders off into space, real water.  

 

A particular no no for me is the running around movement where the loco detaches from the train, runs around, sets back onto it to couple, and then continues to shove the coaches back on to the buffer stop without pausing.  You've just run the shunter over as he tries to couple up the brake pipes.  And don't set off into the wide blue yonder straight away either; your passengers have to board and you have to carry out a brake continuity test.  

 

Ok, got that off my chest.  

Who's eye level is the problem. My brothers 6ft 8 in, my 6 ft, the wife's 5 ft, a wheelchair user's 3ft 6in- 4ft, a child's 3 ft?

 

 Yes the rest I agree with to a greater or lesser extent, some worry me more than others..