Exhibitions Layout Features

[MarkSG]

Layout height is one of the things that crops up repeatedly here. My personal opinion is that a small, "picture frame" layout needs to be at approximately head height for the effect to work, but a large "railway in the countryside" or "big through station" layout needs to be lower so that you can get the benefit of seeing the full panorama from one viewing position.  

 

But, of course, I'm an average height person with no mobility difficulties. Not everybody is the same as me. From an exhibition point of view, therefore, I think it's important to have layouts with a range of heights, and provide portable steps for children to use when viewing higher layouts.

[St. Simon]

4 hours ago, MarkSG said:

Layout height is one of the things that crops up repeatedly here. My personal opinion is that a small, "picture frame" layout needs to be at approximately head height for the effect to work, but a large "railway in the countryside" or "big through station" layout needs to be lower so that you can get the benefit of seeing the full panorama from one viewing position.  

 

I have thought about this as well, and there's quite a few things to think about:

 

1) Having operated a dozen or so layouts that all require to be standing when operating, I can say that standing operating at a show, particularly with a hard floor, for 7 hours is very tiring. I want my next layout to be built so you can operate it sitting down for most of the time, but this imposes restrictions; Too high and either you can't see over the top or you fall off your bar stool, too low and you end up bending over too much.

2) During construction, I prefer wiring etc when I'm sat down, but actually scenic work is easier when standing up, so the layout height has to balance out this during construction.

3) I don't want to build legs for the layout, mostly as the chance of me getting them all the same length is very slim, so I've been looking at builds trestles, so far the largest I have seen, before you get into the rather expensive variable type, is 800mm tall, but I think this might be too low.

4) Obviously you have to think about the audience at a show, interestingly, when I have operated Graham Muz' Canute Road Quay and my Dad's Loughborough Road, which are both set at between 4 and 5ft off the ground, we've had members of the public in wheelchairs say they prefer the height as they can use phones to view the layout at a realistic height.

 

Also as I side note, when exhibiting Canute Road Quay , I found that track cleaning is harder as you have to reach quite high to get all of the track.

 

I think it is a case that build to the height you feel most comfortable with rather than to simply please an exhibition audience, but I think that discussion has been done to death!

 

Simon

[Andy Hayter]

I am slightly bemused about all these people wiring layouts from underneath.  Correcting faults perhaps - especially if there is a failure at an exhibition.  I have always turned a layout onto its backboard a wired up from there.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Time for me to leave this particular topic and concentrate on getting my layout ready for Warley. Once there it will be on show and hopefully entertaining all visitors - young and old - with the only exception being those who think it's 'foreign rubbish'.

 

That being so, everyone who has commented on this topic is invited to come and see have a chat as regards whether I have got the balance between modelling and gimmicks just right - you can't miss me, I'll be the one pulling my hair out an looking stressed!

Edited November 7, 2019 by TEAMYAKIMA

[Chris M]

Hope all goes well at Warley. It's one of the harder shows for exhibitors as there are so many people viewing the layout all day. No time to rest.

 

The layout I'm involved with has been in-store since it's last outing back in July. It will be fine.

[ColinK]

I exhibited my layout at Rainhill last Saturday and as usual presented it as a layout anyone can build.  What surprised me was the number of people (mainly women) asking how I had built various items.  Many of the questions were on the backscene which is mainly modified card kits.  Several of the people asking came back later with Metcalf kits they had bought at the show. There were also a significant proportion of family groups and they took far more interest in the layout (not just the trains) than at previous shows.  I suspect this is all down to the Great Model Railway Challenge - which does seem to have had a positive impact on our hobby.

 

I exhibit my layout on B&Q trestles which quite by chance mean it is at a comfortable height to sit and operate, it is also at a height suitable for children to watch - several families also commented on how helpful that was.  I do like the idea mentioned earlier  of having some chairs in front of the layout for adults to sit down and watch it.

 

Making the paying public feel welcome is important to me, so when someone stops at the layout I try and greet them with a smile and ‘hello’, ‘good morning’. etc to encourage them to ask question. 

 

On a more radical note, I do wonder if having two day shows on Saturday & Sunday is worth reconsidering.  How about having an exhibition on a Friday and Saturday?  Friday mainly for all the older retired railway enthusiasts, Saturday primarily for all the families.  That avoids Sundays where it is often difficult to get places by public transport eg I do not go to Warley as its too busy on the Saturday (and I’m usually at work) while I cannot get there on Sunday by train until after lunch which is too late to make it worthwhile. I do appreciate all the practical challenges of switching from a Sunday to a Friday, but just wonder if it would work.

[johndon]

1 hour ago, ColinK said:

How about having an exhibition on a Friday and Saturday?  

 

One issue with Fridays is venue availability - I was at an exhibition last weekend and will be at another one this weekend and both of them are being held in schools which would mean that Friday would be impossible.  The two largest shows in the North East (Newcastle and RailexNE are currently held in schools).

 

John

Edited November 7, 2019 by johndon

[Joseph_Pestell]

8 minutes ago, johndon said:

 

One issue with Fridays is venue availability - I was at an exhibition last weekend and will be at another one this weekend and both of them are being held in schools which would mean that Friday would be impossible.  The two largest shows in the North Eeast (Newcastle and RailexNE are currently held in schools).

 

John

 

It is also much harder for exhibitors who have to take leave from work.

 

I have tried it once, opening on the Friday afternoon and going on until about 9pm. Worked reasonably well and it enabled some local schools to bring groups to the show.

[Metr0Land]

1 hour ago, ColinK said:

I exhibited my layout at Rainhill last Saturday and as usual presented it as a layout anyone can build.  What surprised me was the number of people (mainly women) asking how I had built various items.

 

A frequent question at our local show (mainly from older chaps who look to be (re)entering the hobby) is 'how do you build your baseboards?'

 

It's a bit like how long's a piece of string but I have fed back to our group the need to possibly have a list of FAQ's of things we think we've been asked a lot.  It's quite a dilemma when you're exhibiting as you don't want to brush people off yet don't want to spend too much time not operating or other viewers walk away. 

[Nearholmer]

A basic baseboard-building demo?

 

Perhaps showing boards at various stages, rather than actually making sawdust in an exhibition.

[Norm81]

1) Do they want / like Prototypical operation? - I don't mean timetable wise (i.e. continual movement or not), I mean prototypical use of signals and train movements and the correct (or closest as the modeller can get) trains doing the correct things.

I'm a contradiction here I'm afraid, I want reasonably prototypical operation, but as I sometimes have my son in tow he wants something moving at all times otherwise I get dragged away as he's bored. The something moving doesn't have to be flying past on the main, could be some shunting going on.

 

2) If there is a gap in train movement, how can the audience be kept entertained in the mean time?

This is where items like the faller road system, animations, the "find the..." games come into play for younger viewers, otherwise cameo scenes and just plain old good modelling to admire.

 

3) Is additional information useful? How should it be presented and where? 

Magazine features or some back story can be useful/interesting and I would say infront of fiddle yard or below the level of the landscape infront of the layout.

 

4) Does having operators talking to each other about train movements (not social stuff) spoil the 'illusion'?

No.

 

5) How should additional effects, i.e. lighting, sound and other movement, other than those on trains be used?

I have seen a couple of layouts where it gets dark enough for the lights to be effective, I guess they are well covered from the lighting in the exhibition hall. Otherwise the lighting in buildings and street lights just gets washed out by the ambient. Flashing lights on static emergency vehicles, indicators on buses in bus stops are becoming common now.

[298]

15 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

A basic baseboard-building demo?

 

Perhaps showing boards at various stages, rather than actually making sawdust in an exhibition.

 

Hence the general problem with homebuilt baseboards, all you're guaranteed is a pile of sawdust. Why not have a trader that sells baseboard kits instead?

[298]

Something recently advertised at a local show was a "Children's Competition."

 

Being slightly curious I took 6yr old Daughter along for a rare insurgency  mission into the M6/M5/M42 exclusion zone, and at the door we were handed a list of animals to find on the various layouts. Although this meant alot of time was spent looking for them instead of me actually viewing layouts, it was excellent entertainment for us and other families who seem to be increasingly present at shows due to the GMRC effect but possibly won't find anything but staid old layouts and trade stands once inside. 

 

So thank you to the layout owners who took part and the Birmingham Model Railway Club.

[Nearholmer]

“Hence the general problem with homebuilt baseboards, all you're guaranteed is a pile of sawdust. Why not have a trader that sells baseboard kits instead?”

 

The dame logic would banish, say, soldering or DCC demonstrations by club experts, and have only RTR sellers in the room.

 

The bigger exhibitions often do have such a baseboard trader: elite; white rose etc, but I think you underestimate the enthusiasm, and possibly the ability, of a lot of potential DIY enthusiasts. With a bit of guidance, it’s no more difficult to make a basic baseboard than it is to fix together an item of Ikea flat-pack furniture (acknowledging that a few people find that beyond their abilities).

Edited November 8, 2019 by Nearholmer

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, 298 said:

 

Hence the general problem with homebuilt baseboards, all you're guaranteed is a pile of sawdust. Why not have a trader that sells baseboard kits instead?

I spray all my wood for wood worm....

[Dunsignalling]

A good rule of thumb when it comes to baseboards is that, if you can work out what tools are needed, and already use them for other things, making something to build your railway on shouldn't provide any real challenge.

 

People may be beginners at model railways, but many will have already learned the required basics from other activities.

 

It is a tenet of managing ones life to develop the practical skills you need or make enough income using abilities that you do possess to allow you to hire them in.   

 

John

Edited November 8, 2019 by Dunsignalling

[298]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

The bigger exhibitions often do have such a baseboard trader: elite; white rose etc, but I think you underestimate the enthusiasm, and possibly the ability, of a lot of potential DIY enthusiasts. With a bit of guidance, it’s no more difficult to make a basic baseboard than it is to fix together an item of Ikea flat-pack furniture (acknowledging that a few people find that beyond their abilities).

 

Unless I've chosen to modify it, I've never had to use a saw to build a standard piece of flat pack furniture or glue and clamp it together. I'm not sure which IKEA you've been to but if it was full of sheets of plywood and offered a cutting service then I'm not sure it was real and wouldn't want to sample the meatballs.

[Nearholmer]

“With guidance, it’s no more difficult .....”

 

Using a saw isn’t difficult ...... it’s a different task from using a screwdriver, but not inherently more difficult, and note that I do include the words “with guidance”. Children are taught basic wood-sawing at school at age eleven, so it can hardly be called an advanced skill.

 

Anyway, let’s not get too caught-up in this: I’m not decrying the use of kit or ready-made baseboards, it makes things quicker for one thing; and, I’m not attempting to dictate that everyone should use a saw - if it gives you no joy, don’t.

 

Kevin

[TheQ]

6 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 Children are taught basic wood-sawing at school at age eleven, so it can hardly be called an advanced skill.

 

 

 

Kevin

Are you sure? In my day we did woodwork and metal work, these days it's CDT or whatever they want to call it these days. The kids seem to learn nothing about a lot of subjects. The youngsters that come to this factory, seem to have been taught nothing practical at all..

[Andy Hayter]

25 minutes ago, 298 said:

 

Unless I've chosen to modify it, I've never had to use a saw to build a standard piece of flat pack furniture or glue and clamp it together. I'm not sure which IKEA you've been to but if it was full of sheets of plywood and offered a cutting service then I'm not sure it was real and wouldn't want to sample the meatballs.

 

I have built IKEA kitchen units that do indeed require that you use a saw to cut backboards to fit certain configurations.

[Nearholmer]

Q

 

"Are you sure?"

 

Yes. My son has just been taught it at school at beginning of Year 6, and I think its back as part of the National Curriculum, although there is clearly room for interpretation, so I'm sure the detail of what is taught varies between schools.

 

He got top marks, BTW, because I taught him not long after he could stand-up, but that a different point.

 

K

 

[TheQ]

if it's back then thats good.. practical skills will always be needed..

what's year 6?  last year of primary?

 

[MarkSG]

15 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Anyway, let’s not get too caught-up in this: I’m not decrying the use of kit or ready-made baseboards, it makes things quicker for one thing; and, I’m not attempting to dictate that everyone should use a saw - if it gives you no joy, don’t.

 

It's the old "Good, fast, cheap - pick any two from three" conundrum. Laser-cut baseboard kits are good and fast. Even though I have built baseboards from the raw materials in the past, I wouldn't go back to doing it that way now.

 

In any case, the kits aren't that expensive. For a short terminus to fiddle yard layout (which is what I'm currently working on), the cost of two modular baseboards plus a traverser was just under £150. That's less than a typical DCC fitted loco. Obviously, it's £150 that I didn't have to spend. But, for the time and effort it saved me, it was worth it.

[Nearholmer]

Year 6 = first year of secondary school.

 

(being what is euphemistically termed "an older dad", I sill can't get used to year numbering myself!)

[Jol Wilkinson]

My layout has a baseboard height of 3'6". That, according to one friend who uses a wheelchair, is a good viewing height. However I consider it too low and 4'6" would, I feel, be better for most standing viewers. If robust barriers, such as those shown are provided by the exhibition organisers, then it is common for most people to lean on them to bring their eye line down. 

 

As to what to model and how to present it, I have found that visitors to local/regional shows usually look for something different to those attending the specialist shows. The former are more interested in layout activity, especially frequent  passing trains rather than shunting. While the setting should be well modelled, accuracy/fidelity to a location is less important. Plenty of cameos, flashing lights, etc. also seem to be welcome. Those attending the more specialist shows are generally have more interest in the modelling and often welcome the opportunity to talk to the operators about how the layout and models were created.