Unusual Layout Themes

[Primitive Person]

I'm curious about really unusual themes for layouts. When it comes down to it, a lot of us model things that fall into a few broad categories and it usually reflects a real-life prototype we're familiar with or take an interest in. But...how about doing something really out of the ordinary, that no-one else has done? Fact or fiction, let's have some ideas.

 

I once remember seeing an exhibition layout representing the famous scrap merchant (was it Mayer Newman?) that burned coaches to rid them of asbestos. It was all cleverly done with hidden tracks etc. - a battered class 03 shunter would propel a DMU car in an about-to-be-scrapped state into a building with a big chimney atop it, smoke would emerge from said chimney, and then a burned-out shell would emerge from the other end of the building. Obviously not the same vehicle but so well done it looked really convincing. What other real one-offs have you seen?

 

An idea I really like would be to do a post-apocalyptic layout based on the old enthusiasts' legend of the Strategic Reserve. You could produce a yard full of extremely rusty and battered steam locos of your choice, but probably lots of 9Fs would be good. They could shunt around wagons with a military theme, perhaps carrying tanks or somesuch, in a ravaged landscape with burned-out buildings and vehicles, and perhaps some miserable-looking irradiated survivors shuffling about. I'm not sure it's ever been done, but it could have potential!

 

Lee

[corax67]

I did get about 2/3rds of the way into building an odd layout that was going to be an exhibition layout but had to sell it on before we moved from Wales.

 

It was an On30 layout using mostly off-the-shelf Bachmann stock with odd scratchbuilt bits but with all the figures on the layout being Games Workshop miniatures - surprisingly a good scale match for O gauge.

 

The layout was 4x4 and the theme was a Warhammer Dwarf stronghold with a railway utilising the 0-4-2 porters and v-side dump cars hauling gold out of a drift mine. The stronghold would be surrounded by Empire raiders on the surface moving in from a pirate ship moored in a bay and there was a subterranean section viewable below baseboard level, between the layout legs.

 

The subterranean section had the loco and cars running through the mining galleries via a helix from the surface level with plenty of miners in the tunnels but also with Skaven mining their way through to deposits of warpstone below the gold mines and preparing to raid the Dwarf stronghold from below. The gold veins were illuminated by fibre optic and the warpstone was UV lit phosphorescent paint to give an evil glow.

 

Loads of operation, plenty of little scenic bits in my head too and definitely one for the pending file when a get a bit of free time again.

[cromptonnut]

I so wish I hadn't read that post... I play World of Warcraft and there are loads of mines with little railway systems in them (albeit non-functional, and usually manually pushed carts rather than loco hauled), but there's indeed a lot of opportunity there for fantasy layouts (literally) given all the gaming figures etc available. Something could easily be made based on the rough layout of one of those mines and given an appropriate makeover.

 

Anyone fancy meeting at the Goldshire Inn for a Dwarven Stout and a chat...? Alliance players only, of course. Horde not allowed.

[corax67]

As I have been gaming for around 30 years I have a huge collection of the early Citadel miniatures as well as the Games Workshop stuff - these early minatures comprise a lot of individual characters like the Dwarf cook turning a joint on the spit, the ratcatcher & thief, etc so the opportunity for cameo's is much greater.

 

My slayer pirate horde will feature heavily too as well as some properly evil Skaven baddies I have lurking in my cupboards.

 

Oh to win the lottery and have unlimited modelling time.

[Ian J.]

I have in mind an idea for a 'BR Blue' layout. But instead of a specific date/period set between 1968-1980, it would have locos, coaches and wagons from various periods post steam, including fictional blue livery on diesel locos that never reached it or never received it (14s, 15s, Kestrel, etc), and also blue or revised standard on locos that are too recent (60s, 66s, 67s, 70s, etc). Blue/Grey coaching stock throughout, including Voyagers and lots of other modern units. I did wonder about including some steam locos as well, but feel that wouldn't quite work out right, but some pre-nationalization stock would be there, including Bulleids, Staniers, Gresleys, Thompsons, Hawksworths, etc.

 

General period appearance of the layout would be that of mid to late 70s.

[Xerces Fobe2]

I guess my layout might fit into this catagory?

 

Croxley Wiggenhallroad Depot

 

 

Xerces Fobe

[Edge]

Well...

 

Although i haven't actually built any of it yet... :-D

 

I'm planning a series of layouts around a fictional Fifith company to come out of the 1923 grouping. Dubbed the 'North Western Railway' it is the perfect excuse for me to run whatever I like as well as scratch-building a lot of stock and locos. Freelancing has always appealed to me more than strict accuracy, so this was a oerfect solution for me.

 

Its only in the planning stages, but if anyone's interested, let me know, and i'll stick some more info up on another thread.

[DavidBird]

I have in mind an idea for a 'BR Blue' layout. But instead of a specific date/period set between 1968-1980, it would have locos, coaches and wagons from various periods post steam, including fictional blue livery on diesel locos that never reached it or never received it (14s, 15s, Kestrel, etc), and also blue or revised standard on locos that are too recent (60s, 66s, 67s, 70s, etc). Blue/Grey coaching stock throughout, including Voyagers and lots of other modern units. I did wonder about including some steam locos as well, but feel that wouldn't quite work out right, but some pre-nationalization stock would be there, including Bulleids, Staniers, Gresleys, Thompsons, Hawksworths, etc.

 

General period appearance of the layout would be that of mid to late 70s.

 

Do you mean like this? (Link)

 

Check out the rest of http://fictitiousliveries.fotopic.net/

 

(No connection, just a satisfied - and amused - "customer")

(Edit) On the other hand, please don't! http://fictitiousliveries.fotopic.net/p37902638.html

[Jenny Emily]

Warhammer - that takes me back. I used to be a big gamer at secondary school. It certainly would be something very different and interesting to see a layout themed around that on the exhibition circuit. The Games Workshop shop in Bolton has a lovely highly detailed diorama in the window, and I've often thought it would be improved by a train running through its landscape!

 

My plans always involved one of two things. The first would be a large model of a working hump marshalling yard based loosely on Tyne yard (I have a compromise trackplan somewhere that would have seen the loft here converted to take it combined with a continuous run). Money and the fact that the loft space is earmarked for other uses continually put paid to that.

 

The second idea is to model a WWI supply depot somewhere not far behind the trenches that is rail connected. It would give an excuse to run all manner of stuff under ROD control including UK, US and French prototypes side by side. I got as far as building a few Airfix models in preparation.

[Brinkly]

Right my turn!

 

As it hasn't been mentioned yet either a Blofeld style volcano base, with underground railway system similar to You Only Live Twice, including battle scene! Or the armored train from Goldeneye, which would be easier to do as it was a Class 20 with a witches noise on the front!

 

(Make a nice roundy-round including a tunnel and then sit an ex Soviet tank on the rails!)

 

Regards,

 

Nick

[009matt]

I did get about 2/3rds of the way into building an odd layout that was going to be an exhibition layout but had to sell it on before we moved from Wales.

 

It was an On30 layout using mostly off-the-shelf Bachmann stock with odd scratchbuilt bits but with all the figures on the layout being Games Workshop miniatures - surprisingly a good scale match for O gauge.

 

The layout was 4x4 and the theme was a Warhammer Dwarf stronghold with a railway utilising the 0-4-2 porters and v-side dump cars hauling gold out of a drift mine. The stronghold would be surrounded by Empire raiders on the surface moving in from a pirate ship moored in a bay and there was a subterranean section viewable below baseboard level, between the layout legs.

 

The subterranean section had the loco and cars running through the mining galleries via a helix from the surface level with plenty of miners in the tunnels but also with Skaven mining their way through to deposits of warpstone below the gold mines and preparing to raid the Dwarf stronghold from below. The gold veins were illuminated by fibre optic and the warpstone was UV lit phosphorescent paint to give an evil glow.

 

Loads of operation, plenty of little scenic bits in my head too and definitely one for the pending file when a get a bit of free time again.

 

Right my turn!

 

As it hasn't been mentioned yet either a Blofeld style volcano base, with underground railway system similar to You Only Live Twice, including battle scene! Or the armored train from Goldeneye, which would be easier to do as it was a Class 20 with a witches noise on the front!

 

(Make a nice roundy-round including a tunnel and then sit an ex Soviet tank on the rails!)

 

Regards,

 

Nick

 

I have considered making an Ork Scrap yard for the 40k system that has operating trains! I like the Dwarf mine idea too - Bugman's wagons transporting beer to and from his brewhouse would be a fun addition

 

The Blofeld volcano base - that has always appealed, need plenty of Mini Mokes and 'with frikkin laser beams on their heads'

 

Matt

[asmay2002]

 

I once remember seeing an exhibition layout representing the famous scrap merchant (was it Mayer Newman?) that burned coaches to rid them of asbestos.

 

Asbestos is fireproof - you can't burn it. That was the whole point of using it. Burning was used to get rid of flamable materials e.g carpets, upholstery and obviuosly wood.

 

ASM

[Moxy]

... and the theme was a Warhammer Dwarf stronghold with a railway ... hauling gold out of a drift mine. ... there was a subterranean section viewable below baseboard level, between the layout legs.

 

The subterranean section had the loco and cars running through the mining galleries ... with plenty of miners in the tunnels but also with Skaven mining their way through to deposits of warpstone below the gold mines and preparing to raid the Dwarf stronghold from below.

 

Has someone not already done this? I seem to recall a small layout based around this idea at Alsager show last year?

 

(Forgive my ignorance, I'm not into wargaming so I don't know which set of rules/characters it was based on) I can't remember the scale either.

 

Paul

[Pugsley]

Asbestos is fireproof - you can't burn it. That was the whole point of using it. Burning was used to get rid of flamable materials e.g carpets, upholstery and obviuosly wood.

Whilst you can't burn asbestos, you can, apparently, incinerate it, which is slightly different. I think there were two reasons why the stock was incinerated at Mayer Parry:

 

1. Asbestos fibres cause the problems, once incinerated to ash the fibres don't exist anymore, so can't cause problems. I believe the ash still has to be treated as a hazardous waste though, so it doesn't make it inert, just less dangerous.

 

2. Apparently, after firing, the rolling stock was rinsed with high pressure water jets and the ash washed into pits beneath the track. After collection, the ash was allowed to settle and recovered from the water. This would be a much less time consuming method of removal from something that was going to be cut up once completed, rather than the risky business of removing it by hand.

 

HTH

[essexexpress]

Anyone remember the exhibition layout from the late 80's/early 90's which was a vision of a privatised BR?

 

I believe this was mentioned and discussed on the old forum.

 

It had loads of random stuff, like single cab 58's running in pairs (like 20's used to), and loads of seriously modified stock with wild (well in them days ~ look at what we have now) liveries.

 

The track layout reminded me of Ipswich.

 

If anyone knows the layout I'm rambling about please speak up, also some photos would be good to jog the old memory.

 

 

Mike

[Stubby47]

I'd like to build a 'Four Seasons' layout. It would be 4 quarters of a circle, each section would be scenically identical ( roads, buildings, etc.), apart from each being dressed in a different season.

[Dagworth]

Anyone remember the exhibition layout from the late 80's/early 90's which was a vision of a privatised BR?

 

I believe this was mentioned and discussed on the old forum.

 

It had loads of random stuff, like single cab 58's running in pairs (like 20's used to), and loads of seriously modified stock with wild (well in them days ~ look at what we have now) liveries.

 

The track layout reminded me of Ipswich.

 

If anyone knows the layout I'm rambling about please speak up, also some photos would be good to jog the old memory.

 

 

Mike

 

Yep, I know a LOT more about this, it was called SDABTA, being the Stowmarket, Dagworth And Badley Transport Authority, some of the stock is still in my cupboards... I was one of the four that built it. We had concrete sleepered points among other things, I well remember our club chairman at then time saying that they would never make concrete points...

 

It's frightening how close we were with some of those liveries, I could claim to be the inventor of Loadhaul livery, I still have the black 56 here

 

Andi

[essexexpress]

Andi, never knew this was to do with you!

 

It was a true inspiration as I (and everyone else I suspect) had never seen anything quite like it, but also I remember as a kid thinking that it was quite shocking, especially the conversions and liveries, but then privatisation DID come along and this model wasn't actually too far off the truth if we look at what happened stock and livery wise in the last 10 # 15 years.

 

Also other examples like the conversion of 47's to 57/3's in particular ~ do I remember right that there was something similar on the layout?

 

If you have any photos can you post them? (especially if you still have the 56) For the nostalgia and all!

 

 

cheers

 

 

Mike

 

Yep, I know a LOT more about this, it was called SDABTA, being the Stowmarket, Dagworth And Badley Transport Authority, some of the stock is still in my cupboards... I was one of the four that built it. We had concrete sleepered points among other things, I well remember our club chairman at then time saying that they would never make concrete points...

 

It's frightening how close we were with some of those liveries, I could claim to be the inventor of Loadhaul livery, I still have the black 56 here

 

Andi

[mudmagnet]

A couple of years ago, my son, who was 11 at the time wanted to build a small layout that was exhbited at our local exhibition.

 

It was Star Wars themed !!! Based on Tatotine (I know the spelling isn't quite correct), with the sand buildings. This was featured in the first Star Wars (now known as Episode 4 A New Hope), with domed roofed buildings.

 

The track was Peco N gauge in a loop and one siding, with the rear being hidden. A series of buildings were constructed from cardboard and then covered in sand paper (naturally). The domed roofs came from plastic pots found at the local garden centre and then covered with sand glued with PVA. There was one loco, based on a Bachmann American N gauge loco, with a body shell from plasticard (a series of boxes etc) and a couple of wagons, being made from plasticard to fit over American N gauge gondolas.

 

The figures were all the standard Star Wars figures, about 75mm tall, including several Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and several others. A Storm Trooper was sat on the loco and held in place with blue-tac.

 

I think that may have some photos, which I will have a search for.

 

Certainly unique and generated quite a bit of interest. The layout is still in my garage, but now showing severe signs of wear.

[Happy Hippo]

I did consider a Dracula's Castle Railway

 

Narrow gauge, very black and gothic with plenty of FR Hearse wagons, coffins galore, and in the best Hammer House of Horror tradition, locomotives without visible crews and trains with no passengers. I thought of using suitable Phoenix folies figures to represent the Brides of Dracula.

 

 

Going for a lie down now

 

Regards

 

Richard

[Ian J.]

I did once have a fleeting thought about a layout based on JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth - not set at the time of the various books, but much more in 'the time of men', almost like an alternate UK with post industrial revolution developments and the like. There would be space for 'cameos' of various non-human species, but it wouldn't have looked a million miles from UK appearance sometime within the last 100 years or so, perhaps a fusion of different elements across the real time periods of UK railways.

[KevinWalsh]

There would be space for 'cameos' of various non-human species, but it wouldn't have looked a million miles from UK appearance sometime within the last 100 years

 

 

I believe this form of lower evolved mammalians is correctly referred to as CHAVIE

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I did once have a fleeting thought about a layout based on JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth - not set at the time of the various books, but much more in 'the time of men', almost like an alternate UK with post industrial revolution developments and the like. There would be space for 'cameos' of various non-human species, but it wouldn't have looked a million miles from UK appearance sometime within the last 100 years or so, perhaps a fusion of different elements across the real time periods of UK railways.

 

There was a layout described in a Railway Modeller back in the late 1970s/early 80s called the Shire Railway - set in Middle Earth. Apparently they also had Met-Cam DMUs as well!

[reddiamond]

Hi

Andi has just informed me of this thread. Mostly a lurker on here but, when this type of subject gets discussed, it is not long before SDABTA gets a mention.

 

As one of Andi's partners in crime, I also have a number of 'oddities' in my ownership, including the mentioned single cab 58's as a permanantly coupled pair. I also have a number of prints that I will try and post on here tomorrow (or later today).

 

It had a mixed impact, some totally got what we were doing and others could not get their head around a privatised railway and all those different liveries. It was much fun having a completely free hand on what you built, made or repainted.

 

we were also managed to increase the price of the humble Triang dock shunter, by buying up over 50 examples, they were our version of the 08 All the second hand traders thought that there was a big demand for them so, the price went up from just a couple of quid each to over a tenner each. When this happened we stopped buying them and the traders were left with these dock shunters at a hicked up price that had suddenly lost its market.

 

Here is what is left of the dock shunter collection. Much oddities to follow

 

Cheers

Keith

 

Anyone remember the exhibition layout from the late 80's/early 90's which was a vision of a privatised BR?

 

I believe this was mentioned and discussed on the old forum.

 

It had loads of random stuff, like single cab 58's running in pairs (like 20's used to), and loads of seriously modified stock with wild (well in them days ~ look at what we have now) liveries.

 

The track layout reminded me of Ipswich.

 

If anyone knows the layout I'm rambling about please speak up, also some photos would be good to jog the old memory.

 

 

Mike

[Dagworth]

Here is what is left of the dock shunter collection. Much oddities to follow

 

Cheers

Keith

 

 

Not all of 'em, I've got no 12 "River Rat" sat here next to me as I type. I really must get round to fitting a decoder to it

 

Andi