What is a Cameo Layout?

[Robin2]

I notice in my city there these big public transport things with two decks of passagners , some people call them buses , I've decided to call them "diurectics " in my new book entitled " diurectics timetable 2018"

 

Maybe you have had too much coffee.

 

IMHO Iain Rice has explained himself well in his book.

 

...R

[NHY 581]

" cameo " must be the most ridiculous use of that word in the context of a layout , there is no dictionary meaning of that word that equates to the concept.

Either "micro layout" or "diorama" would have been appropriate.

I notice in my city there these big public transport things with two decks of passagners , some people call them buses , I've decided to call them "diurectics " in my new book entitled " diurectics timetable 2018"

To be fair, a most ridiculous post which contributes nothing to the thread and does not hold water, as your use of a big word suggests.

 

Cameo is defined as follows;

 

"A short descriptive literary sketch which neatly encapsulates someone or something".

 

"cameos of street life"

 

I would suggest more thought is applied. In your haste to appear clever you have failed to understand the concept which undermines the point you have failed to make.

 

 

Rob.

[2mmMark]

" cameo " must be the most ridiculous use of that word in the context of a layout , there is no dictionary meaning of that word that equates to the concept.

 

Either "micro layout" or "diorama" would have been appropriate.

 

I notice in my city there these big public transport things with two decks of passagners , some people call them buses , I've decided to call them "diurectics " in my new book entitled " diurectics timetable 2018"

 

 

I think this could help your witzelsucht:

 

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm

 

Mark

[Neil]

" cameo " must be the most ridiculous use of that word in the context of a layout , there is no dictionary meaning of that word that equates to the concept.

 

Either "micro layout" or "diorama" would have been appropriate. ...

 

 

I'm not a fan of the word either, whether it's to describe a small layout or a small set piece within a layout. There's a hint of pretentiousness about it which I don't like. However it's just a word and it doesn't detract from the book or the concept even if I would have preferred 'small layout in a box'.

[PMP]

Before we get too worried about diabetic timetables, I think we should find out what passagners are.

[Porcy Mane]

There's a hint of pretentiousness about it which I don't like. 

 

I thought that too. I've now changed my mind as it seems to be a word that has become generally accepted by the British railway modelling fraternity to "mean small, neat, interesting & enclosed model railway. Just like language model railways are always evolving anew. I much prefer cameo to shunting puzzle or similar.

 

 However it's just a word and it doesn't detract from the book or the concept even if I would have preferred 'small layout in a box'.

 

I suppose "layout in a box" could equally apply to this and its ilk.

 

 

P

Edited December 31, 2017 by Porcy Mane

[LBRJ]

Cameo is a perfect term to describe the concept we are supposed to be following here.

 

A small display that captures the essence of somewhere. 

 

Its the creation of a feeling of a certain time and place, not just building a small model railway. Those generic TMD and Single Line Terminus etc  layouts one sees all too often certainly fit the "small model railway" theme but that does not make them a cameo.

[Neil]

Cameo is a perfect term to describe the concept we are supposed to be following here.

 

A small display that captures the essence of somewhere. 

 

Its the creation of a feeling of a certain time and place, not just building a small model railway. Those generic TMD and Single Line Terminus etc  layouts one sees all too often certainly fit the "small model railway" theme but that does not make them a cameo.

 

I don't believe that cameo layouts are intrinsically any better than any other form of layout; as with others there will be good and bad among their ranks. Applying a name or a set formula to layout is no guarantee of success. 

[Porcy Mane]

For anyone looking for Cameo inspiration; try this for size.

 

https://flic.kr/p/21wmGXH

 

Strangely when you check to location out on old maps it covers quite a large area.

 

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/559260/193063/13/101329

 

P

[Neil]

This gem is just a click away from the above suggestion ....

 

.... and the link to the relevant Old Maps page.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Neil

[Not Jeremy]

I don't believe that cameo layouts are intrinsically any better than any other form of layout; as with others there will be good and bad among their ranks. Applying a name or a set formula to layout is no guarantee of success. 

Quite so, I don't think that we (iain and I) have suggested that they are have we?

 

I do think that the description in the context that Iain has used it is interesting and that it potentially defines/sets out a certain approach to building a model railway.

 

Competition apart I found the book inspiring and thought provoking and it has got me thinking about potential projects.

 

I don't buy the pretentious angle though.

 

Simon

[NHY 581]

Pretentious!... Moi?

[Captain Kernow]

I don't buy the pretentious angle though.

 

Maybe not, but is it Art, darling?

[Porcy Mane]

Maybe not, but is it Art, darling?

 

 May well be if Art Darling decides to enter to competition.

 

Rgds.

 

Arthur Darling

[lapford34102]

A little while ago I wrote a rather scurrilous piece about cameo layouts which I know a few on here have read. Porcy Mane's comment "layout in a box" more or less paraphrases the conclusion I came though I put it  tad differently. I did though ponder on where all the offcuts ended up wondering if there was a slowly increasing mountain of oval shaped mdf and ply somewhere. Or whether they were being turned into smaller cameo's the offcuts of which were turned into even smaller ones and so on. One of life's mysteries I suppose.

Agree with Neil's comments. Having got the book I think it's good "one stop shop" on the genre, if we can call it that but felt some aspects could have been better. As a purely personal view it did leave me with the feeling cameo = finescale but that's probably my imperfect interpretation.

Cheers

Stu

[durham light infantry]

As a purely personal view it did leave me with the feeling cameo = finescale

I think Iain Rice would be quite happy with that. You know a cameo is going to have a kit built loco and stock, with bespoke buildings and handbuilt track.

 

Rather than that new exhibition standard of a Class 20 at full volume which you can here wherever you are in the hall, with identikit buildings and setrack geometry pointwork resembling the East end of Newcastle central.

 

Mike

[Stubby47]

My cameos will have neither kit built locos or stock, and be standard Peco 00 track.

 

Will they match the idea of a cameo ? I think so, as to me it's the whole rather than individual parts.

 

But each to their own, and best wishes to the many and varied interpretations.

[Robin2]

You know a cameo is going to have a kit built loco and stock, with bespoke buildings and handbuilt track.

I don't believe any of that is necessary to make a small realistic looking model railway. There is always the choice between landscapes by Turner and those by Constable. I much prefer Turner.

 

...R

[PMP]

I think Iain Rice would be quite happy with that. You know a cameo is going to have a kit built loco and stock, with bespoke buildings and handbuilt track.

 

Mike

Really?

 

This is on Shelfie 4ft x 1ft, Peco and C&L code 75 track and RTR locos and stock. In the Cameo book Albion Yard is featured, bigger but same core elements. They’re both in the ‘Finescale’ category though so people tell me, but ‘finescale’ means so many different things...

[Captain Kernow]

There is always the choice between landscapes by Turner and those by Constable. I much prefer Turner.

 

Thought the film was a bit rubbish, though, dragged on too long.

 

But I'd rather meet a Turner than a Constable.

 

Rain, Steam and Speed within the legal limit.

[meil]

To my mind the term cameo has to relate to a small self contained performance within a larger work.

 

A cameo layout therefore, to me, must be self contained within itself BUT it must be suggestive that it is contained within a larger setting.

 

Not all of Iain Rice's layouts do that for me.

 

Also I don't see why there is a need for a size constraint. Especially when the proposed original size constraint actually excluded the very layout that was the centre piece of Rice's book to illustrate the concept, with result that the size constraint was altered. All very artificial.

Edited January 1, 2018 by meil

[NHY 581]

I think Iain Rice would be quite happy with that. You know a cameo is going to have a kit built loco and stock, with bespoke buildings and handbuilt track.

Rather than that new exhibition standard of a Class 20 at full volume which you can here wherever you are in the hall, with identikit buildings and setrack geometry pointwork resembling the East end of Newcastle central.

Mike

Hi Mike. It does not have to be so.

 

To me, cameo = Ready to plant buildings, PECO OO code 75 track, Bachmann stock. Nothing kit built about it.

 

 

 

 

Rob.

[Joseph_Pestell]

In fairness, Iain also recognises that "cameo" may not have been an adroit choice of word to describe this concept. But he has been using for so long now and others have taken it up. So, de facto, it becomes "right". Plenty of words in the OED are given definitions that make my blood boil as they are a clear misuse of language, but the lexicographers job is to report on the language as it is spoken not as it should be spoken.

 

The frequent misuse, but now more common than correct use, of the word "contemporary" is my biggest bug-bear.

 

Anyway back to the layouts, as someone who has done a bit of theatre set-building and design, this type of layout has much more in common with a box set (another term that now has a completely different "newspeak" meaning) than with a cameo (in the traditional sense of that word). When you are watching a play in the theatre, there is often action that takes place off-stage or you are invited to imagine is happening off-stage. Similarly when you are watching a real railway from close up, you know that some shunting movements are happening beyond the area that you can see. All that these layouts do is to make the viewer think a bit about what they can't see as well as that which they can see.

[Robin2]

Thought the film was a bit rubbish,

I turned it off after about 20 minutes. I had been hoping for the story of how he created his pictures. I have no interest in his (or any other artist's) private life.

 

...R

[Regularity]

The word “awful” was used to describe the then newly-rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral. At the time it meant simply, “full of awe”. Somehow over the decades and centuries it has come to mean almost the opposite.

 

Times change, so do words and their meaning.