When is it right to tweak reality on an exhibition layout in order to entertain the paying visitor?

[TEAMYAKIMA]

This is real musing for you ..................................................

 

When is it right to 'tweak reality' on an exhibition layout in order to entertain viewers?

 

Let me begin by saying that I believe that exhibition layouts are there to entertain visitors to an exhibition and I do accept that different people are 'entertained' by different aspects of a layout - just like some people prefer Test cricket to what is nowadays called 'The Hundred' . 

 

First of all, many/most layouts tweak reality in a similar way to the way that 'Eastenders' tweaks what it's like to live in the East end of London e.g. on an average day in a specific location you wouldn't see the variety of trains in a given 20 minute period that you would see in a 20 minute viewing of an exhibition layout. Let me make it clear that my definition of 'tweak' is a slight exaggeration of reality not having a a class 90 o/h electric hauling pre-war PO wagons.

 

In my case I was thinking about coach interiors. I spent weeks adding interiors to one of my long passenger trains and at home if I took the coach off the track and handed to you, you would be able to see all that detail - but at an exhibition no-one could see it as it rumbles by.

 

So, I added coach lighting and now everyone can see the detail - but in reality if you were standing on an embankment or looking out of a hotel window you wouldn't see inside the coaches like that. Many/most coach windows are now tinted and some have curtains and so allowing viewers to be able to see the interior detail is very popular, but at the same time it's unrealistic.

 

 

Consequently, if I were to have my layout photographed for a model magazine, I would turn off the coach lighting because my peers reading a model magazine would think it unrealistic, but the average visitor to the average public exhibition thinks it's great.

 

It may be unrealistic, but I think it's justifiably unrealistic because it entertains the paying public - thoughts?

Edited August 7, 2023 by TEAMYAKIMA

[Jeremy Cumberland]

I think it's perfectly fine to use bright lights to show off details that would otherwise be missed. Exhibitions are meant to be a display of the modeller's talents, after all. For what it's worth, this is widely done in films, where Victorian night scenes are lit as if they were twenty-first century offices, and few viewers seem to notice, and I doubt that many who do find it distracting or objectionable.

[westernviscount]

All my modelling is a compromise and some compromises are made because of exhibitions. My layout is much truncated to fit in a fiesta for a start!

 

I went 3 link one year and was miserable for most of an exhibition so went back to spratt and winkle. They are almost as obtrusive as tension lock but the auto feature makes me happy. These examples may be more than a tweak. 

 

Frequency of service is the big one. If I ran my layout prototypically my tea break would be quite lengthy!

 

All this said, you cannot please everyone. We must remember that there are folk who are entertained just by the standard and care that has gone into the making of something. Some folk still enjoy subtlety. 

 

One lady announced that "there isnt much to this one" when glancing at my efforts. I duly apologised. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by westernviscount

[Captain Kernow]

35 minutes ago, westernviscount said:

One lady announced that "there isnt much to this one" when glancing at my efforts. I duly apologised. 

I wouldn't have apologised! She should have apologised for being so rude!

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

40 minutes ago, westernviscount said:

All my modelling is a compromise and some compromises are made because of exhibitions.Frequency of service is the big one. 

 

One 'feature' that we have tried on my triple tracked roundy-roundy was to have two (or sometimes even three) trains passing in the scenic section - which was very dramatic. The problem, especially when we had three crossing each other, was the time it took to get the 20ft long trains back into their fiddle yard roads so that we could release the next train on that/those circuit(s) i.e. the upside was the WOW! factor of the passing trains, the downside was the inevitable long gap before the next train could appear.

 

Just to clarify - the route selection process changes points at both ends of the FY loops at the same time and that means that the next fiddle yard release cannot be made until the previous train is back safely in its allocated road.

[Oldddudders]

53 minutes ago, westernviscount said:

One lady announced that "there isnt much to this one" when glancing at my efforts. I duly apologised. 

There. If only you'd added a working colourful fairground she's have been captivated. Opportunity missed, clearly. 

[PhilH]

I think it’s fair to say that every layout exhibited at a model railway show tweaks reality to a certain extent with regards to the timetable they run to. For instance, branch lines with almost continuous movements when in reality, they would possibly have one train an hour if that.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

2 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

There. If only you'd added a working colourful fairground she's have been captivated. Opportunity missed, clearly. 

 

I totally understand your point and don't disagree with your thinking behind it, but ...................................

 

I come to this 'discussion' from a point of view which differs from most modellers. I have an 'exhibition-only' layout - it is simply too big to be set up at home. Therefore, irrespective of what I think, it will only ever be operated at public exhibitions and it will only get invites if EM's think it will be popular with visitors.

 

Consequently, to an extent, those who have layouts which a home life and but which can be exhibited can have far greater freedom to decide the 'tone' of their layout, whereas I and those like me have to always bear in mind how everything would go down with the paying public.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

8 minutes ago, PhilH said:

I think it’s fair to say that every layout exhibited at a model railway show tweaks reality to a certain extent with regards to the timetable they run to. For instance, branch lines with almost continuous movements when in reality, they would possibly have one train an hour if that.

 Absolutely, and probably that train (B set and prairie?) would be exactly the same train every time and if there was to be a freight train you would have to see that B-set about six times before that one freight a day made an appearance.

[DLT]

I say "tweak to your heart's content!"  There were always gaps between trains on the real thing, but that doesn't make great viewing at a busy exhibition.  

On a run-down light railway, beloved of modellers, there might have only been one or two trains a day.  In it's final years the Talyllyn only ran on two days a week, while the Tralee & Dingle ran once a month!

I always say we model the trains, not the gaps between them.

[BachelorBoy]

7 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 Absolutely, and probably that train (B set and prairie?) would be exactly the same train every time and if there was to be a freight train you would have to see that B-set about six times before that one freight a day made an appearance.

 

Just having a station is a tweak to reality, as most of the railway network is not a station.

 

[Dungrange]

58 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

I come to this 'discussion' from a point of view which differs from most modellers. I have an 'exhibition-only' layout - it is simply too big to be set up at home. Therefore, irrespective of what I think, it will only ever be operated at public exhibitions and it will only get invites if EM's think it will be popular with visitors.

 

It's perhaps going off topic slightly, but this relates to the question of why do people attend model railway exhibitions?  In essence, model railway exhibitions are a form of 'entertainment' and as an exhibitor, I see our role as being like part of a 'stage production'.  Our job is to ensure that attendees leave feeling that they have enjoyed their visit (or the series of 'performances' that they have viewed).  Of course they won't all be looking for the same thing - some want ultra-realism, whilst others just want to see 'lots of trains'.  That's not really any different from those who may go to see a serious thought provoking play versus those going to musical theatre, for the light-hearted combination of songs, dance, colourful costumes and impressive lighting effects. 

 

Attendees at most model railway exhibitions are not a homogenous group (unless perhaps at events like Scaleforum) and exhibition managers generally need to try to cater for a broad range of tastes.  Some attendees want to see large layouts that they can go 'wow' at, whereas others want to see smaller layouts, which they hope will give them inspiration for the space they have at home.  An exhibition manager therefore needs to find layouts of different sizes in most of the major scales, and hopefully some narrow gauge or foreign railways, as well as British standard gauge, and representing different time periods, in the hope that most attendees will find at least some layouts that they like and fit with their interests.  Your layout benefits from the fact that it is perhaps the only Chinese layout in the UK, so will always fit the 'something different from the norm' category.

 

Ultimately, I think you can pick where within the spectrum of potential exhibition attendees interests you want to pitch your work.  If it's a home layout, then it is obviously constrained by your own approach to the hobby, perhaps striving for 100% accuracy, but it will also be constrained by the space you have available at home.  By creating an 'exhibition-only' layout, you've effectively released yourself from some of those shackles and just like a stage director, you get to choose how to 'wow' your audience.  Whether you do that by including unrealistically bright lighting in coaches to highlight detail, or running a more intensive timetable that results in passing trains in the station area is up to you.  You are the stage director and it is your show.  Make it the show that you want to put on rather than worrying about those who may criticise some of your choices, so I think the 'teaks' that you're highlighting are perfectly acceptable.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

10 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

 

It's perhaps going off topic slightly, but this relates to the question of why do people attend model railway exhibitions?  In essence, model railway exhibitions are a form of 'entertainment' and as an exhibitor, I see our role as being like part of a 'stage production'. 

 

I couldn't agree with you more.

 

It's like in a film or play when the director tweaks reality to move the plot along in order to keep our interest going. 

[Geep7]

I think one of my biggest tweaks to reality, and it's not just for an exhibition layout, is the fitting of Kadee's to all of my stock. Ever since doing American HO, i've been sold by the hands off operating, kadees give. Yes, I could use S&W or similar, but I find adding Kadee's rather simple, especially when building my own wagons.

[Jol Wilkinson]

In my experience exhibiting a layout, the audience reaction to  a layout depends on their knowledge, experience and modeling preferences.

 

Mine was a P4, pre-group layout and was recieved differently at the 4mm gauge societies and the "finescale" shows compared to more "general" shows. I recall being at on of the latter exhibitions when I noticed we had virtually no viewers while they were three deep at the layout next door, which was not running at that moment owning to some electrical failure. This was a "modern image" layout (this was about twenty years ago) and had a very large amount of RTR stock, RTP "fixed" models, many of the usual layout cliches and was built with Peco track. I discussed this with one of the operating team who expressed the view that the majority of show visitors could more readily relate to that layout than ours and were therefore more able to appreciate it.

 

So my answer would be that you have to know your potential audience and develop and run your layout to match their pretences.

[PeterStiles]

Back to what the original poster did...

 

I took my wife, in her wheelchair, round GETS last year, at her height she could see clearly into all the coaches and roundly complained about any that were completely void of passengers!

[Michael Hodgson]

4 hours ago, westernviscount said:

One lady announced that "there isnt much to this one" when glancing at my efforts. I duly apologised. 

It probably looked too much like a railway, and not enough like a toy train set!

 

[Dungrange]

31 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

It's like in a film or play when the director tweaks reality to move the plot along in order to keep our interest going. 

 

Yes, which is the reason that most of us run a more intensive train service than would have existed in reality - to try and keep their interest.  Most of those who attend model railway exhibitions only spend an average of five minutes or so at each layout.  What I have tended to note is that after the first couple of minutes they will stay while there are trains moving, but as soon as the layout is 'quiet' (because a train has moved off scene), they tend to take that as the end of an 'Act' and move onto the next layout (or 'show').  In effect the 'tweaks' that you are making are an attempt to increase the amount of time that someone spends standing at the front of your layout.

 

6 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

In my experience exhibiting a layout, the audience reaction to  a layout depends on their knowledge, experience and modelling preferences.

 

Mine was a P4, pre-group layout and was received differently at the 4mm gauge societies and the "finescale" shows compared to more "general" shows. I recall being at on of the latter exhibitions when I noticed we had virtually no viewers while they were three deep at the layout next door, which was not running at that moment owning to some electrical failure. This was a "modern image" layout (this was about twenty years ago) and had a very large amount of RTR stock, RTP "fixed" models, many of the usual layout clichés and was built with Peco track. I discussed this with one of the operating team who expressed the view that the majority of show visitors could more readily relate to that layout than ours and were therefore more able to appreciate it.

 

So my answer would be that you have to know your potential audience and develop and run your layout to match their pretences.

 

I'm not surprised.  Most people outside of the hobby (ie the families who attend the 'general' shows) don't know anything about track or the track gauge, and therefore don't realise that the gauge used for 00 is too narrow.  The extra effort of modelling in P4 is therefore lost on them.  There are plenty in the hobby who don't care about track either, which is why P4 has a minority following.

 

What is a model railway?  It's a model that is meant to represent the real railway (preferably a specific location at a specific point in time).  However, the pre-grouping period predates most viewers life experiences and therefore automatically makes it less relatable to many people unless they are interested in history.  Chinese railways (or indeed any other foreign railway) would fit into the same category: the modelled subject probably isn't something that we have experienced in real life.  Researching the pre-grouping period is obviously more difficult than modelling the contemporary scene because there are fewer available photographs, they are of lower quality, a site visit possibly can't be undertaken as the site has been demolished and built over, and it's difficult to determine colours from black and white photographs.  There is also less trade support for the period.  However, unless you've tried researching the nineteenth century or the history of a line on the other side of the world, you're unlikely to fully appreciate the effort that the builder has made to get things right.

 

Finally, many people are looking for inspiration for their own 'train set' at home.  Something built with track, building and stock that they can purchase in their local model shop automatically makes the layout seem more achievable to their skillset (even if they accept it's too big for the space they have available).

 

Of course there is also a herd mentality.  If you pass a restaurant and it's busy, you may assume it must be good.  If you pass and it looks empty, you may assume that's because the food is not good.  It's possible that some people will assume that the layouts with the biggest crowds are the ones that they need to see, which would encourage more people to congregate around the busier layouts and overlook the ones that everyone else has also overlooked.

 

As you say, develop the layout to match the preferences of the potential audience.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

I've been trying to think of examples of what I mean with reference to my own layout. In case anyone doesn't know. let's start from the premise that my layout is Chinese HO and the vast majority of potential viewers know little about China and even fewer know about Chinese railways and so my layout had to have some 'extras' - some eye-catching features which grabs the viewer's attention.

 

Two relatively subtle 'tweaks:

 

1. My bi-directional line at the front of the layout has four steam hauled freights - two in each direction. They are all hauled by QJ 2-10-2 locos but the average 'Joe Public' doesn't know or care, they could as well be 9F's for all he cares. So, how did I tweak things?

One train is single headed, one is conventionally double-headed, one is double-headed, but tender first and the last is double-headed, but tender-to-tender. If all the double-headed trains were conventionally set up they would all look 'the same' to Joe Public, but by having three distinctive set-ups I have made each one unique and Joe Public is wondering what the next one is going to be like. And yes, I did see those three variations in the same place in China and so whilst 'unusual' it's authentic.

 

2. Each of my ten freight trains is distinctive and different - either they are a distinct style e.g. loaded coal, empty coal, oil tanker train etc or if they are 'mixed freights' each will have a unique set of four or five or six freight cars directly behind the loco and so each train is distinctive and stands out (hopefully).

[298]

One compromise I've had to do is actually finish things, instead of waiting for the off chance that a decisive photo of a loco might appear instead of working from one blurry end shot or another with the original logos patched over. 

 

I've also learnt that if you've modelled something obscure you need display boards to explain to the punters exactly what they are looking at, and even then for the one person who recognises it or has been there they'll be ten telling you something different or distracting you by saying how your 2'10" gauge Patagonian third rail Interurban relates to how many Triang Brake vans they have...

[BR60103]

Almost half a century ago, one of our club built a layout called Camelot, which was located west of Land's End.  He had a lot of documentation up about it. At least one person was heard saying that they didn't realise that England went on beyond Cornwall.

 

[Suzie]

Any service that is fewer than two trains a minute will result in comments like "nothing going on here"

 

With a club layout there is a constant battle between the "Shunters" that want to leave a couple of wagons on the main for half an hour while they shunt, and the few of us "Exhibitors" who want to put on a show.

 

Service frequency, and the infrastructure to allow it (like being able to change the points seperately at each end of the fiddle yard) are key to putting on a show.

 

As much as I love to see a whole load of near identical trains with subtle differences this is for an operating session and not for the exhibition where the customers are going to want to see variety that reflects maybe a whole decade of operation!

[BachelorBoy]

4 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Almost half a century ago, one of our club built a layout called Camelot, which was located west of Land's End.  He had a lot of documentation up about it. At least one person was heard saying that they didn't realise that England went on beyond Cornwall.

 

Was that a Scilly comment?

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by BachelorBoy

[Chris M]

The biggest and to my mind most unsatisfactory "tweak" compared to reality is that so many layouts are so obviously track laid on a flat baseboard with scenery built around it. Sad to say a lot of exquisitely modelled  finescale layouts suffer from this problem. Surely by now all layouts should be built using open baseboards with land levels being both above and below track height.

 

Having said that I look forward to seeing Beijiao once again at the NEC in November. It is a well modelled, realistic layout with plenty of trains and entertainment. I have never been to China and your illuminated interiors are fine by me because I don't know any better. I do not like to see modern British trains with illuminated interiors. They look so wrong to me because, having seen loads of them on the big railway, I know you just can't see the interiors at all on modern trains during the daylight hours. Likewise diesel layouts based before the headlamp era - in reality you just didn't notice the rather dim marker lights during the hours of daylight. Yes the general public do like to see illuminated stock but I'm afraid I find it more train set than serious model railway and for me it is a tweak too far.

 

One tweak from reality that is caused by layout builders taking no action is not weathering stock. Pristine stock straight out of the box just looks so "plastic" that it ruins any semblance of realism - one or two clean items might be ok but really most stock should be gently weathered. 

 

Layouts running a much higher frequency of trains than they should are a very important and good tweak. Likewise a little branch that uses more than one loco is quite a big tweak but nevertheless important for entertainment. 

 

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

2 minutes ago, Chris M said:

Likewise a little branch that uses more than one loco is quite a big tweak but nevertheless important for entertainment. 

Again, I couldn't agree more.