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Things that you've never seen on an exhibition layout but would love to see happen?


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On 05/10/2023 at 21:01, OnTheBranchline said:

You could what would be really cool? On a modern image layout with various diesels but have a static lorry with a trailer pulling a steam loco (as in transporting to a heritage railway) on the road besides the railway.

Thus.

Due to a misunderstanding, this 3ft gauge Isle of Man loco is being delivered to a standard gauge shed.

IMG_1767.JPG

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1 minute ago, Tim Hall said:

Thus.

Due to a misunderstanding, this 3ft gauge Isle of Man loco is being delivered to a standard gauge shed.

IMG_1767.JPG

 

Like the orange liveried Cardiff double decker 😁

 

Trouble is I remember the earlier liveries that I travelled to school on!

 

Dave

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Dc layouts with banking engines in use... Leeds Victoria (1978), Shap @LNER4479, Wentworth Junction @Michael Edge.

 

Loding coal wagons in OO.. Cwmavon @Michael Edge which also has a working coal tippler and a gravity shunting yard.

 

Replay Road (Oxford MRC) had a working wagon turntable and shunting horse.

 

Grantham @LNER4479 has scheduled loco changes.. just like the real thing....

 

What I like to see are layouts which are operated with a purpose.. not just shunting wagons for the sake of it  but to set up trains for despatch elsewhere. 

 

And yes @Chris M I prefer layouts which are not inhabited by bright shiny RTR offerings.. a little bit of weathering makes them so much better.

 

Baz

Edited by Barry O
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5 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

When I were a little un, I remember a Comic that had a boy named General Jumbo who had Radio Controlled Military stuff operated from a sort of Wrist Watch gismo. All very gung ho and 50s post War sort of thing, but hugely imaginative in what was still a rather Clockwork age

 

He always wore a peaked cap...

 

The figures were also "Action Man" sized, so some work would be needed to reduce them to 7mm, let alone 4mm scale!

 

Just googled it, the General Jumbo stories appeared in the Beano.

 

Beano1069.jpg.ff2ca26198e28f24c5dac916ec4b6f24.jpg

 

All a bit fanciful!  🙂

 

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Really sharp presentation, gallery quality or something outlandishly quirky. Anything other than curtains round the front; I've seen some in the past where it looks like their nan's bedroom is missing its drapes.

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TBH I was a bit confused when I first read the topic heading.

 

When I read "What would you like to see at an exhibition, but have never seen happen?" I must admit that the first thing that jumped into my head was "My layout run faultlessly!" but I soon realised that I had misunderstood the question. 🤔

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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1 hour ago, Neil said:

Really sharp presentation, gallery quality or something outlandishly quirky. Anything other than curtains round the front; I've seen some in the past where it looks like their nan's bedroom is missing its drapes.


I have had a little go at encased presentation with a picture frame around the front (and this was itself inspired by other, better layouts I’d seen that had done the same). I did think it might be interesting to do a series of micro layouts (and, unlike modular schemes, for this concept they wouldn’t have to be related, or the same baseboard size, or even in the same scale) that are all designed to be displayed in this way and are then placed behind a false wall (perhaps with actual wallpaper etc. to really go with the idea) so that you look through the picture frames to see the various layouts). Automatic operation would really help here because then instead of actually operating each layout in turn you could just talk to visitors while they all operate, and it would be like looking at a load of old railway photographs displayed on a wall, except they’re moving and 3-dimensional. To make it really good the false wall could form part of a mini set with a full-sized table and chairs, where you serve a cup of tea to visitors and then (in character as a fictitious famous railway photographer, naturally) tell them all about your experiences photographing the scenes depicted. And now perhaps I’m getting a little bit carried away…

 

More practically, I have sometimes thought about viewing angles. For some micro layouts you sometimes want to restrict these in quite a specific way and I wonder if designing it so that visitors view the layout by sitting in a chair a certain distance from the layout would work. This would also avoid some of the problems with ‘eye-level view’ layouts, which are sometimes done for similar reasons but are hard to see except for tall standing people.

 

I’d be interested to know what you see as the key features of gallery quality presentation. I have helped to de-install a temporary art exhibition (though admittedly in a historic building, not a purpose-built gallery) and a lot of the plinths etc. used to display 3-dimensional objects are constructed from plywood or similar in a way that might be familiar to railway modellers, though often it’s the lighting and the quality of the interpretation panels that stands out, something where I think it helps to know exactly what the display space is like beforehand (which doesn’t really apply to most exhibition layouts).

 

Wasn’t there a layout that was displayed inside a dark tent to completely control light levels?

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23 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Wasn’t there a layout that was displayed inside a dark tent to completely control light levels?


Im sure there was a layout depicting the Great Train Robbery in a tent like that.  To be fair, it was more than just a layout  it was an informative display.  There was an odd shaped narrow gauge one too, although I think the black drapes were as much to control the viewpoints as much as the lighting.  Very popular on the circuit at one time, so popular in fact, that I’ve forgotten its name.

Edited by BoD
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22 minutes ago, BoD said:


Im sure there was a layout depicting the Great Train Robbery in a tent like that.  To be fair, it was more than just a layout  but an informative display.  There was an odd shaped narrow gauge one too. Very popular on the circuit at one time, so popular in fact, that I’ve forgotten it’s name.


I know there was a more recent Great Train Robbery display in 0 gauge but presumably it’s not that as I don’t think that one was displayed in that way. Was the Spanish layout at Pecorama (or a similar one built by the same people) originally designed to be displayed in this way?

 

Not sure about the narrow gauge one, although that has reminded me of the forced perspective layout I saw a few years ago featuring a narrow gauge railcar moving away through the mountains and using moving trains as well as scenery in various scales.

Edited by 009 micro modeller
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3 hours ago, Neil said:

Really sharp presentation, gallery quality or something outlandishly quirky. Anything other than curtains round the front; I've seen some in the past where it looks like their nan's bedroom is missing its drapes.

There is a chap who has made  his layout surround look like a Western - that's quite quirky. I wish I had taken a photo.

Edited by Chris M
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Things that you've never seen on an exhibition layout but would love to see happen?

I was going to be completely facetious and disrespectful and answer the OP question with "Trains running".....

But I already won the "open wide & insert both feet" contest at the Cradley Heath Show yesterday, when I stood in front of Mike Bragg's "Hookton Riverside" layout and stated that there was nothing moving - just after one of his locos had suffered a Kadee coupler failure - the whole knuckle had snapped off the shank. D'oh!! Talk about bad timing 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️even if commenting about nothing moving is something of a good natured running joke & banter between Mike & I. Sorry Mike!!  😳

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10 hours ago, Chris M said:

Some of the smaller shows that I have been to this year have not been great; I'm thinking of not bothering with smaller shows at all in future. GETS at £15 will be far better value than a small show at £5.

I came to a similar conclusion pre 2020. Having said that there are some excellent small one day shows that have a really good selection, usually with a finescale element.  Define Modellers day at Ripley and Larkrail are two that spring to mind, there are undoubtedly others. 
 

 

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1 hour ago, Tim Hall said:

Destination Gabalfa...

In  my case Number 46 from Rumney to West Grove  - Fitzalan Technical High School was in Howard Gardens. The year I entered form 5 it moved to Leckwith.

 

Dave

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10 hours ago, Danemouth said:

In  my case Number 46 from Rumney to West Grove  - Fitzalan Technical High School was in Howard Gardens. The year I entered form 5 it moved to Leckwith.

 

Dave

I have a driving pupil who lives in the newish halls of residence in Howard Gardens.....

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How about a Travelling Post Office, that sets down and picks up mailbags in motion???

Or a livestock wagon carrying a giraffe whose head goes down when it approaches a bridge???

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On 05/10/2023 at 20:29, KeithMacdonald said:

Burnham-On-Sea railway station.

With the lifeboat that was launched down the railway track along the pier.

https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/burnham-based-history-group-announces-programme-of-talks-for-coming-year/

That was done many years ago in 2mm finescale, by the late Denys Brownlee:  Burnham on Sea  and is now in new ownership:  Shepton MRS

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3 hours ago, Chris M said:

How about bringing back early 1970s exhibition opening times? Many shows were 10am to 9pm Saturday and 10am to 6pm Sunday. Eleven hours running a layout would have been one hell of a shift! 

 

And don't forget 5-10pm on Friday night........

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