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

[009 micro modeller]

8 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

A railway line next to an airfield, with an unexpected landing, on the railway line.

 

 

What about a runway level crossing?

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rail-run-way-crossing.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
 

https://unusualplaces.org/gisborne-airport-runway-with-a-railway-crossing/

[PaulRhB]

8 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

A railway line next to an airfield, with an unexpected landing, on the railway line.

 

 

Tarrant valley 009, ok it’s only the tail fin visible 😄

 

[TheQ]

On 08/10/2023 at 16:26, 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'm working on it..

Well several of them ...

 

The first N gauge was a model railway I inherited , it's now on 3 solid sided 4 wheel trolleys  due to its weight, with a lift up lighting rig that drops down over the layout during transport. All painted in the olive green of Highland Railways. The solution was only possible because I have a trailer ...

 

The second, is a light weight H0e layout where its protective case is formed of flaps on hinges they when dropped, will be  painted and have the layout name on them .

Since the layouts name is Decoville, the lettering will be in an Art Deco style.

Since it's a French based layout it's likely the background colour will be light blue.

 

3,4,5,6 radar stations, 1942, 1958, 1981, 2023, all of RAF Neatishead 1/1000, scale, all are key dates in its history. No railways involved, 1942, 1958 are completed, 1981 when I was there, is under construction. All are on matching size and colour base boards and legs. 

I've no doubt I'll go back to the begining to revise some bits, as modelling in 1/1000 is somewhat tricky..

 

[PaulRhB]

On 08/10/2023 at 16:26, 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.

Tottenhoe Minerals did something different in a theatre style presentation, I think the main problem is you’re not going to get consistency between layouts to look anything like a gallery especially in a classroom or sports hall with all their visual clutter.
😗 Curtains at least hide most of the inevitable crates, boxes, hairy legs etc and are a lightweight solution to tidying things up a bit. I’d love to do something more but you always run into the problem of transporting it. There are some great home layouts with the lighting and fascia looking like a professional museum or gallery display but you’d need an artic to transport them to shows. 
 

 

If we went full on gallery style it’d probably look something like this,

 

And be called ‘Waterloo Dreams’ 

 

😉

[Dunalastair]

9 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

A railway line next to an airfield, with an unexpected landing, on the railway line.

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MrTimDunn/status/1181832025520705536

 

[TheQ]

At least the pilot was careful to miss the overhead

[Barry O]

16 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! 

Leeds Exhibition in the Corn exchange.. 

 

Thursday 10 till 9pm

Friday 10am till 9pm

Saturday 10am till 9pm 

 

In those days Sunday opening was verboten!

 

Baz

[Barry O]

There was an American arrow gauge layout which was all tones of brown/orange.

 

Another American layout was presented like a wild west building complete with thunder and lightning affects.

 

Both were interesting and very different. 

 

Baz

[Chris M]

11 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Leeds Exhibition in the Corn exchange.. 

 

Thursday 10 till 9pm

Friday 10am till 9pm

Saturday 10am till 9pm 

 

In those days Sunday opening was verboten!

 

Baz

The Warley show has always opened on a Sunday. Way back in the 1970s we decided to invite the local mayor (of Sandwell) to our exhibition on the Sunday. Our logic was that council officials were unlikely to do anyone for Sunday trading in front of their mayor. We never had any problem so it must have worked.

Inviting the mayor became more of issue when we moved to the NEC. We couldn't invite the mayor of Sandwell to an event on "foreign" territory so, in order to remain technically correct and follow protocol, we invited the mayor of Solihull as well. The NEC is in fact in Solihull and not Birmingham. Also back in those days the NEC was owned by Birmingham Council so in order to remain correct we had to invite the mayor of Birmingham as well. That's a lot of mayors, and they all decided to come!

Edited October 10, 2023 by Chris M

[Dave Hunt]

There’s an enormous and excellent HO layout in the basement of the museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, one room of which depicts a desert scene that gradually goes from day into night and vice versa. It is very effective and it may be possible to do something similar on an enclosed layout with just an open frontage.
 

There is an enclosed 2mm layout that I saw at Stafford that can be displayed as day or night.

 

Dave

Edited October 10, 2023 by Dave Hunt

[TheQ]

19 minutes ago, Barry O said:

There was an American arrow gauge layout which was all tones of brown/orange.

 

Another American layout was presented like a wild west building complete with thunder and lightning affects.

 

Both were interesting and very different. 

 

Baz

Thunder mountain? We had that at our show, darned annoying if your layout was close by. Too noisy.

 

[figworthy]

10 hours ago, Barry O said:

Leeds Exhibition in the Corn exchange.. 

 

Thursday 10 till 9pm

Friday 10am till 9pm

Saturday 10am till 9pm 

 

In those days Sunday opening was verboten!

 

Baz

 

I remember evening visits to the Corn Exchange exhibitions when I were a lad.

 

Adrian

[Clive Mortimore]

10 hours ago, TheQ said:

At least the pilot was careful to miss the overhead

And the OLE portals and contact wire are lower than standard as not to trip up planes when landing and taking off.

 

For many years Southend Airport had installed a preventative measure, two Belfast cargo planes between the end of the runway and the railway, I wonder if they are still there?

 

As for something to see on an exhibition layout? Layouts with shiny happy people, not grumpy old men who can't get their club DCC layout to work.

Can't go wrong with Kate Pierson singing along.

 

[Merfyn Jones]

On 08/10/2023 at 08:10, 009 micro modeller said:

Similarly, some DMUs on the St Albans Abbey line apparently used to display various incorrect destinations, including Rock Ferry and Aberystwyth!

Reminds me of a EMU at Leeds showing 'Dovey Jct.'

[009 micro modeller]

7 hours ago, Merfyn Jones said:

Reminds me of a EMU at Leeds showing 'Dovey Jct.'

An EMU? They can’t even get there.

[PaulRhB]

10 hours ago, Merfyn Jones said:

Reminds me of a EMU at Leeds showing 'Dovey Jct.'

The software being written for various operators drivers often find it amusing to punch in random codes to see where they are. You often see units on depot displaying the latest they’ve found 😉

[ELTEL]

On 05/10/2023 at 20:46, Dave Hunt said:

On Bob Essery's Dewsbury we used to change engines in the station. I've also seen a slip coach modelled but can't recall what the layout was called.

 

Dave

Evercreech Junction a wonderful layout that was about in the 1970s / 1980s had a slip coach feature 

 

Terry 

[BluenGreyAnorak]

I've always thought that operating brakes on rolling stock would be a nice touch so that buffering up doesn't result in the stock moving. I'm sure it's technically possible to do but probably impractical at any sort of scale.

[Clive Mortimore]

47 minutes ago, BluenGreyAnorak said:

I've always thought that operating brakes on rolling stock would be a nice touch so that buffering up doesn't result in the stock moving. I'm sure it's technically possible to do but probably impractical at any sort of scale.

I have seen it done on a P4 layout. The "brakes" were operated by memory wire and small springs. The wagons parked on a section of track that could be isolated, power off the wire would expand and the springs apply the brake pads to the wagon axles. To move the wagons the loco would couple up, the section made live so when electrical power applied to the track the memory wire would contract, over coming the springs and releasing the brakes.

 

I had planned a layout based on the NBC's Harton electric system where gravity shunting was a feature. I was going to use a memory wire system to control the brakes on the wagons as they descended.

 

Edit, see http://www.clag.org.uk/memory-brake.html

Edited October 12, 2023 by Clive Mortimore

[BluenGreyAnorak]

Sounds ingenious. The ultimate solution would be an on-board mechanism, probably DCC activated, that would enable brakes to be applied anywhere. As I say though, almost certainly impractical as anything other than a one-off. Although I guess it could work for brake vans...

[009 micro modeller]

7 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

The software being written for various operators drivers often find it amusing to punch in random codes to see where they are. You often see units on depot displaying the latest they’ve found 😉

Even before electronic destination boards, didn’t some of the class 319s originally have Dunstable as a destination on the roller blinds in case the line to there was reopened?

[TheQ]

How about a level crossing under a bridge?

Yep there is one.

In East Dereham on the A1075 at the Mid Norfolk railway..

[009 micro modeller]

Apparently it’s been done here, but has anyone else done a sprung point? And anyway, on Roundtree (as linked above) I think it’s for operational reasons rather than replicating a prototype location that had one.

[6990WitherslackHall]

On 10/10/2023 at 00:34, KeithMacdonald said:

A railway line next to an airfield, with an unexpected landing, on the railway line.

 I had that on my very first "layout". 

 

There was an airfield and it had a metal Spitfire on it with wheels up to represent a emergency landing. Unfortunately I don't have any photos as it was a long time ago!

[Dagworth]

1 hour ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Apparently it’s been done here, but has anyone else done a sprung point? And anyway, on Roundtree (as linked above) I think it’s for operational reasons rather than replicating a prototype location that had one.

Yes, there are two on Ipswich. Ok they are done with a biased switch that operates the servo controlling the point but like the real thing you do have to keep holding the switch while the loco crosses the point or you will end up with an “earth fault” 

 

I hated pulling the lever on the real points when I was a secondman at Ipswich in the 80s, knowing that if you let go then the loco would be off the rails. It’s purely because of that memory that I have incorporated it into the layout. 
 

Andi

Edited October 12, 2023 by Dagworth