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When does a trainset become a model railway - what's your criteria?


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47 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

How many are going to admit to wanting to be a train driver when they grow up?

Nah.  Maybe I'm an anomaly but outside of building a model railway I have no interest in trains. I used them back in the 80s to get home from Polytechnic a couple of times a year and around 2014 I spent 14 months commuting between Banbury and Birmingham but never particularly enjoyed it since it wasted 90 minutes of my week day and prevented me playing golf in the evening.

 

My layout is a way to channel my creative urges and keep my technical brain interested but the rails and rolling stock are little more than a way to animate a diorama.

Edited by AndrueC
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10 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

Nah.  Maybe I'm an anomaly but outside of building a model railway I have no interest in trains. I used them back in the 80s to get home from Polytechnic a couple of times a year and around 2014 I spent 14 months commuting between Banbury and Birmingham but never particularly enjoyed it since it wasted 90 minutes of my week day and prevented me playing golf in the evening.

 

My layout is a way to channel my creative urges and keep my technical brain interested but the rails and rolling stock are little more than a way to animate a diorama.

I much the same as you, except I enjoy the research side of modelling, but have no real interest in full-size railways beyond a cursory glance..

 

However, I do appreciate those who do, and recorded the current scene, and recorded the past railway scenes

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1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

All right then. 

How many are going to admit to wanting to be a train driver when they grow up?

 

Not counting those whose day job is already driving trains!

 

Not really, as it was all stinky diesels and boring electrics to me when I was a child!

 

Wanted to be a fighter pilot until I was about eleven then a Rock Star! Partially managed the latter, albeit not exactly a "star"....

 

There also wasn't that many jobs as spacemen going unfortunately.

 

Did end up driving trains in preservation as a volunteer though. If I could afford the big ones then I probably wouldn't be buying the small ones!

 

 

Jason

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5 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

All right then. 

How many are going to admit to wanting to be a train driver when they grow up?

 

Not counting those whose day job is already driving trains!

 

3 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Not really, as it was all stinky diesels and boring electrics to me when I was a child!

 

Wanted to be a fighter pilot until I was about eleven then a Rock Star! Partially managed the latter, albeit not exactly a "star"....

 

There also wasn't that many jobs as spacemen going unfortunately.

 

Did end up driving trains in preservation as a volunteer though. If I could afford the big ones then I probably wouldn't be buying the small ones!

 

 

Jason

I kind of did both, I was a train driver for several years before I went to work in the entertainment industry as a lighting engineer so while not a rock star I do now make my living from concerts.

 

Andi

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10 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Nah.  Maybe I'm an anomaly but outside of building a model railway I have no interest in trains. I used them back in the 80s to get home from Polytechnic a couple of times a year and around 2014 I spent 14 months commuting between Banbury and Birmingham but never particularly enjoyed it since it wasted 90 minutes of my week day and prevented me playing golf in the evening.

 

My layout is a way to channel my creative urges and keep my technical brain interested but the rails and rolling stock are little more than a way to animate a diorama.

Is that no interest in trains or no contact with trains. It was many years ago when I could last afford to ride on trains, 1980s.   Promised myself  trip from Exeter to Okehampton or vice versa for a treat but has not happened yet. Taken hundreds of photos but the stress of being at exactly the right spot at precisely the right time to catch one of the  filthy swaying rattleboxes does not appeal.    That said the London Underground is like a working Museum of Victorian deprivation with genuine 1890s brickwork, probably even paint work in places and centuries of brake dust grime billows through the detritus encrusted labyrinth encrusting the proletariat in toxic filth as they scurry around  far from the warm glow of daylight like something out of a JK Tolkin novel   and squeeze willingly into spaces the average Battery Chicken would not tolerate in the search for Net Zero while the even as they endeavour to put off the awful moment when Old Father Thames reclaims the labyrinth as his tides climb ever higher so the environmental activist elite fly over the deserted car free streets as they travel between their various summer winter and autumn mansions in  their Helicopters.  

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11 minutes ago, DCB said:

That said the London Underground is like a working Museum of Victorian deprivation with genuine 1890s brickwork, probably even paint work in places and centuries of brake dust grime billows through the detritus encrusted labyrinth encrusting the proletariat in toxic filth as they scurry around  far from the warm glow of daylight like something out of a JK Tolkin novel   and squeeze willingly into spaces the average Battery Chicken would not tolerate in the search for Net Zero while the even as they endeavour to put off the awful moment when Old Father Thames reclaims the labyrinth as his tides climb ever higher so the environmental activist elite fly over the deserted car free streets as they travel between their various summer winter and autumn mansions in  their Helicopters.  

This should win an award as the longest sentence ever posted on RMweb!

 

Andi

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1 hour ago, DCB said:

That said the London Underground is like a working Museum of Victorian deprivation with genuine 1890s brickwork, probably even paint work in places and centuries of brake dust grime billows through the detritus encrusted labyrinth encrusting the proletariat in toxic filth

Perhaps they'll emerge from their subterranean lair and eat the rich? 'Won't be long now with the way things are going.

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It’s interesting that there are a few comments on here from those who have only a passing interest in real railways but enjoy the craft of model making and scenery construction. Personally I never had a train set but started with a few cast off oddments donated by school friends, perhaps a topic for a new thread. 

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Back to the topic .........................

 

Having spent some time thinking about this, I there may be three definitions

 

1. Train set

2. Model Railway

3. Model Railway Layout

 

A train set uses track and model trains, but has no defining style, no defining location, no defining period and no purpose other to entertain

 

A model railway is a railway in model form i.e. it has a defined period, a defined location and a purpose - to operate in the appropriate manner. The operators 'operate' as if it were a real railway.

 

A model railway layout is a half-way house between those two extremes. My project is a 'model railway layout' insofar as it has a defined location, it has a defined period, but, most importantly, it is merely an authentic backdrop (diorama if you like) for trains of the appropriate type and period to run through. At an exhibition, people stand in front of my 20ft scenic section and a series of 15 different trains run through the scene non-stop - technically, that is not a model railway by my definition.

 

My model is 'foreign' and so some years ago I contacted Model Railroader to offer them the layout for publication and they basically said that it was not the kind of thing that they (and most Americans) consider a model railway - it was simply a 20ft scene through which trains are displayed, whereas their American readers were interested in layouts that operate in a realistic manner.

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Just to add to the confusion/debate (and the similar point about narrow gauge vs miniature made earlier):

 

2B10B7E7-F8CE-45A3-8D66-97162603FFAE.jpeg.f01ae1e864e534a58caaf44ab4057110.jpeg


This is my model railway (or train set if you prefer). It is a 1:12 scale model of a train set (or model railway if you prefer). I don’t usually explain the various scales involved as that makes it even more confusing, including for me.

 

60CD1B90-7695-445F-98BF-6F0C7F957B22.jpeg.0c26077d058997b88d1daddc1ce6306f.jpeg

 

And this is a real industrial narrow gauge railway, but it runs entirely indoors, in a loop (OK, a balloon loop rather than continuous oval) and nowadays is used mostly for education and entertainment. And is 2ft gauge but operated with stock made by a company known for producing miniature railway equipment.

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5 hours ago, DCB said:

scurry around  far from the warm glow of daylight like something out of a JK Tolkin novel

 

I think you're getting your authors slightly mixed up there. I suspect you mean JRR Tolkein or JK Rowling. And it could be either, because you could be describing the habitat of both Gollum and goblins. 🙂

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6 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

My model is 'foreign' and so some years ago I contacted Model Railroader to offer them the layout for publication and they basically said that it was not the kind of thing that they (and most Americans) consider a model railway - it was simply a 20ft scene through which trains are displayed, whereas their American readers were interested in layouts that operate in a realistic manner.

I have lived in various places in the US but have no real interest in contemporary US railways, whether full size or in model form. The urban settings I have seen seem to have freight trains that are either stationary or just crawling along.  Some while ago when researching a suitable roundy layout for On30 I realized that US layouts basically have a series of private sidings.  Operation is largely shunting boxcars around the sidings.....  Although I have seen large display layouts with trains continuously going round.  Also I don't understand the continuing popularity of Lionel 0 gauge three rail........

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Don't turn up your nose at the trainset!  It's purpose is for having fun.

As for a definition of when it stops being a trainset and starts being a model railway, I'd say that lies with how you view it.

However, I'd suggest that a good first step is getting it off the carpet!

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5 hours ago, MarkSG said:

 

I think you're getting your authors slightly mixed up there. I suspect you mean JRR Tolkein or JK Rowling. And it could be either, because you could be describing the habitat of both Gollum and goblins. 🙂


Or both?

Edited by 009 micro modeller
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9 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

... a model railway begins when a modeller sees the light and moves on to EM, P4 or whatever.

 

No, that's the equivalent of a 60s radical getting their first copy of Maos Little Red Book....

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