What season do you model?

[Black Sheep]

Baseboard construction is coming on steady but nicely and my thoughts are turning to what I should do scenery wise.

 

I've seen some really nice autumn trees that Bachman produce which has turned my thoughts from doing spring, which means re-photographing for my backscene - which isn't much of a problem as it's only a short walk from my in-law's house.

 

but I also keep thinking it'd be fun to do snow...

 

 

so, what season is your layout set and why?

 

and just to be awkward what would you like to model but what stopped you?

 

for me I don't want to weather my rolling stock for winter

[Torn-on-the-platform]

I would keep away from winter for the same reason. Once you've put fake snow on your stock there's probably no going back! It means you can't really use the same stock again for future layouts, though of course, winter doesn't always mean snow!

 

My own choice is a little more difficult though. My future layout will almost certainly be a preserved railway. Gala's tend to happen in the Spring and Autumn with a more Touristy 2/3 train operation through the summer, meaning that for operational interest, Spring or Autumn would be far more interesting. Also, as preserved railways don't tend to operate late into the evening, operational station lighting would be a little pointless in a summer scene, and this would be something that I want to incorporate.

 

An interesting question, and one that I hadn't thought about in much depth, other than the snow problem!

[Will Vale]

Late summer for me - I like the big flowering weeds I'd seen in pictures of the prototype and I wanted them on the layout. Lots of contrasts between new and old growth still. I haven't been too draconian about it - if I wanted the visual impact of a particular flower or plant and it's flowering season wasn't too far wrong, I let it grow

 

The one thing I had to give up on was a beet clamp, since the harvest was too late in the year to model.

 

Will

 

 

[Kris]

I seem to have ended up modelling mid summer, mainly because most of the water ran out of the river when it was poured in.

[Re6/6]

Mid spring season for me. This gives a very large variety of greens. If you look around now you will see all the very different shades. Also you have the opportunity to model some blossom if you like a little subtle colouration.

 

Snap ctsy of David Brandreth.

[pirouets]

I am thinking that my layout will be early Autumn, with a mix of tree's and bushes in various shades between green and brown. Trees and bushes I don;t see as being to much of an issue, I think I will face a challange around the farm court yard area and the flower beds and bushes there.

 

Still along way to go though as I am in the Modroc phase at the moment.

[James]

Botanic Gardens will be set in Winter but no snow!!!

 

We've decided on this to be a little different - the lack of leaves on the trees and a cold weathering pallete should help create the feel we want. Backed up with suitable cool lighting the effect should be nice and subtle.

[coachmann]

Who goes out in Winter? Autumn is sad when the leaves are turning and the prospect of 7 months of winter are looming! Summer can be naff when a dry spell had turned the leaves to dark green and the grass to scorched earth.

 

So for me it has to be spring when everything in nature is brandnew, bright and uplifting.

[Black Sheep]

Mid spring season for me. This gives a very large variety of greens. If you look around now you will see all the very different shades. Also you have the opportunity to model some blossom if you like a little subtle colouration.

 

 

 

I was going to go for spring as I really like the lush greens that you see when you stand on top of a hill and just look down at a lush green peak district (where my layout is set) and so I braved a field of sheep two weeks ago to photograph for my backscene - which will now look wrong if I go with autumn!

 

Also thinking that with autumn I could always sprinkle cream of tartar on the layout for some cheap snow and just vacuum it off after

 

I am thinking that my layout will be early Autumn, with a mix of tree's and bushes in various shades between green and brown. Trees and bushes I don;t see as being to much of an issue, I think I will face a challange around the farm court yard area and the flower beds and bushes there.

 

Still along way to go though as I am in the Modroc phase at the moment.

 

I've not got as far as the modroc phase yet

 

Who goes out in Winter? Autumn is sad when the leaves are turning and the prospect of 7 months of winter are looming! Summer can be naff when a dry spell had turned the leaves to dark green and the grass to scorched earth.

 

So for me it has to be spring when everything in nature is brandnew, bright and uplifting.

 

 

 

I go out in the winter, I love the colours of autumn

 

 

 

I would keep away from winter for the same reason. Once you've put fake snow on your stock there's probably no going back! It means you can't really use the same stock again for future layouts, though of course, winter doesn't always mean snow!

 

My own choice is a little more difficult though. My future layout will almost certainly be a preserved railway. Gala's tend to happen in the Spring and Autumn with a more Touristy 2/3 train operation through the summer, meaning that for operational interest, Spring or Autumn would be far more interesting. Also, as preserved railways don't tend to operate late into the evening, operational station lighting would be a little pointless in a summer scene, and this would be something that I want to incorporate.

 

An interesting question, and one that I hadn't thought about in much depth, other than the snow problem!

 

so a lush green spring and the station with lots of bunting strung across it would make a nice and pleasant change from just another station?

['CHARD]

This is an extremely tough call for me these days. Previous layouts have always been set (or aspired to - never being anything near finished) in the long hot summer of seventy-six, last summer of the Westerns. A year that has extremely happy childhood memories, although too young to enjoy or appreciate the final 52s properly.

 

By association I always plan a model around summer's tones, and the palette for Teviotbank will be no different - it's just all bagged-up in Woodland Scenics poly bags at present! However, in due course I want to recreate specific trains that ran in the last four weeks of the line's existence 6th December '68 - 5th January '69, when sharp frosts and a dusting of snow were the order of the day

 

Perhaps I'll create a separate cameo for that, or just use B&W photo trickery...

[James]

Summer can be naff when a dry spell had turned the leaves to dark green and the grass to scorched earth.

To be that sort of summer would mean lovely dry, hard cricket pitches with turn and bounce and a lovely fast outfield which suits my style of batting with plenty of balls driven along the ground

[Theakerr]

Spring because that is the time of wild snowdrops and daffodils (Wordsworth) and my most pleasant memories of growing up in England. It is also the time I like the best here in Canada. Now if only I could figure out how to plant the new crops just as they are breaking through the earth! The period i am modelling is 1955/65 so all seedlings would have to appear in machine laid rows etc.

[coachmann]

To be that sort of summer would mean lovely dry, hard cricket pitches with turn and bounce and a lovely fast outfield which suits my style of batting with plenty of balls driven along the ground

Sounds good to me James. Amid the silence of a 1950's Saturday afternoon at a suburban cricket ground, the plock of someone hitting the ball, followed by discreet clapping if someone had scored!

[HLT 0109]

My loft layout has over fifty feet of backscene (four sides of the enclosure) and I am hoping to give a glimpse of each season as the trains travel round. To the right of the entrance to the "train room" my son has painted daffodils on the backscene - clearly early spring - and this is where my livestock farm will be situated so no problems there. As the train takes the first bend to the left we approach the seaside so that has to be summer (it is North Yorkshire after all), Then we cross the river estuary and entre the tunnel - purple heather on the moors so now it is autumn - early autumn though as the trees are still green. Exit the tunnel round the corner and we pass the marshalling yard where the season isn't too apparent from the baseboards but the backscene is probably a bit too green as we get further into autumn. Round the next bend as we pass the shed area and industries - getting into late autumn but more in the mind than visible. There is then a scenic break caused by the rafters and the main line turns left again but there is an offshoot into the terminus where the backscene is yet to be started. I plan that this will be winter but without snow - just a wet and miserable urban scene. Now we are back at the train room entrance which serves as a break between winter and spring.

[devondynosoar118]

Early- mid autumn on mine. Go for a different season, spring or summer is all very well but it never hurts to be different. Model your favourite season, you are going to spend plenty of time creating and looking at it.

[Black Sheep]

HLT, I appreciate you want to avoid a blanket of snow, but some clumps of snow here and there not yet melted might add a bit of interest and set the season firmly (unless there is a car with a christmas tree strapped to the roof rack )

 

 

I'm thinking to do the ground as though it is very late summer, so worn / not so lush grass and then sprinkle a little bit of brown / copper scenic on the ground near trees to give the look of leaves falling and the same in the yard and streets.

[Job's Modelling]

I'm modelling late summer / early autumn.

I have been a member of Fremo for many years and because we build modules we had appointments of the saison to model in.

Not only the season is important, also where your layout is located.

In an industrial environment you will find a other type of ground and plants.

Also the lighting above your layout will effect atmosphere of your layout.

[Rugd1022]

I've never actually got as far as having to do anything about it, but the look and feel of the scenery on all the layouts I've imagined building are a very large part of what makes me want to build one in the first place. The location and time period would play a large part in it.....

 

If I were going ahead with any of the Western Region schemes they would be very time specific anyway, and there are some quite subtle differences - the Summer of '76 has been mentioned already and would probably be very easy to do convincingly, Westerns with '0000' in their headcode boxes, dry yellow grass everywhere etc, but one very specific period I'd love to do is the early part of 1974 when BR were getting stuck in to renumber the loco fleet into the new fangled Tops style. On the WR, February and March '74 saw lots of locos being renumbered at depots with plenty of others still running round with their original four digit numbers, and modelling this convincingly would mean getting the backdrop foliage (or lack of) just right, with much of it looking pretty grim, even in the normally 'pretty' areas of the Region.

 

Another 'grand plan' I'd love to make happen would be based roughly on Doncaster in 1971, and whenever I picture it in my mind's eye it looks quite bleak, on both dies of the railway fence.

 

Has anyone noticed how grim most trees and bushes look without their leaves in the depths of Winter...?This is something I'd love to try one day.

 

[James]

Sounds good to me James. Amid the silence of a 1950's Saturday afternoon at a suburban cricket ground, the plock of someone hitting the ball, followed by discreet clapping if someone had scored!

It's a very civilised way to spend afternoons and evenings

 

I like the word 'plock' - perfect way to describe the sound!

[mwrosebury2000]

I am going to go for late April through to late Aug, I feel that would give me the chance to chage little thing on my layout, from summer fairs to having special steam days on those long bank holiday weekends (my layout is modern, but i'm hoping to put a preserved line in too) oh and I might even throw in a summer rock festival as well.

 

Mark

[The Q]

Your topic has made me think somewhat! I had originally planned on modelling high summer, when the troops came to exercise on Salisbury plain. However as I moved the date forward to May/June 1940, that was a particularly dull, wet and overcast period, So things should be a bit greener and it would be interesting to model a wet platform which is part ballast part paved(and everything else wet as well).

The Q

[Tim V]

I am actually concentrating on May the 1st. It's an arbitrary date, as the seasons have shifted since the early 50s, but it's useful to fix on one date and go out with the camera on that date every year and look at the plants and trees. Then match the layout to those. So you won't have plants that weren't together at the same time.

[Coombe Barton]

If anyone's searching for historical weather information, this site's good - http://booty.org.uk/.../histclimat.htm

 

And temperature data - Hadley Centre - http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/download.html

[14Steve14]

I once designed and started to build a layout in 12 sections. Each section depicted a different month of the year. It was a good idea, but looked horrible so scrapped it and started again. Maybee on a large layout it would look better.

[Black Sheep]

To do a season to a section you'd need scenic breaks between them or it won't work

 

I don't think a road bridge would be enough, a tunnel and a subtle change in scenery over the top might do it.