Wow Factor

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Don't forget, we are talking about the cream of the crop here. Many different layouts have been mentioned, the vast majority of them being excellent, high-quality layouts most of us would be proud to call our own. But I stand by my comment that very few layouts are truly exception with that wow-factor. As with life where there is always someone better looking, richer and more successful than you, so will there be one or two layouts that are better than the rest; a fact of life we should celebrate and thank ourselves we have the privilege to enjoy. That, for me, is what this thread is about.

[Talltim]

I don't think it is about quality (as that is in the eye of the beholder), I don't even think it is even about gimmicks (as they can give a biased view). It is something that just clicks when everything comes together, whether intentional or not. Like listening to "Jolene" at 33rpm....

Now I have to try that. How to do it without a recod player ...

 

Edit: well that was easier than I thought

[Iain Popplewell]

Thanks for that Talltim.I quite enjoyed that.Very nice.

 

Edit:You know if a lot of layouts adopted the same principle and ran the trains 33 45th's  slower they might be a lot more realistic.

 

    It also occurs to me that I'll no doubt have the refrain of Jolene running through my head for the rest of the day now...Might get a bit aggravating.

[298]

Now I have to try that. How to do it without a recod player ...

Edit: well that was easier than I thought

Sorry, I forgot to mention it was on YouTube.

 

I showed that clip to our 5yr old, and he he thought the orange spinning thing was a DVD...

[clecklewyke]

 

 

Another (I think at the wakefield show 2012) a Finescale layout of a pre-forth bridge, firth of forth dock scene,

 

Burntisland? If so, yes - Wow!

[tetsudofan]

There's so many, Bridport Town, Chee Tor, Rowlands Castle, Shades of the Harz, Exebridge Quay (edit thanks to Mickey as I only got the name half right!), Glenuig, Disentis, Filisur to name just a few as other names escape me at present. I've gone specially to shows to see many of these and not been disappointed by them, some I've been to see several times

 

Crikey, I've recently become the part-owner of one of the layouts mentioned above.......

 

The layout has not been seen on the exhibition circuit for a number of years but, hopefully, it will reappear next year, fingers crossed that all will go to plan!!

 

Keith

[br2975]

 

The wow factor for me is a layout that looks perfect.

 

Not perfect in that the modelling is amazing or the operation is to an exact timetable, but perfect in that it's exhibition standard.....

For me the 'WOW factor' is just that - the layout causes a reaction - but most of us are so reserved at shows we don't look at a layout and loudly proclaim 'WOW' we turn to the (usually) chap next to us and say quietly "now I like that, that's good...."

.

Personal tastes and modelling interests dictate that some modellers will pass an outstanding layout, because it doesn't fit in their area of interest, or the era they model.

.

Conversely, there are some layouts which are praised highly, and which I have found disappointing, for any number of reasons - but then they provide enjoyment and interest to other spectators.

 

e.g.

I have no interest in 2mm or 'N', but the first time I saw Hedges Hill Cutting it captivated me for any number of reasons.

.

Brian R

[bike2steam]

'The wow factor for me is a layout that looks perfect'.

 

That's fine, but what is 'perfect', there are layouts out there that to me are too clean, bare and tidy.

[coachmann]

'The wow factor for me is a layout that looks perfect'.

 

That's fine, but what is 'perfect', there are layouts out there that to me are too clean, bare and tidy.

Shucks, that locks out Greenfield then. I lift the track and Dyson it every Monday.....

[Ian J.]

'Perfect' is in the eye of the beholder. A 'perfect' model of a late 1960s British railway arguably should be dirty and grimy to be a reasonable representation of the era, so a definition of 'perfect' that means 'all clean and tidy' can only be 'wrong'.

[coachmann]

'Perfect' is in the eye of the beholder. A 'perfect' model of a late 1960s British railway arguably should be dirty and grimy to be a reasonable representation of the era, so a definition of 'perfect' that means 'all clean and tidy' can only be 'wrong'.

I agree....Weed strewn, abandoned, demolished, piles of bricks, station canopies missing, rails missing from crossover points and into one-time yards, minimum-maintenance locos, lamp bracket LH side of smokebox door (except S.Region), some unlined bleached maroon ex-Big four coaches and so-on. A picture of Britain in the 60's and 70's in fact as it attempted to wrench itself from industrial inertia and call it modernisation along the way.....

[trisonic]

You missed off Bombsites, Coach. Twenty years after the event - though by the 70’s most of the remaining  in London had become NCP car parks, of course...

 

Best, Pete.

[AngryMeerkat]

'The wow factor for me is a layout that looks perfect'.

 

That's fine, but what is 'perfect', there are layouts out there that to me are too clean, bare and tidy.

I went to an exhibition recently, hoping to rekindle my layout-building interest by seeing some high quality layouts. Instead what I saw were layouts that may once have been amazing, perfect in every way, nicely detailed and weathered.

 

Every layout I looked at had massive patches of ballast missing where it had fell off over time, places where grass once grew but now there is only patchy plaster or foamboard, track so dirty that loco's couldn't move 2ft without the hand of god giving them a nudge.

 

They all had the 'wow factor', but for me it was 'wow, I'm leaving this exhibition after 20 minutes feeling very underwhelmed'. What I really want to see and say is 'wow, this layout was built by somebody who really cares. They've spent time making sure that all the simple stuff is done properly before trying to create a cameo scene with flashing lights and grass that blows in the artificial breeze'.

 

I'm doing my best to try and say what I mean in a polite way, because I really don't wish to offend anyone, and because I know my own modelling skills aren't even high enough to be asked to attend an exhibition.

 

Mark

[southern42]

I think the WOW factor is something that can also take you by surprise and catch you unawares.

 

After seeing some of those superb named layouts mentioned above, some of them deliberately revisited more than once, I have also found myself wowed by demo boards such as a stabled diesels scene and one with a Freightliner Class 66 just running up and down. 

 

Needless to say I now have a (small) collection of diesels and Class 66s but it was their surroundings that hooked me in - one evoking the dirty grimy reality of how things were and the other a simple open space that showed off the stock.  Why a lover of steam days was thus wowed, who knows, but I can only hope that as we strive with the build of our exhibition layout, inspired by some of the best, it will at least be enjoyed by the viewer and maybe inspire or wow others in its turn.

 

Polly

[298]

I went to an exhibition recently, hoping to rekindle my layout-building interest by seeing some high quality layouts. Instead what I saw were layouts that may once have been amazing, perfect in every way, nicely detailed and weathered.

Every layout I looked at had massive patches of ballast missing where it had fell off over time, places where grass once grew but now there is only patchy plaster or foamboard, track so dirty that loco's couldn't move 2ft without the hand of god giving them a nudge.

They all had the 'wow factor', but for me it was 'wow, I'm leaving this exhibition after 20 minutes feeling very underwhelmed'. What I really want to see and say is 'wow, this layout was built by somebody who really cares. They've spent time making sure that all the simple stuff is done properly before trying to create a cameo scene with flashing lights and grass that blows in the artificial breeze'.

I'm doing my best to try and say what I mean in a polite way, because I really don't wish to offend anyone, and because I know my own modelling skills aren't even high enough to be asked to attend an exhibition.

Mark

I can't see how you could have offended anyone, in their eyes they are exhibiting "Chee-Tor", but in reality they are "Cheating".

 

Modelling isn't always about having skills or being able to afford the best equipment, it's a mindset of achieving a realistic goal and knowing where you've gone wrong. Shiny check-rails are a bugbear of mine, and yet how many times do you hear someone say they were painted once, but the track rubber brought the paint off. Solution...? Don't use a track rubber, or repaint them with a paint pen, if you can spare the 5 minutes.

 

So, about this exhibition layout you're building....

[Matt]

I have only scanned the posts here but couldn't see any mention of Fence Houses. I'm not normally a 2mm fan and am more biased to D&E eras but wow.

[bbishop]

Guys,

 

Might this be a better forum to discuss Calcutta Sidings? I wasn't at ExpoEM, so can't contribute, but did it have a "wow" factor to those in Bracknell?

 

And, please, constructive discussion!

 

Bill

[Super D]

I have had the priviledge of seeing Roy Jackson's 'Retford' in the flesh. The trains are perfect replicas - even down to the rolling stock numbers - which ran on Roy's birthday in 1957. He also runs them to a condensed timetable so it takes around 4 hours to fit in the 24 hour day. Absolutely stunning layout.

[Ceptic]

Only saw it the once, but a layout that's always stuck in my memory, was one of Westbury in OO guage, Big Four period, exhibited in the, then (1970s), Paignton station waiting room of the Torbay Steam Railway.

It featured a large, fine model of the station and yards, with the trains made up of correct locos and stock, mostly GWR with a smattering of SR.

IIRC the layout consisted of twin over-lapping ovals, separated by a cloudscape panel, able to be viewed from both sides, The scenery consisted of, mostly, rolling countryside, with very little else, just the odd house / cottage and no traffic clogged roads / lanes, just as it should be.

I've done a quick search, but I've found no references to this layout. It would be interesting to find out who the the originator was and what happened to it ?

 

Regards.