Left or Right handed layouts?

[RAF96]

In all the UK through station platforms that I have stood upon the train has always arrived from the right, except I seem to remember Cambridge where they come in from both ends.

There may be obvious exceptions as in single line ops.

Of course what one does with one's own layout is up to one.

[Colin_McLeod]

Trains coming into a particular platform from the right won't apply at all platforms at terminal stations or at loop platforms. Anyway the thread is about the model station as a whole, not from the perspective of someone standing on a platform. So even on a through station, while trains may be arriving from the right to the platform nearest you, they would be arriving from the left on the opposite platforms. (when approaching the station from the other direction).

 

I don't see what direction this thread is meant to go (left??? or right??? or just in ever decreasing circles)

[TonyA]

I just came across a quote in the Wikipedia entry on the film, The Cruel Sea, which can be seen here.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruel_Sea_(1953_film)

 

Basically, it says that anything travelling from left to right is considered to be going away from home and from right to left is returning home. The implication was that this was built into the human subconscious.

 

This would seem to apply where the station is a terminus. However, a through station is not considered as "home".

 

Tony

[martin_wynne]

In all the UK through station platforms that I have stood upon the train has always arrived from the right

 

In the UK trains normally run on the left.

 

This means that for a double-track railway with platforms on each side, trains will approach from the right.

 

Or with a single island platform between the tracks, trains will approach from the left.

 

The same applies to a single-track railway with a passing loop at the station.

 

But not many large stations are that simple.

 

Martin.

[Brian D]

I am completely right sided - right handed for everything and right footed at football (left foot is useless). My BLT was designed and built with the scenic terminus end on the right.

Is anybody counting the respondents to this topic to find the number like me or the lefties with their terminus on the left? I see a trend developing.

Regards,

[Chimer]

I'll go with RAFHAA96 - I know the thread is about terminus layouts so "prototype arrives from your right" shouldn't be a factor, but I reckon 90% of the times I've been waiting for a train it's true (you only tend to wait on platforms at through stations, at terminii the train is usually waiting for you - and I've rarely waited at single island stations).  Obviously "departs to your left" is equally true for the trainspotter, but when a train departs the passenger is on it, not watching it.  So I can quite believe my subconscious causes me to plan arrivals from the right, from the viewer's angle.  

 

Schizophrenia would obviously set in if I had to exhibit and run it from behind - but luckily I'm not good enough for that to be a problem!

[Steve-e]

Good thread this I hadn't thought of it until now.

 

I'm left handed and have the Terminus to the right with trains coming in from the left. I'm guessing it seemed easier to lean in to work on the layout like that.

 

Cheers

Steve

[Pacific231G]

Interesting. I've tended to favour terminus on the right, fiddle on the left from the viewers POV - which is also generally the operating side- and have always found that more natural.

 

In the theatre, an upstage right (audience left) entrance to down stage left (front of the stage to the audience's right) is thought by many directors to be stronger than an entrance from stage left and ISTR that's supposed to follow from the western convention of reading from left to right. For live studio TVprogrammes  I  tended to stage things that way and if you look at most chat shows they seem to do the same with guests arriving from camera left. 

 

OTOH older main line termini such as Paddington and St. Pancras tended-if local geography permitted and the buildings weren't across the end of the buffers -  to have their main buildings with the ticket office, buffet and waiitng rooms on what was originally the departure side.  For countries with left hand running that might favour having the terminus on the left so that the main buildings can be in low relief at the rear. 

[DCB]

I sense that platforms on the left arrive from the right is probably more intuitive to draw , but the experienced modellers seem to favour platforms on the right enter from the left. This helps shunting, logically on double track lines the Up line, the one away from the station would be used for shunting movements, and this would be nearer the operator, also uncoupling if you have two roads between the only two platforms you can see to uncouple or at least see where the ramp is.

[maunsel]

Just to confound you all. I previously posted the statement that when I design layouts I naturally put the Fiddle Yard on the right - me being left handed.

 

I've just finished the initial design of my latest layout and as expected the fiddle yard is now........

 

 

...........on the left!

 

 

The reason:-  I based the layout on a photograph where trains entered the scene from the left. The right hand end of the photo featured a brick wall and a row of Victorian seaside guest houses.

 

For some reason I never envisaged the layout being the other way around, and when I tried a mirror image with FY on the right it just didn't gel.

 

 

So there you go - the exception that proves the rule, or is it?

 

Eric

[RAF96]

Having just tried a cardboard mock up with a FY at each end I find that as a leftie a LH FY is easier to use when it comes to swapping stock and railing locos, etc.

The RH FY just felt too awkward to me.

Maybe I will stick with tail chasers and a back wall central FY.

Rob

[marc smith]

I'm left handed, and have built several layouts,
some with the fiddle on the left side, and some on the right

Most languages read from left to right
So to my way of thinking, this seems the "correct" way to operate
trains arriving and entering the scene from the left....
However, this also depends on how you see the scene,
and what you interpret as its' "normal" or "starting-point"

Does a train movement begin when the train enters the scene?
or does it begin with the train leaving the station?

I suppose it doesn't really matter
and I must say, I'm not too bothered about which hand I operate the fiddle yard with....
but I'd probably say my left is slightly better at this

Mind you, I play bass, double bass and guitar, as if I were right handed!
So my opinion may cause even more confusion

BTW. I used to think my right handed playing was very unusual, for a leftie...
However, I've since discovered that it's a lot more common than you might think
Also, as others have said; we tend to think "Left or Right handed" as a single concept
..... there are degrees of both in all of us

Interesting post