Blog- Gauging Interest @ RMWeb - A helpful beginners layout

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What should layouts at an exhibition represent? Should they showcase the pinnacle of the hobby or should they be examples of what is readily achievable by the average hobbyist? I think it's fair to say that most visitors would go for the former. Fine, I agree, because the last thing I want to do is to cough up my 10 pounds and then watch a set of layouts that are no better than what I, as a very average modeller, can see or create at home. I want to see something masterful, created by an excellent modeller, or in the case of a club layout, something much bigger than what I have room for at home.

 

But what does ordinary Joe Public think when they see such a layout? They may think 'Coo, I'd love something like that, I'm going to build one' and trot off to purchase a train set from the next stall. But then again they may ponder 'There's just no way I could ever hope to achieve that level of modelling' and never bother to attempt a first layout. Or perhaps even worse, they make a start and then discover that what they see by their own hand doesn't come close to what they've seen at an exhibition, and thus they give up in frustration. So while I want to see exceptional layouts at an exhibition I can still ask this: is there room at exhibitions for at least one layout that has been specifically designed to show a newcomer to the hobby just what is readily achievable by them?

 

The problem is that there's frequently a bit of a dismissive hand-wave around the question of what is 'achievable' because typically a modeller will say 'Well, anyone could build my layout'. We are a fairly modest bunch, I can't remember anyone ever saying 'You need years of skill to get to my level' even when it's often true. Sure, we tell beginners to start with something small, and we pass on the knowledge of techniques and methods, but can anyone remember ever telling someone 'Don't aim for Chris Nevard standard, you'll need a while to reach that, aim for something of lower standard'? By being a bit shy about it, are we actually not being helpful to people just starting out? And what, exactly, is this 'lower standard' that we should be advising people to aim for?

 

There's a large gap between the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' roundy roundy for kids and the typical exhibition layout, so it's probably easier at this point if I simply describe what I believe would fill it. For a start, don't make it a 6' x 4' oval. I live in a good sized house but I couldn't put a big slab of baseboard like that anywhere. Yes I could erect it temporarily, but I still need to store it somewhere, and actually a 6' x 4' layout is difficult to lug around and still needs a fair sized space to store it, even when stood on its side or end.

 

While it's possible to create a model railway on such a board it could be argued that it's nearer to a trainset than a layout - this type of board is designed to accommodate the train set oval when we think about it. But do newcomers to the hobby always start with a trainset? We really need to move away from this belief that every newcomer is a child with a trainset. I'm guilty of this, often referring to 'Little Johnny' and his trainset, but newcomers are also adults, either complete newcomers to the hobby or those returning after many years away. These sorts of people will see quality layouts at an exhibition (and on forums) and this will be more the sort of thing they'll be wanting to aim for - I suspect these sorts of novices will want to move as far away from a trainset as their skills will take them. At an exhibition they will see plenty of end-to-end layouts, and when they get home and have a look around on the interweb modelling forums they'll see plenty there too. Then they look at the Hornby website and see the latest release and notice that it's not actually available in a trainset, it's sold separately, so now they're thinking that instead of going with the trainset, the oval, and the 6' x 4' (having noticed that they'll struggle to find somewhere to store and use this), something else may be better.

 

And it's around about now that things start getting tricky for Joe Beginner. Questions around what a fiddleyard is and how is it used, where do signals go, what does a prototypical track layout look like, what's the difference between Electrofrog and Insulfrog points, what do I make hills out of, and what sort of wood should I use for a baseboard. Sure, they can find out the answers to all this by asking and chatting at an exhibition... but what if they could take something away from the exhibition that told them all this?

 

So here's the setup: a plank layout of a reasonable size (let's say 10 feet long by 1 foot wide, on two 5 foot boards), with a terminus to fiddleyard trackplan. Points are Electrofrog and at least medium radius (we're leaving the trainset behind, remember), electrics are kept simple (can be DCC if required), power is from an off-the-shelf controller. Trackwork isn't on foam underlay, it's 'properly' ballasted, rolling stock is RTR with a few bits weathered (as a demonstration of this technique), buildings are out-the-box (think Skaledale and the like), mixed in with Scalescenes card kits and also Dapol/Airfix plastic kits, and scenery uses readily-available items (polystyrene, static grass, sea moss trees, etc). Importantly, the layout is actually a realistic scene and operates in a realistic fashion - no Flying Scotsman in LNER livery pulling a rake of blue & grey Mk IIIs into a country branchline station. The whole layout represents an achievable and realistic goal for a newcomer wanting to reach a standard beyond the trainset. And the terms 'achievable' and 'realistic' are met in a number of ways - achievable because the modelling techniques don't requires years of experience, realistic because the layout is (broadly) prototypically correct in appearance & operation, achievable because practically everything on display can be easily sourced (much of it at the exhibition itself), and realistic in terms of space used and budget spent.

 

And then there's the presentation of the layout, with boards showing the construction of the layout with photos and text, and most importantly of all, a handout sheet that people can take away. It doesn't have to be massive, just a very basic list of typical items and techniques required. If there are areas they are unsure of or require further information then forums and/or books can provide more help, but the idea is that they could pretty much build the layout from the sheet supplied. In effect, the layout is presenting the message 'This is achievable by you, there's nothing here requiring expert modelling skills and yet look how good the finished result is, here's photos and text showing you how we did it, and here's a sheet to take away that summarises it all to enable you to get cracking yourself'.

 

A true 'beginners layout' then. They've been done for magazines (Model Rail, British Railway Modelling and Hornby Magazine have all done them in the past - perhaps Railway Modeller too) but has there ever been one at an exhibition to engage the non-trainset newbies...?

 

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