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What happened to the term 'loosely based on ..............(add general location) in the ..............(add decade/year/period). These are model layouts we are discussing, not faithful replicas.

 

That's implicit, isn't it? Even the most prototypical layout is really only loosely based on the actual reality. Some aspects will be spot on, others will be good, others ok,  others a bit iffy, and some just wrong. All about the suspension of disbelief!

With respect, Welly's suggestion fails to take into account overlapping, which was always taking place on Britains railways.

Not just one kind of overlapping, either. Locomotive liveries overlapped between 'periods', but it doesn't stop there. Those changes happened at different times and in different ways to livery changes on, say, coaching stock. And then there's the changes in wagons, signals, track, stations, buildings, staff clothing, etc, etc. There were, of course, many changes in how those things were designed and used. And that's without mentioning changes in the rest of the country through which the railway runs!

The notion of 'periods' seems a bit arbitrary when you get down to the detail. Even if we concentrate on one narrow category, say locomotives (which seems to be a favourite), do we measure time by changes in liveries? Or in rebuilds? Or in the introduction of new kinds of safety equipment and other fittings? And so on ...

What one person sees as an important change is hardly noticed by others. But all of these changes matter, because they're all part of the overall picture. The best common denominators are time and place.

All terms have their day. ISTR an architectural style called "moderne", popular between the wars. Art Nouveau is now anything but. Modern Image to me is Cyril Freezer talking about new station buildings and infrastructure on WCML as the overhead wires moved south. As such it has a very clear time-frame - early '60s. Leave it there.

Exactly so. Look at Modernism - a Victorian idea, replaced by Postmodernism, which itself is now on the way out. And of course there was nothing more Modern in the 19th century than steam railways!

Growing up in the 70s, I always thought that 'Modern Image' meant BR corporate image, but I now get the feeling that in some ways that was an anachronism even then. Yes, there was continuing modernisation with the HST, etc, but it was a different world from the time of the Modernisation Plan in the 50s.

40 years on, Modern Image is a vague term at best. And what is the 'image' bit for anyway? (Isn't 'Modern' enough?) It all seems a bit superfluous.

Time + Place is all you need.

A man lying down with a newspaper over his face is a nice touch, but I've seen one otherwise excellent layout that has half a dozen of them spread around the place. It looks as though there's a serial killer on the loose, with a quirky 'trademark'.

My Chambers Dictionary describes a cliche as "something dulled by excessive use as in idea or situation". Therefore I would say it is all down to the individual as to what is "excessive use".

 

As an aside a gimmick is "a device to attract attention or publicity" and Glenn's and my layout seems to me to be overflowing with these (a failed HST, charter rakes and a snow plough turning up every day).

 

Oh, and yes we've got a Bus on a bridge as well!

So how to run City of Truro without resorting to cliche or gimmick ... ?