How realistic do you want your layout to be?

[Paroan24]

I am working on my layout, just trying to get the track plan in place.  I have lots of structures  to make an urban layout that would look like the 1930's or 40's.  All of my track is Tomix.   My plan was to have trains from that period so it would be realistic.  

 

After viewing lots of videos here and on Utube I really like the Japanese trains that look like commuter trains or trolleys( sorry, not sure what they are called).  I now would love to just have 1 to 3 car lengths running on my 4 separate loops.  The attached video shows the type of trains I am referring to.

 

I know most train enthusiasts want a very accurate and realistic layout, which I did,  but I am thinking it should be more fun and what I enjoy than accurate. This would mean my layout would look like Japanese commuter trains running in a US type city.  I guess only a true train person would realize this but am wondering if any others do "unrealistic" setups? Am I crazy for wanting to do it this way?

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Paroan24

[bill937ca]

Its your layout do as you want. The motor vehicles in the video are modern, but the interurbans look very old. Interurbans like those were built even after WWII in Japan and old school stock was still built until the 1970s mainly for minor private railways. There was a large shakeout about 2000-2007 when Kotoden, the Kambara Railway and several others either shutdown or modernized. So i think you may find that these modelers regard this as authentic although to a Western eye it may appear different eras are combined. I think some of those interurbans may be special narrow gauge (762mm) and some of the others are 1067mm prototypes.  Also suspect this is HO.

Edited September 28, 2016 by bill937ca

[railsquid]

It's entirely up to you... the layout I'm building will cover 3 different countries (Japan, UK and Germany) and I even have some North American trains which will run on it.

[cteno4]

Paroan,

 

this is all about YOU! its what you enjoy the most that is the important thing as you are going to have to do all the work and enjoy the results, so the closer it is what you really love the easier it will be to put in the work and money to it and the more you will enjoy it on the back end. This is really different person to person. Its important to loose the peer pressure thing in this (unless you enjoy just being cool with others over what you enjoy!) as this may not give you a lot of enjoyment while playing with your trains. having others like what you did is nice, but its fleeting and you will live with your layout!

 

many folks mix and match things in their layouts as they have their own mix of interests and thats cool. 

 

Play with your trains as much as you can before you set your layout in stone as this will help tell you what your true loves (and hates) are. Play with any buildings you have or make some quick papercraft buildings (lots of free pdfs for this, you can just build them roughly) to get ideas of scenes and styles you like the most. even crumple up paper and tape it down to try scenery ideas quickly for mass. playing like this can really stimulate you to come up with new things you may have never considered or test things in your mind physically which can be different in person!

 

playing is good! have fun and let the layout go where you find the most enjoyment.

 

we have a club member that only buys trains he has ridden on. his huge Unitrak layout in his basement goes from kyoto (he did a lot of work in japan) at one end, philly in the middle (he grew up there) and the other end is Switzerland (he traveled around Europe a lot). so lots of crazy options out there!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Blobby]

I'm with Railsquid, run whatever takes your fancy! Come the revolution rivet counters will be the first up against the wall!

[kvp]

Actually you can make the whole thing mostly prototypical. Japan actually imported lots of technology from all over the world. You can find japanese rolling stock that looks a bit american. The high floor emus you showed were called interurbans in the US. Japan had lots of trams too, mostly american technology based streetcars. Then after the war stainless steel technology was licesed from budd and that brought lots of commuter trains that would look mostly right on a postwar US elevated line, but if you look carefully some prewar japanese emus could work as US elevated trains too.

[JR 500系]

Like everyone else, it's your layout so have fun! There are technically no rail police to catch you at your place saying this train don't belong here or this train is out of era etc....

[VJM]

When it comes to model railways, refer to the rules and regulations handbook,

 

Rule 1:

 

It's YOUR railway.  You can do whatever you like, build whatever you like and run whatever you like.

 

My layout is kind of Japanese, but I run British trains on it too.

[railsquid]

Like everyone else, it's your layout so have fun! There are technically no rail police to catch you at your place saying this train don't belong here or this train is out of era etc....

 

Nobody expects... the Rivet Counter Inquisition.

 

My tip: have your Modeller's License at the ready when you hear a knock on the door late at night.

[Paroan24]

Thanks everyone!!!

[railsquid]

am wondering if any others do "unrealistic" setups? Am I crazy for wanting to do it this way?

 

Spot the reality discrepancy:

main-street-crossing-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(Actually if you look very carefully the discrepancy itself has discrepancies, but who cares, it's a nice train. Anyway BRB, I hear a loud knocking at the door...)

[inobu]

Parona24 you don't have the personality that will allow you to build an cross era layout. lol It will drive you crazy.

 

Inobu

 

LOL

 

Here is a personality test

 

A 5 year old presents this picture and asks is it good. What is the answer?

 

 

My answer got me into a 4 hour debate. lol

 

Point is some personalities "will accept" non prototypical "some will not".   

[ToniBabelony]

Just throwing in my two cents, but I think most of the important things have already been said. IMHO, a layout should be good enough for the one who builds it. Especially if it's a home layout and/or the effort of a single person. In the end, (almost) all layouts are unrealistic because we have to make compromises everywhere. It's about what satisfies you as a builder and owner and not what others think of it, because everybody will have an opinion that strikes with yours anyway.

[katoftw]

 

Spot the reality discrepancy:

main-street-crossing-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The ICE train?

Snow cover on ground but not on buildings?

Tram is electric but no electric overhead lines?

Not one obligatory Japanese queue at least 15-20 persons long?

[Das Steinkopf]

Spot the reality discrepancy:

main-street-crossing-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(Actually if you look very carefully the discrepancy itself has discrepancies, but who cares, it's a nice train. Anyway BRB, I hear a loud knocking at the door...)

The ancient Hi Ace van.

[kvp]

My try:

1. german ice set on a japanese layout

2. it's way too short (but there were test sets that actually ran this way)

3. the power systems are different as the catenary is the wrong voltage type (the scale and loading gauge are actually same as the shinkansen)

4. the tram is too old for the cars as these were no longer in service when the cars were built

5. the tram is running without any visible catenary

6. the pedestrian road crossing has apparently lost its sidewalls

7. and so on... as it's a work in progress layout, i'm sure everything will be fixed in the future

 

ps: two images to remind us that the prototype could be stranger:

http://www.ice-fansite.com/images/iceentwicklung/b32-40120013.jpg

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/0/8/4/2084.1281591916.jpg

 

[marknewton]

I think some of those interurbans may be special narrow gauge (762mm) and some of the others are 1067mm prototypes.  Also suspect this is HO.

Yes Bill, it's HO scale, and most of the models on it are of 762mm gauge prototypes, such as Mie Kotsu and Echigo Kotsu.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[railsquid]

My try:

1. german ice set on a japanese layout

2. it's way too short (but there were test sets that actually ran this way)

3. the power systems are different as the catenary is the wrong voltage type (the scale and loading gauge are actually same as the shinkansen)

 

Wait, you can see catenary!?

 

You are correct, it's way too short, in fact the trailing power car is missing as I am short of a draw bar.

 

However you fail the acceptance examination for the post of Trainee Rivet Counter on two counts:

1 - the restaurant is next to a power car

2 - power cars are in original Bundesbahn livery, but coaches in the revised Deutsche Bahn red stripe version.

 

;)

[kvp]

The restaurant could be run next to the power car and there were cases of mixed running sets.

Also they even made a makeshift control car for testing when there was only a single locomotive available:

http://www.ice-fansite.com/images/iceentwicklung/b12-81020003.jpg

 

Some more:

http://www.ice-fansite.com/images/410rekordfahrten/b05-410_001.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aROZF7REKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXbF_yI7pKk

 

So much about being prototypical or not. (most modern japanese trains, especially shinkansen have the impression of always running in fixed sets and being in perfect shape all the time, but this is not a requirement in europe and as you can see, almost anything goes as long as it moves)

[nah00]

I don't think you should feel the need to tie yourself to a particular period or style unless that's what you want to do. Most of my stock is JR East and Hokkaido but that didn't stop me from buying a Wide View Hida or Euroliner just because I liked the livery. 

[Ekiben]

Are you crazy? Probably, but that's part of the fun. The important thing is to enjoy yourself.

 

Trying to nail down a specific period and place is enough to drive anyone bonkers. My layout concepts are continually stalled because I think it would be nice to do a little bit more of this or that. A new train comes out or I see something abuout a region that strikes my fancy; there's always something else to distract and delay. In the past few months I've spanned the past 100 years and considered setting my layout in Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido. At least I've got things confined to a single country.

 

The entire process has left me wanting to launch a Somewhere Sometime Somehow layout and just see where I end up. Since I'm still very much a beginner, much of my work will be focused on considering basic designs, learning construction techniques and the occasional aquisition. Look out for the Tsubame Shikansen flying through the snows of northern Japan, or the Sunrise Seto rolling past Mt. Aso, or my new Okhotsk Limited Express (Tomix 92813) sailing along the inland sea, or.......

[katoftw]

The way I see it.  Is that if you want a specific era or region layout.  Then you need more than one layout.  If you only have space for one layout, then you make a generic layout to suit your needs.

 

I'm making a generic contemporary/modern layout, so I can run modern EMUs.  But I can still run older DMUs on small rural lines, (as they do in modern Japan right now), and steam locos as heritage services, (as they do in modern Japan right now).