Focus on Storytelling
Thinking in these terms should be a precursor to scenery detail work. Model railroading can be storytelling as well as all its other attributes. In its own way, the enjoyment of our hobby can be akin to reading a novel or watching a good movie. Just maybe we’re building a movie set including actors, all in a miniature scale. Wow!
Develop a Back Story
Think about it—we create the environment for our miniature workers. What are their jobs? Where do they go? Are there historical influences at these locations? Bottom line—does your layout have a “personality”?
I enjoyed this article. I find that trains are great, but if your layout does not have a purpose it is just a diorama. Putting "history" or meaning into the life of your railroad makes it much more believable.
There are layouts and modular railroads that use many extras, but often they are just the expected "out of the box" details that some add almost "mechanically'. While those are nice details, they don't necessarily bring the scene to life. My N scale layout is 90% Swiss & German with hints of both the US and Japan here and there. The walls are muraled with the Swiss alps and farms. The challenge then was to create the scenes to match the background. Some years ago a couple visiting from Germany came down to see the layout. The woman exclaimed these words: "I feel like I'm home again." No finer compliment has ever been paid.
My most recent layout is a mirror of my life. Focused around my high school years with many of the places I frequented. This may not be meaningful to others, but it is to me and that is what model railroading is all about.
i like this way of building , like you build up a history , its amazing fun !
were can these or other buildings be purchased as finished product
Just purchased a house with an loft room 11x14 to build my RR. It will begain with my 1950 Lionel 2023. Will build a 1950-60 city around my home town. One overpass where my dad just got through before a derail fell, no one was injured. Found photos of house I grew up in. Other half will be divided by a mountain tunnel to modern era.
I’m mostly “finished” with the nuts and bolts of my two Downtown Cityscape layouts (bench work, track work, ballasting, wiring, buildings, landscaping, etc.), and now I’m into the fun part of layout building (after running trains!), setting the scene! The two layouts (4’x8’ and a 2’x8’ trolley line) offer a LOT of possibilities for interactions, both dramatic and humorous, with six ‘main’ streets, three dingy alleys, and the background under an 8’ span of MTH Steel Girder Arch bridges. In one area, I’ve got a mini scene in a small alley with a painter being micro-managed by a landlord as he puts a fresh coat of red paint over decades old whitewash. And in other news, there is a breaking story in the downtown shopping district with a daring daylight robbery (or a nighttime burglary, if the room lights are off!) at a high end jewelry store. Police are on the scene and an arrest has been made, but the situation is still unfolding, with one gang member trying to escape on foot, and another trying to get to the getaway car, a black, 1951 Mercury parked in the trash strewn alley. Film at Eleven. On the trolley line, I had to “dig” up a small section of plaster street to rewire the trolley track, and I’ve left the plaster chunks and the hole for a Road Crew that is doing street repairs with their attendant equipment, i.e. jackhammers, air compressor, picks, shovels, pylons, Road Work signs, etc. The possibilities are nearly endless, and my daughter even suggested a series of ‘progressive’ scenes with a young couples life played out around town. First date at a coffee shop, second date at a pizza place, ‘serious’ date at a nice French restaurant, leading to a wedding at the church, and then moving into a first apartment… really, this could go all the way to old age and beyond!
I have developed a back story that involves July of 1976 and the incusion of the Erie Lackawanna into Conrail. CR has decide to drop several of the ex-EL lines including the Pascack Valley line. J R Hobbs has bought a number of locomotive for his newly formed Jersey Northern Lines to serve his Erie Shipping Company. The line runs from Jersey City, NJ to Suffern, NY and on into quarry areas in northern NJ. His passion for steam railroading is satisfied by owning several steam locomotives and running a tourist operation. Question for you. Do you ever present members with the oportunity to post a wish list for things they would like to see? For me, I'd like to see a how to story on buliding a turntable.
Quiero comprar los cuadros en 3d. Que debo de hacer. Dónde los pido, gracias
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