Impressive Scene


Okay, so maybe a compromise then .... I'll get an old building, a few fire engines then set fire to the building and wait for it to burn to the ground. Now THAT is what I call a "burning building layout scenario"

Sereeus enuff fore yu ??? :) :)
 
How about a flip scene showing before and after a fire? I've seen museum displays where they show a diorama of a battlefield and flip the terrain to show the troop movements. I always thought a staion platform that flipped when a train pulled in would be fun. It would work best if the train lock the view while it flipped over.
 
Our sectional club layout has an after the fire scene. The trucks of the Locust Grove FD are still there. The building is a total loss. But the scene is in keeping with the Locust Grove FD's motto, "We've never lost a lot, yet!"
 
One layout I would love to see "in the flesh" is Rodney Stewart's "Grand St & 3 Rivers". The standout features of this to my mind is not just the grandeur of it but the attention to detail, with people going about their daily lives and all the cameo scenes emphasising that.
 
I have to admit that the larger fire scene-with TWO fireboats no less-is impressive. I can just imagine all the super detailing possibilities in that scene! Again, only because of my background do I dare say that. The average person wouldn't even notice all the added detail.

I like the farm wife chasing the vacuum cleaner salesman away. That requires some thinking about how I can eventually adapt something like that on my layout. I'm pretty sure it won't be a farm wife, but it is scenes like which can set a layout apart. We pay a lot of attention to our locos and cars and maybe buildings, why not do that in the context of a scene or tow on the rest of the layout?

Photoman475
 
Just fill in the blank. I've been saying for years that most model railroads end up showing the exceptions and unique rather than any sort of statistical normality. In many instances it is just the number of little people scattered all over everything.

The museum has not one but 2 fire scenes (not counting the hobo camp fire) that glow and flame and of course smoke. The public love them. I believe we go through about a pint of smoke fluid a week.

My candidates for the most overdone:

The fire scene.

The circus scene with ferris wheel

The train wreck

All of these things are 'gimmicks" used to interest non modelers and/or kids at shows IMHO. I much prefer good modeling and good perspective, but that's just me!

One other: The use of Matchbox or Hot Wheels on HO layouts. Get yourself some proper scale vehicles for cripes sake!

One up and comer: The drive in theater. OK for a public exhibition (as another gimmick) but a waste of valuable real estate on an operating layout.
 
Wouldnt want to be the guy that has to call the boss and explain that one. That is a unusual accident for sure.
 
Just saw this thread tonight and, well, as a retired firefighter those are not the kind of modeling scenes anyone would want me to look at. Sorry but I would pick out every mistake in them. Truck placement, hose placement, fire pattern, smoke pattern, collapse zones, sorry guys its just in a firefighters blood to pick out things done wrong, not to be picky, its a safety thing that we look at and watch out for everyday, every call. Not looking for it could mean our life or the life of some one else.
Now would I have one on my layout, not a chance, but a station or two, oh yeah every town has to have at least one station and trucks.
 
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Gee, does all this mean I have to remove my hobo jungle? How about the four guys in the alley behind the store, shooting dice, while a traffic cop about a block away is directing traffic, oblivious to the galloping dominos. :rolleyes: I've got one I haul out about every four years... The year is 1948, and President Harry Truman is running for election in his own right. He is standing on the rear platform of the Ferdinand Magellan with a campaign aid. At one whistle stop, at Galesburg, Illiniois, a man has alighted from a sidetracked Zephyr, and has his six-year old son on his shoulders, walking to see the President. Although the man is a stuanch Republican, he feels his boy should see the President. Took me awhile to find the right figures to make the man and the boy. Oh, BTW, the little kid was...me! Of course I don't have the room to model the whole crowd that was in front of us that day. Selective compression, you know. ;)
 
I think the boxy module itself has really outlived it's novelty. When modular layouts were new, it was acceptable, but now, it's almost boring to view a layout at a show and everything on each module is in alignment with ghe shape of the module.
Freemo is a good attempt at capturing the natural flow of the landscape near railroads.

I agree but for me the think I don't like about modules is that they vary so much. What I mean is you will have one that is highly detailed then the one next to it doesn't "fit" the location. The tracks all line up but the visual aspect doesn't. Clubs who use this method of modeling should have a set standard for what makes the rotation at meets and what doesn't. If someone shows up with a module that doesn't meet the standard for the club, make him a conductor for the day or have him work on the scenery at the show in a small clinic so people can see what he is doing to create the model he is working on.

Take the photo the OP posted, it is a perfect example of what I am talking about. The scene on both sides of the corner module is city scenes but the corner module looks to be out in a grassy field with what appears to be an oil tank in it. It just doesn't fit and makes it look more toyish.
 
This must be a regional thing. The modules around here, of which im a member of one of the local modular clubs, none have a fire or accident scene of any kind that I have seen. Personally, I think its neat to see a well done building on fire scene.
 
Well, I model the 1930's. I have a Clipped Wing Monocoupe upside down in the trees. It was a Christmas tree decoration a few years ago. I added in a Williams Bros. Northrop Gamma further back in the trees. Next to the Bachmann Spectrum kit of the "Sears Craftsman" House I have the Addams family house and next to that the "Psyco house" The Bates Manor. I too have a flying saucer hiding in some more trees, and the War of the Worlds Manta ships were planned to be in the distant back ground But that would be 1950's not 1930's.... the question is: How much is overkill? How far apart or close together should the outlandish items be? I would like to hear John Allen's answer too. I once made a Bowser PRR Caboose and put a smoke machine in it and had it looking like the caboose was on fire, I had the glass out of both ends so the smoke could roll out. It was funny once.
 
Module layouts don't do much for me. A lot of them have the same gimmicks and appeal to kids more than anyone else, in my opinion. They do allow the club to have lots of variety in scenes through out the country so that's kind of neat. But I will never build a module layout.
 
I built a set of modules back in the late 1990s that made a 16' section of the modular layout. I didn't want to stick with the typical double track mainline along the front edge of the table and wanted a bigger module than the restrictive 4'. I also needed to ensure it would fit in with the NMRA standard module, both physically and electrically. This module set consisted of three 5' long modules and one 1' module. The reason for these odd numbers was so that I could transport the set in a transport box in the back of my Ford Ranger and be able to back into my garage to unload the transport box onto a rolling table. The transport box could be three modules high to just barely clear the garage door. the 1' module went in the cab of the truck.
The design of the modules took the double track mainline toward the rear of the module then back to the front to aling with the next members module. The track also included a grade as can be seen in the picture below. The curve and grade were all within the NMRA standards for modules. There were several sidings on the module and a cross over track at the top of the grade. The crossover was protected by signals as well as the sidings. All simple double throw double pole switches changed the signal aspects.

DampJModules_zps6a9b248a.png
 



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