THE LITE AND NARROW: Portable Display Train Layouts Ramblings on Narrow Gauge and Branchline Modeling
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I Lew Matt is a published writer, photographer, and illustrator whose work has appeared in many model railroad hobby magazines. Click here to learn more about Lew.
recently attended the Annual National Narrow Gauge Conference (NNGC) in St. Louis, MO, and was extremely impressed by the many portable, modular display railroads on exhibit. This is something I always enjoy seeing. Regional shows and organizational meets are other good places to see exceptional display railroads. The best display railroads are cohesive in their theme and consist of a series of memorable, intricate and highly detailed scenes that reinforce the theme along the rightof-way of the railroad. Good display railroads are designed to operate trains, have a specific theme guiding the construction and are built to be viewed by an audience for a public showing, not necessarily only for other model railroaders. The selection of a theme for a display railroad should be made considering your personal preferences and with the viewing audience in mind. A non-railroad audience will probably not recognize a prototype railroad scene unless it is very famous.
Page 115 • Issue 11 • January 2011 • The Lite and Narrow column, page 1
However, if the display railroad depicts a series of believable, prototypically based scenes that portray the essence of the theme and reflect typical country side scenery and buildings, along with appropriately lettered engines and rolling stock traveling between the scenes, then the theme will believably come together. Most display railroads are the continuously operating, round-and-round
style, and serve their purpose best when there is a lot of continuous action. Round-and-round may be the easiest way to achieve this with limited manpower, and has served us well. Other styles, like the loop to loop and point-to-point Free-Mo, require a lot more people to maintain heavy, continuous operation and still answer the inevitable questions from the audience.
FIGURE 1: This is a detail scene on the Sundance modular display from the 30th NNGC in St. Louis. Alongside the machine shop is a worker splitting firewood. Note the debris from the log-splitting on the ground, and surrounding the machine shop is a great deal of clutter. This is a lot of eye candy for the viewer. Tell a friend ...
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