do you model local or far-away places?

A comment by zmon in the "do you remember your first Z year" made me think.

I was facinated by its small size, and the German scenry made me daydream of far away places i had never scene, but looked so perfectly at home with the tiny little trains.

Do you model scenes from your local surroundings or do you prefer to model some (far?) away other part of the world to dream about it?

I work to German likeness. Partly because there wasn"t anything else when I started but also because it is different from what you see every day. Part of the attraction is the foreign look.

Hi Havoc,

Nice question. I have a longterm planning for a Belgian themed layout, because 1) I love this typical country with its Flemish / French character, 2) most of my wife´s relatives are from Belgium, 3) I am from Holland myself, would like to model "local" but Marklin has virtually nothing in Dutch Z and some locos and freight cars after Belgian origin...

But another venture I took up is a western US styled modular layout. I spent some time in california a while back (quite a while.. mid eighties) and would like to model that place and era, for the sake of memories of that particular (in hindsight actually pretty boring ) Fernando valley smalltown atmosphere, with (at the time still) the occasional PFE or other freight train coming thru, and the typical mainstreet with your hardware store and other non chain retail, hotdog stand, presbyterian church, high school and "gas ranch", just next to endless orangetrees...

Soooo... to answer your question: pretty far away, and mostly for sentimental reasons, I guess. If one needs a reason?

Matt

I'm modeling the New England seashore, as this is where I am from, but in addition, I'll be completing shortly buildings and land marks from all 50 states. When completed the South will be represented by a Mississippi Riverboat and Civil war reenactment scene , The southwest with all it's strange topography, and the west, the majestic mountains. Throw in there the 4 seasons and DC Capital and it's a parcel of work. I'm not trying to build any one area accurately, but combine and have unique scenes that aren't often done in model railroading. I doubt I'll ever "finish" the layout as there is always something else to build.. but that's the fun of our miniature world.
Fred

I guess I model close to home. Of course in Western America close is a relative term. Close can easily be 1500 miles away. When I conceived the Original Central California RR I simply picked it because I live in San Diego and I from the NW. So I simply modeled something in between. The New CCRR was just a roomsized version of the Original. I really have little first hand knowledge of Central California! I have no knowledge what so ever about the land portrayed in the CCRR/Southern Division. Never been there. I just studied some photo of the natural wonders of Utah and the 4 corners area, put them away and built the layout as I thought the area should look like. The coming Northern Division will cover an area about 1000 to 1700 miles north of me. It is my original home and hopefully the Northern Division will not look like Loren's fine work but something from the depths of my own memory that will show my representation of 1940 Pacific Northwest, including BC. Cheers, Jim CCRR:blink:

Reenactors Fred?? Thats my other hobby...Need some figures?

Thanks Kelly but I've got a lot-- I'll post pictures tomorrow at dawns early light. I was asked who I looked like on the phone, and I said Robert E Lee. They didn't buy it down here in Marlin, with my Boston accent. I've got my 1863 Springfield and was ready to go.. I also tried to play the octopus but I was not that much of a windbag.
Fred

Germany is a very long way from Oz. The scenes I'll be modelling will be inspired by but will not attempt to represent the Rhine Valley, Meissen and Lubeck. This set of inspiritions comes from a trip there two years ago.

I am living in Germany..but want to model the Mid West of the USA. A place and time far away.

Myself, as a "stinkin' cheese eater" (a french guy) I'm modelling a freelanced part of desert western US (could be CA, NV, AZ, NM, UT), after having fallen in love with american style railroading while doing a number of trips in CA and CO between 1995 and 2003.

Then my future empire will be a remote branchline actually running from Merida to Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico. Still an idea coming from trips to the location. What appeals me with this? Still american prototype rolling stock, oftenly vintage (GP38s, U-Boats, cabooses, no ditch lights), street running, and a sort of "grass running" (ie track actually oftenly embedded with weed and grass ). Furthermore far more switching opportunities than with my initial future empire that was to be some selected locations of the Tehachapi Pass which actually sees very few switching operations outside of the main spots such as Mojave or Bakersfield.

Dom

For me it use to be local but have since moved to the other end of the country.

For now, I will be modeling the GN, near my native Puget Sound. Some day, I'd like to take a crack at modeling the Irish national railway, Iarnród Éireann, in the Sligo area (author William Butler Yeats country), in the northwest corner of the Republic of Ireland. That's one northwest corner vs. another, I suppose. But, come to think of it, I'll probably have to visit the area again to be sure I get it right. The sacrifices we make.

I model the Northwest (GN, SP&S, BN, BNSF)and my layout plan is a compressed portion of the Columbia River Gorge between Vancouver and Wishram.

John

Socalz44 wrote:
>The coming Northern Division will cover an area about 1000 to 1700 miles north of me. >It is my original home and hopefully the Northern Division will not look like Loren's >fine work but something from the depths of my own memory that will show my >representation of 1940 Pacific Northwest, including BC. Cheers, Jim CCRR:blink:[/quote]

Jim, if it is going to be anything like Northern California or Oregon then it will certainly have similarities to my layout, at least for the trees.

Speaking of trees, when I get my 1200 new trees finished, before I begin planting, I'll post a picture of my tree farm......

I am modeling the Northern California, Southern Oregon area......thus lots of trees.
When I eventually get going on my industrial TEE module, it will have replicas of actual buildings found in and around Medford. That way folks attending the Medford train show in Thanksgiving will easily recognize the model structures.
These structures will include an auto repair shop, auto parts store, warehouses, lumber mill, and others. Lots and lots of building to do in the next year or so.

Just need more time......and a little more money too.

Loren

GNFan wrote:

Some day, I'd like to take a crack at modeling the Irish national railway, Iarnród Éireann, in the Sligo area (author William Butler Yeats country), in the northwest corner of the Republic of Ireland.

Interesting and unusual choice. What will you do about the track? According to my calculations you should be using a gauge of about 7.3 mm to faithfully reproduce the Irish broad gauge of 5'3".

For me, my main interest is European trains and layouts. This may be strange to come from someone who grew up a few miles from the Conway yard in Western Pennsylvania. My parents starting taking me to Europe when I was quite young and it had an impression on my, especially the history. In the past 8 years, I have been able to go back to Europe three times with a focus on the trains and operations. I have watched my focus narrow and the layout evolve to more of a modern feel that is beginning to mimic what I have seen in Europe on my trips and through the web cams I monitor.

I have to admit, that the interest in US railroads is also there and growing. Again, I am looking at more modern operations. The new releases from AZL are really fueling this. It is getting easier to model what we see on a daily basis.

But how can you not be inspired when you have visited some of the premier train watching spots... The Rhine River, Cajon Pass, Horseshoe Curve and the Gottardo for instance. Talk about watching trains go by! It has been fabulous.

Rob

Havoc wrote:

A comment by zmon in the "do you remember your first Z year" made me think.

I was facinated by its small size, and the German scenry made me daydream of far away places i had never scene, but looked so perfectly at home with the tiny little trains.

Do you model scenes from your local surroundings or do you prefer to model some (far?) away other part of the world to dream about it?

I work to German likeness. Partly because there wasn"t anything else when I started but also because it is different from what you see every day. Part of the attraction is the foreign look.

Hi Havoc,
My early interest was all European scense, and primarily of Germany. The first layout i built as a kid was a apline setting, as was the first brief case i made. Years later when i got back into z scale again in about 2001, i started a new Marklin layout. This one started off as more of an architechtural model with only primary scenic elements represented in a more minimalist formate. My intent was to build a electrically sophisticated layout utilizing all of Marklins circuit track and signals to fully automate the opperations. As time wore on I began adding scenery to a few areas, and then found myself committed to finishing it all to make it look right. Some older members may remember my VGgB layout... you can find a few older photos in the archives under my tag.

In January of 2007 i sold the VGgB on eBay and began work on my first North American Z scale effort... modules. These are designed upon a prototype line that is within 20minuets drive from my house. Our Club chose the UP's Overland Mainline as or project due to its close proximity to us all, and the historic value of this still thriving line.

So i used to model far away places i had never been, and now model my local prototype that runs through my state.

Tony B...
Wasatch Z ClubB)

ausman2001 wrote:

GNFan wrote:

Some day, I'd like to take a crack at modeling the Irish national railway, Iarnród Éireann, in the Sligo area (author William Butler Yeats country), in the northwest corner of the Republic of Ireland.

Interesting and unusual choice. What will you do about the track? According to my calculations you should be using a gauge of about 7.3 mm to faithfully reproduce the Irish broad gauge of 5'3".

Putting up roadblocks, are you? Seriously, I assume there will be numerous challenges - it's only a vague, obviously uninformed ambition, at this point. Track gauge would be among those challenges - sticking some N-scale track in a bench vise probably wouldn't work too well. There's also the challenge of finding the right locomotives and rolling stock (British Rail surplus, at one point - no idea if that's even true). I didn't know enough about trains last time I was in Ireland (late-May, early June 1990) to pay much attention to the train/rail details. To my credit, I *did* notice that level-crossings in Ireland are few and far between. I have a shot or two (35mm Kodachrome slides! remember those?) of the loco in the Sligo station, but not much else of value for modeling purposes. As I said, I'll just *have* to go back to do research, "suffering" for my art, don't ye know.

I tend to model that which I am familiar with and I am very familiar with southwest Michigan. I've done this since I got back into model railroading in 1978 (my Grande Valley Railway will be 31 years old this November) and in every scale I've modeled in.

Catt wrote:

I tend to model that which I am familiar with and I am very familiar with southwest Michigan.

Johnathan, I'd love to see you model the Sleeping Bear Dunes! Love that place, been there many times.

Me, I'd rather model something just south east of you... Cedar Point, better than Disneyland. Well, NOBODY does a fireworks show like Disney! But the Cedar Point Railroad is real narrow gauge steam and fun to ride.

GNFan wrote:

Putting up roadblocks, are you?

No, throwing out challenges!

Actually, when you look at the Irish broad gauge in real life it hardly looks wider at all than standard gauge, so maybe you could get away with the standard 6.5 mm track (we were in Dublin six months ago). If you want to see what the trains look like this link could help:

www.railfaneurope.net/frameset.html

Go on, suffer for your art