The answer to this is not overly simple. From a fair bit of reading It seems to depend on where you live. The British exhibition circuit revolves around good quality layouts showing several times a year in different places. Given that the British isles seem to be easier to get across than Auckland at rush hour, plus the large base of layouts, this works fine for them. I think the local eccentricity of the natives helps too (Its probably the weather. Global warming should make them as mad as the Italians in 50 odd years). People seem to have these vast collections of extremely specific knowledge, and will speak out if your midland red is not the correct shade, or the luggage trolleys are wrong for that particular station in winter. I'm still surprised that more/any murders are reported at British exhibitions.
Having some modeling attractions other than the railways, such as some impressive buildings
'Its not Frankenstein, its Franckensteen!'
New Zealand (as I've said before somewhere) does not have the large exhibition base. We are lucky if we get a local one once a year (and that's a 'pick any city in the country' thing). The punters don't have the detailed knowledge of prototype, they prefer to see things moving, and especially if they are Thomas and friends.
In my opinion, the most important things are a reliable layout and one that keeps the operators entertained. These mugs are the ones that will have to keep things going for 12-14 hours over the course of a weekend, and their enthusiasm is what will keep the public entertained. if it is possible, have someone on the outside of the layout to talk to punters (some are better than others, and some revel in the job).
The layout in the show last weekend that won exhibitors choice was a short German branch line with the name 'Damph Farten'. Maybe the name is important too?
(Please no other layout names, we've heard them all)
7 comments:
By extrapolation, I can say that train variety and length make a great exhibition layout. My reasoning? I LOATHE(!!!) American layouts like the one I saw once that ran trains consisting of 105 locomotives at the front followed by a scale 3 mile long rake of boring american boxcars....even worse as it was moving at scale speed. Although the operators were getting their rocks off, as a spectator I was bored before this behemouth had even got 1/8th of the way past me. I dont think I looked at the layout again....and I was there as an exhibitor and spent the entire weekend across the aisle from it.
I read an article once that said the eye can comfortably take in around 4' at a time, so all your scenes should work on this factor otherwise boredom sets in. People supposedly look along a layout and think "station, yard throat, loco depot, bridge, forest....", but as soon as they think "station, more of the same, more of the same..." youve lost them. I think the same can be said of train lengths; Although the milkies mostly run full with 16 OM's, I'm planning for my trains to have 8 and possibly 10 at the most. In my minds eye (supported by mockups and measurements), 16 OM's just looks wrong. The Head Druff found this on Cass, instead of running a rake of 13 CB's (which was the maximum at the time), he settled on a train of 8 (co-incidence?) that looked just fine.
I have been to a few exhibitions and I found like you that I wasn't too keen on the long rakes that you see on the american layouts, Myself, I have decided to have five wagons of each type that I know worked on the Line I'm modelling and a couple or so other wagons which didn't or are unsure of. This still gives me a huge stock of wagons, for example of the wagons which worked on the branchline i'm modelling, I would have 20 log wagons with the four currently produced trackgang kits,45 high siders some with ridge poles and tarpulins, 15 four wheeled box wagons, the odd tank wagon and few flat wagons and depending on the era, cattle/sheep wagons or pine seedling wagons converts.
4' veiwing of the same scene is interesting looks like I will have to rework my first layout being that it will be way over 3 metres. hmm may have to consolidate the yard sidings so they not long. shucks there goes 99 La High siders in the sidings
To my mind it's consistency - if everything in a scene is weathered from a similar pallet and there are no obvious anachronisms then it's going to ring bells and people will say, as they did with my fictitious German layout once or twice, 'isn't that the place we went to...'. It doesn't need to be within a gnats chuff of scale length but it does need to look plausible - it doesn't even need to have lots moving but there does need to be something that says wow (even if it only whisoers wow). If any of you ever saw Chee Tor there aren't masses of trains but it's a beautifully modelled section of Derbyshire and the crowds were permanently 4 deep at shows, peter Kazer's Corris (only 3 engines and they were all the same) has a similar wow. Not tail chasing is a good start - have a big fiddle yard so you can send a variety of trains into the scene and then out again a la Stoke Summit or Mostyn. I totally agree about the front of house thing though - engage your audience, have some info about your prototype to view, maybe have a modelling table where you put together a simple kit (and if you actually finish it then you've not been talking enough.
What makes a successful layout - enthusiasm (but not in an anoraky way.)
Kev
Just another thought - don't dumb the audience down. The 'great unwashed' is actually perfectly capable of appreciating finescale modelling - an artistic eye will help and that incudes presentation. Insisting on setting baseboard height so that 'the ickle kiddies' can see doesn't help presentation of a realistic scene or the backs of your operators; do hide the underboard gubbins with a nice layout curtain; don't have coffe cups etc on display and, as I said only a few minutes ago, engae your audience.
my 10 cents worth. have exhibited N scale for a number of years for our local club. firstly you need a platform or chairs for the kids to see layout.always get appreciation from parents and grandparents for thinking of this. I had an english N club layout this year which i had spent considerable time lighting buildings,etc with LED's(No heat). I had considered housing the layout in a members black walled gazebo inside hall to create dark effect for lights.instead i got access to stage with curtain behind layout and side curtain strung up. I used a pair of spotlights with 60w blue spots from mega mitre 10 on a plug in old kambrook dimmer switch. looked like a moonlit night or frosty morning and gave great effect with details visible and audience really getting involved in whole scene. I created a lot of comment from public on how different it was from normal display and kids especially kept coming back . I also had a batman mask i would put on and appear from behind backboard from time to time. some kids never even saw me as they were so engrossed in scene.another year I had a sheet printed with things to find on layout.i.e. where is the car crash? how many diggers can you find? especially good for N scale as people don't always study layout for detail. by looking for items i found public were spending more time in front of layout and interacting. wow, sorry i waffled on.
RKBL, I Think the way Am Fets saying it is; the train should be about 4' long so its the 'scene' if you will. The layout can be larger to provide the backdrop. To site several examples, Cass was 16' long, divided up into 2 'backdrops' (11' and 5') and one train had to be short to fit in the loop so that another could pass it. I think the longer trains we ran were 6-8' long. Paekakariki is currently 12' long, and the trains are probably going to be about 4-5' long to fit into the fiddle yards at each end.
Beaka, waffle is what we are here for!
Have a look at the latest offering on Carl Arendts excellent site.
http://www.carendt.com/
The March Mid-month section offers some very valid points that tie in with Amfet's points. I especially like the idea of picture or shadow box framing. Not suited to every layout, but a good tool for leading the eye. A popular tool of Brit & Euro modellers.
Having seen Beaka's layout in the flesh, I can attest to his ability to hold the attention of an audience. His night time layout is a trick rarely used, but works well. Wish I'd seen the Batmask !
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