Model Railroad Blog

Reality Based Layout Design

TheNorm
What was the primary goal of the above design? It might surprise you. The one non-negotiable was having at least fifty percent of the surface area being scenery. So, how do you do that on a relatively small layout and still have a platform for fulfilling operating sessions?

 

Reality based layout design?  By that I mean let’s design for what our lifestyles are ‘actually’ like not what we hope or think they will be.  For any of us that have even a passing interest in operations, the driving factor in layout design comes down to the length of an operating session.  How much layout do we need to give us the operating session we want?   Given that the session length is the what pushes everything on the design front, we need to get a solid grip on it.  How long is our session likely to last?  My experience has been that most people will have sessions that are far shorter than they expect but also run more frequently (which is a good thing).  It’s also critical that you get a realistic handle on whether you will be operating alone or be in a situation where you frequently have guest operators.  You’ll quickly find that it is a lot easier to grab a throttle on a whim and have a short solo session after dinner than it is to round up even a small crew for a ‘formal’ session.  That means those solo, short sessions become the norm.  That’s a good thing.  It means you’re in the game, you’re engaged in the hobby.

Let’s design towards the rule not the exception, the norm not the once every two years.  For the majority of us, the reality is that ninety per cent of the time we’ll probably be operating the layout by ourselves.  Sure, three hour operating sessions sound good on paper but again, let’s talk real world.  In terms of session length we’ll have probably “had enough” after about forty five minutes of running.  However, we’ll also likely be ready for a repeat of more of the same sometime in the next day or so.  In other words for most of us, three, four, or five operating sessions a week that are anywhere from ten to forty five minutes long will be the norm.  Let’s design and build our layouts to that end, not the fantasy world of three hour, multi-operator sessions.

If those solo, forty five minute sessions are the norm, let’s design our layout for that and no more.  Include just enough industries to satisfy the likely ‘everyday’ and then use the remaining space for scenery.  Maximizing ‘greenery’ square footage should be an overriding factor in layout design, not squeezing in ‘more stuff’.  It’s having those ample scenery footprints separating ‘urban zones’ that creates a sense of distance and the needed geographical stamp that tells us where we are.  I can’t emphasize it enough.   During the design process there should be a constant, almost palpable sense of the green scenery expanses constantly pushing industries off the layout edge and out of the design.

The challenge  becomes how do we create a design where fifty or sixty percent of the layout surface area is devoid of structures and still create a realistic operating scenario that lasts forty five minutes to an hour?    A simple load for empty swap, operated prototypically, will probably only take about ten or fifteen minutes.  That means, we’ll need at least four industries to hit our one hour target.  However, switching every industry every session isn’t realistic.  The prototype doesn’t do that so we’d actually need more than four.   Now we’re up to six or seven.   For a typical  switching layout that’s just too much “stuff” crowding the landscape.  It doesn’t allow enough room for scenery.  We’re back to square one meaning a typical looking model railroad as opposed to what we want, a model of a railroad.

There is an easy out.  The key is to pick one industry that requires a lot of car spots.  Doing so gives you the equivalent of  many industries in just a few square feet.  Commonly found, highly realistic, real world examples are corn syrup facilities, food service industries, and logistic warehouses.  Design in one, high car spot industry, and then you just need two or three other industries and you’re good to go.   Also, remember that carriers often use any section of a spur next to a parking lot to serve as a team track and that gives you yet another industry.  If our one high car spot, anchor industry by itself will give us our target operating session length, that takes the pressure out of the design process.  Now we have the luxury of just needing two or three one spot industries to provide variety.

In the above design, if operated prototypically, the corn syrup facility alone would probably take ninety minutes to switch.  (Reference Jim Lincolns article on the subject in Model Railroad Planning 2010).  That single design decision, the decision of industry selection, is the home run we need.  By choosing that particular facility, the op. session length goal has been met before we even start, the rest is gravy.  The above plan would be inexpensive, easy to build, and operationally satisfying.  It’s attainable to anybody from young student to somebody in a retirement community.   The essence of a successful design isn’t about shoehorning in ever increasing piles of crap that won’t ever be utilized.  It’s about coming up with a balanced creation where every element has a purpose that, when combined, results in a layout that fits our real life circumstances.

 

Why Layouts Fail – The Three Headed Monster

3Heads

When I work with a design client, one question I always ask is why previous layouts didn’t get off the ground and gain critical mass.  After almost fifteen years the answers haven’t changed.  The three reasons layouts fail, the three headed monster if you will are:  the layout dimensions were too large, the design was too complex, or poor ergonomics.  It’s not uncommon to have all three at once.   The one issue that, to this day, has never come up is a layout that was too small or simple.  Nobody has ever said, “Well the layout was too simple and I quickly got bored with it.”  It just doesn’t happen.  Where we get off track is grossly missing the mark in terms of how little track it takes to keep us blissfully entertained.  It doesn’t take much, even if we aren’t ‘pure operators’.  For those that are operators, as our knowledge increases, the necessary track volume decreases further.   Here’s a design exercise for those of you with a typical large bedroom or half basement to work with.  Set a hard and fast limit of fifteen turnouts and stick to that.  It will take some discipline but see if you can come up with a design that sticks to that limit.

The third trap, ergonomics, is dangerous because it’s so subtle.  Our discomfort and dissatisfaction with a layout with poor ergonomics is often hidden in our sub-conscious.   We find our enthusiasm dwindling with each passing year and aren’t sure why.  The key word here is ‘easy access’.  It is absolutely critical that ALL track be within easy ‘grab and go’, arms reach, accessible distance.  For your average person this means no further than 27 inches from the fascia.  It also means avoiding hidden track at all costs.  Long tunnels, hidden staging, hard to reach staging are deal killers.  The scary part is the problem isn’t so obvious during the first year when your enthusiasm is so high that you are willing to overlook any and all inconvenience.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m frequently viewed as a champion of small layouts.  That’s not the case at all.  I’m a champion of designs that quickly and easily get people immersed in the hobby.  It just so happens that for most people smaller and simpler layouts are the best way to do that.

What We Want & How to Get It

 

Which DCC system is best?  What is the best aisle width? What era should I model?  What radius should I make my curves?  Ultimately questions such as these end being no more than  minutiae, generally irrelevant.

There are two primary reasons we engage in model railroading.  First is the satisfaction of assembly and as a creative outlet.  The second, and most important, is to re-create an emotional connection in miniature.  To be transported in such a way that meaningful emotions are triggered.   Without this self awareness we are just gluing pieces of plastic together and watching something move back and forth.

Having a creative outlet and experiencing the satisfaction of assembly goes far beyond the trivial.  It goes beyond basic recreation.  It reduces stress, increases our quality of life, and more and more studies show that if applied intensely delays the onset of dementia.

The emotional aspect is far more important and for most modelers exists only in the sub-conscious.  Somewhere in our brain is a rail experience that unleashes a wave of pleasant thoughts or memories that washes over us.  If we are effective in our modeling we can trigger those feelings every time we interact with our layout.  In the end, this is why we do what we do.

How do we do it?  In terms of the satisfaction of assembly it’s just a matter of keeping on, keeping on.  Spend time modeling.   The emotional trigger takes more work.  The higher our modeling quality, the more realistic our layout appears and the more effective we will be in re-living our experience.

The pursuit of realism is grossly misunderstood and, as a consequence, modelers don’t proportion their efforts in relationship to the benefits they provide.  In the chase for realism most modelers focus on two areas, prototypical accuracy and ‘details’.  There is nothing wrong with either but those aren’t the primary contributing factors.   If a window frame has six mullions instead of eight the brain won’t pick up on it.  If a freight car has seven rivet panels instead of eight, the same thing.

The two primary drivers of realism are, in order of importance, scene composition and color treatment.  They are the visual foundation.   Composition and color are the sledge hammers that drive home the experience we crave.

Scene composition has to do with the elements we select, their proportions, and the space between them.  If you miss the boat in this area (generally by spacing things two closely), it’s virtually impossible to recover no matter how skilled of a modeler you are.  Unfortunately, as important as this subject is virtually nothing is written about it.   The best you can do is to recognize when it’s done effectively and study the successful modelers work carefully.  Mike Confalone, Jim Six, Tom Johnson, Paul Dolkos, and Steve Peck are several among many that jump to mind immediately.

Color has to do with far more than hue.  It has to do with placement, patterns, the use of black, and understanding what color you are looking at.  Effective color application takes practice but can be learned.  In this area more help is available.  One of the best resources are the primary contributors on the Rust Bucket forum.  They are the masters of color and exceedingly generous with their time.   Their advice is useless, however, if you don’t actually follow their suggestions.  My experience has been that modelers are more than willing to go to clinics, ask for advice online, and read articles but rarely take the step of actually putting such knowledge  into actual practice.

Once we can bring our desire for emotional connection into the conscious realm and understand what skills it takes to maximize the experience we are on our way to elevating what we get out of the hobby.

Barrow’s Stamp

 

Advancement in our hobby is driven by leadership.  In our case it seems to run in twenty year waves.  Somebody comes along, moves the needle, and we ride it for several decades.  As things begin to peter out, a new visionary comes along and the cycle repeats.  In the late 1970’s the triumvirate of McClelland, RMC, and Koester dropped the bomb resulting in a revolutionary improvement in how we viewed and interacted with our model railroads.  An idea alone isn’t enough.  It has to be communicated.  Although McClelland had the concept,  I doubt there would have been much impact had not Tony recognized the value and communicated it so effectively.

Historically, what wave are we riding now?  Again it’s a triumvirate –  David Barrow’s planning and design concepts, Paul Dolkos’ scenery methods, and Tony Koester recognizing the value and communicating it to the masses. Although I’m flattered, I have to laugh when somebody refers to a design style as a ‘Lance Mindheim’ design.  I’m just the student.  My influence is David Barrow.   The same could probably be said for my friends Tommy Holt and James McNab whose ‘Barrow Stamp’ is clearly evident in their designs.

For some a career is a job, for others it’s a calling.  For David Barrow it’s the latter.  Still a practicing architect, his career spans almost six decades.  During my recent trip to Austin I was fortunate enough to be invited over to his home which he both designed and built.   Designed in the Texas Hill Country style,  I’ve never scene a residence that is so cohesive, that fits into it’s environment so well.  Everything fits and flows together with nothing included that doesn’t tie into the overall effect.  The guy is good.  When you get somebody that gifted in art, and that experienced, it would be wise to pay attention when they apply those same skills to model railroad design.

Following my visit, David forwarded the following quote from noted architect John Pawson.   “John Pawson maintains that minimalism is not merely a case of “throwing out the sofa and painting the walls white.”  This is not architecture of absence, it is defined not by what is not there, but rather by the rightness of what is.  You reduce, you simplify and at first there is less and less to look at.  Then, as you go on attenuating and compressing, you come to a point at which you go through a barrier and pass through into…a kind of mirror world in which you see, looked at with enough clarity, not emptiness but a sense of richness.”

In the intro to Pawson’s book “Minimum” he writes:  “The minimum could be defined as the perfection that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction.  This is the quality that an object has when every component, every detail, and every junction has been reduced or condensed to the essentials.  It is the result of the omission of the inessentials.”

This is where David is coming from with his approach to the hobby and it bears close study by anyone seriously interested in looking for ways to improve their experience and increase their enjoyment.   If I had to summarize his primary lessons they would be:

 

Scene Composition

Studying David’s work, the one of the biggest lessons I learned  is that scene composition is the number one, overriding factor in determining how realistic a model railroad appears.  Scene composition has to do with the elements we include, their size and shape, and of particular importance, the spacing between them.  The Lubbock layout in the 2006 issue of MRP (shown below) to my eye was one of the most realistic I’ve ever seen….and it was totally unsceniced and unpainted.  Stripped of the extraneous, leaving only composition, drove the point home that this is where our primary focus should be.

 

Linear Design Emphasis

You will never get lost operating on a Barrow design.  When you see it in front of you, you don’t need a track plan.  You start at one end and the track logically goes where you would expect it to.  Railroads go from point A to point B, taking the shortest and simplest route possible.  They don’t like loops to increase mainline run. They don’t build over/under bridges because they look cool.  It’s almost condescending to assume that we need ‘tricks’ in order to make our craft interesting.  In it’s actual form, railroading is more than fascinating enough without muddying things up with visual overload and over compression.

 

Quick launch/simple construction

Once an individual is drawn to our hobby, it is critical that we keep them in the fold and develop them.  To do this we need to maintain their morale and enthusiasm.  This is done by giving them successful experiences early on.  We need to give them realistic, yet simple to build, layouts that give them a ‘quick launch’.  David’s construction methods are the epitome of ‘quick launch’.  Once you have the layout up and going  you can always go back and add details.

 

Ergonomics

Comfort is one of those subtleties we are often not aware of.  It’s absence however, stealthily saps our interest without us being aware of it.  David is a pioneer and fierce advocate of ergonomics.  Layout comfort is the FIRST step in the design process.  He is unyielding in this point.  No duckunders, no narrow aisles, no Rube Goldberg devices.  Everything is labeled. Framing the presentation and cleanliness rule the day.

 

Further Reading

If you want to delve more deeply into this subject I suggest the following issues of Model Railroad Planning: 2004, 2006, and 2007 (especially the ’06 issue).  As an alternative you can purchase all of the MRP back issues on DVD.

Barrow1

An argument could be made that David Barrow’s Lubbock Industrial District track plan (MRP 2006) is one of the best model railroad designs of all time.  Realistic, perfectly composed and visually balanced, operationally interesting, ergonomically perfect,  it hits all of the bases.

Barrow2

 

Take note of the visual impact and realism of this scene (MRP 2006. T. Holt photo).  Notice that it is completely un-sceniced and uses code 100 track.  This drives home the point that scene composition is the primary visual factor in driving realism.

 

Instant On Layouts

Topic: Model Railroad Design

Topic: Model Railroad Operations
Model Railroad Design

 

East rail was an ‘instant on’ layout.  In the evening, after my family duties were met, I could grab an ice cold beer, hit the switch, and run.  This, sub-conscious ease of use,  encouraged an atmosphere where I was operating almost daily.

 

Is your layout ‘Instant On’?  Can you walk up to it, flip one switch, and immediately begin an impromptu, twenty minute, solo operating session that will run problem free throughout?

Or, do you need to set up bench work, cassettes, clean track, move cars,  or uncover it before you even begin? Can you get through a simple twenty minute session free of derailments and stalls?

Ease of use is one of those ergonomic subtleties that lies in the subconscious but dramatically effects how often and to what extent we participate in the hobby.

You’ve had a long day of work and commuting, evening arrives, and the thought of getting some running in drifts through your mind.  Next up is what it takes to do that.  “Well, I need to take a few sections out of storage, mount them on legs, clean some track”, all of which may only take ten or fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, that ten or fifteen minutes of set up, maybe even five, is enough resistance that we hit the television remote instead.  It all adds up and I wouldn’t be surprised if it cut hobby participation by seventy five percent.

Ideally you want ‘instant on’.  You want to be able to hit the switch and go.  If it’s that easy you’ll find a dramatic increase in how often you run.  This feeds upon itself motivating you to spend that hour on a weekend to do some modeling, run even more, and the cycle repeats.

Given the choice between a modest layout that requires some set up versus a micro layout that is ‘instant on’ I’d suggest the latter.   In any family situation there is give and take to maintain harmony.  It is absolutely reasonable for a spouse to NOT want a layout in the living area of a home.  If the home or apartment is relatively small, you may have a situation where all the space is living area.  This means the best you’ll be able to negotiate is some form of module situation that stays in a closet only  to be set up temporarily when you want to run. It’s an environment that subtly discourages hobby participation.

An alternative would be an ‘instant on’ micro layout as shown below.  As simple as the platform is, I wouldn’t underestimate the operational potential, ability to develop skills,  and its ability to serve up ‘satisfaction of assembly’ opportunities.  When broaching the subject with your spouse it’s paramount that you make an honest commitment to clean assembly, a family friendly appliance if you will.  This means a very clean fascia trim strip and neat execution.  The layout would take up no space than a bookshelf.  Drawers below could hold mid-stage construction projects so they aren’t in view.

Model-railroad-design-10Aug2013

Finally, ‘instant on’ isn’t so much about layout size as it is readiness and quick ramp up.  I know of many medium size layouts that are ‘instant on’.