Theme Modeling: What's yours?

My theme is playing trains at Christmas with Lumpy (my nickname for my grandson Liam) My layout is a two level Christmas display. Mostly PW lionel and some MTH. The rest of the year I spend some time working on projects for the display. At the ripe old age of 18 months my grandson has learned to love to push buttons to make things work and move the throttles on the ZWs. This year I'm adding a siding on the lower level to accomodate more lionel operating accessories for him. I've already named it accessory alley. It'll be at the front of the layout so he can watch, touch and operate. 

It amazes me how having a grandchild has changed me. I'm less concerned with things I can't change (politics, economy, environment etc) and more focused on the things that matter, having fun with my grandson. My only regret is he lives 4 hours away in MD. My daughter is trying to relocate back to PA this year. When that happens I can see me putting together a small permanent layout in the spare bedroom. It won't be the dream 'model railroad' that I've wanted for years but a bad day playing trains with my grandson is 1000% better than my best day at work.

Harry,

That's why I placed "seemingly" in the sentence to suggest the inference was not intended to be condescending, although while no one has said it aloud, at times when I mention what my hobby is, you get a somewhat similar response in some expressions, how can a grown man play with trains? I want to say to them, follow me and watch, you might learn something..it's not that difficult.

You make excellent points, of course, Harry, as does Texas Pete.

We do what makes us happy, given space and resources available, and that is what matters.

For me, I found that once my wife and I started sharing our layout with guests in our home, they stayed longer (5-10 min. went to over an hour) in the trainroom.

Non-hobbyist guests seemed to enjoy the experience more once a detailed miniature world was present to accentuate the enjoyment of the trains. That's what has worked for us and makes us very happy. That's our theme - lots to see, along with the trains.

If adding a few whirl-a-gigs, mechanicals, or having plain plywood (I liked that for quite a while, too; loved the wood fragrance of it all) or having Vulcan-level craftwork adds something to the model train experience,  bravo. We all have our particular fun.

I'm not sure how much difference space makes, however. I am reminded of a master-craftsman on another forum who has been doing wonders w/ the space he has available, adding detail after detail. I never saw his trains run, but I sure came to appreciate seeing the miniature world he has so wonderfully crafted for his own enjoyment, and for that of others, dare I say, when he shares views of his layout. For example, he even found a way of making stacked ceiling tiles look like cliffsides, which I felt was done particualrly effectively. His layout is so handsome, with so much to see and enjoy, that I don't even have an idea of its size - just its masterful use of space, personal skills, and his enjoyment of our hobby. I don't know what his "theme" might be, but it sure looks good.

Frank

You are right, and I am duly admonished for expressing such a question. I apologize. The comment was inappropriate and not indicative of how I share our hobby with others. (Maybe, I needed a nap when I wrote that.)

Harry was right, though, (Thank you very much, Harry,) about my just tying to emphasize my personal enjoyment of having as much to see as possible augmenting our trains - just my viewpoint, and my "theme," certainly not "better than"; rather, just my difference, shared in common w/ some others in our hobby.

Thanks for making me aware,

Frank

On my carpet layout, I have a Lionelville theme going on.

Some structures and vehicles are lettered for Lionel and are orange and blue.  I have 3 or 4 favorite roads, but I still buy what I like for motive power.  My boxcars carry the names of many roads.

When I got back into O gauge, I decided to go with a tinplate / toy train layout look. For years I bought locos, rolling stock, and all the trimmings in a willy-nilly, need-it-now fashion and one day suddenly realized I had more stuff sitting in boxes than what I was enjoying on the layout. I took a breather for several years and that’s when the tinplate bug hit. Discovering the Lionel Corporation Tinplate line was really the catalyst.

My layout is basic green with painted on ballast, tin track, and lots of classic signals, lights, bells, and accessories (think 165 Magnetic Crane). I love the look of tinplate and, maybe even more,  the sound!  Clackety-clack. 

Theme for me, obviously my central interest is passenger service with four train stations on the layout with the bulk of my collection is passenger trains. I have no selected interest in terms of road names, if I like the looks of the train, it goes on the layout.

The Norfolk and Western Railway in Roanoke, Virginia on December 31, 1959. A moment in time when most of the finest steam locomotives ever built still existed and everyone I ever loved were all still alive. For me, the whole world changed in 1960. It's nice to be able to step back in time and recreate "my world".

Gilly

- Freight

- mainly coal

- transition era

- PRR, CP, PM

- a Pere Marquette yard near the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn Michigan

PRR and CP brings coal hoppers in. PM switcher (sweet, little Legacy PM 0-8-0)  works the hoppers.

My Mother grew up in a mining village on Pennsylvania's East Broad Top RR. So, for fun, I'm decal'ing some undecorated Atlas hoppers as EBT.

(Rumor has it .... that operations are moving to industrial northeastern NJ, with CNJ replacing PM)

Jim

Poignant, meaningful, and memorable.  Well done, Gilly!

My theme has been narrowed down to NH. It keeps me from buying everything I see! Also like to buy the items which we couldn't afford when I was a Kid in the 50's. I got a car a year, after my dad bought a 2055 set in I guess around 1954. (I was 1 then).

My friends always had more than me but not anymore!

First off, that was a great editorial.  It gave one pause and I am glad to see some discussion here.  I grew up in Bayonne NJ in the 60's practicaly on top of the 4 track CNJ main line.  Besides the CNJ we has PRR, Lehigh Valley present in the town along with B&O and Reading equipment on the CNJ main line.  To that end my theme is CNJ along with some of the natural visiting RR's.  Due to space constraints, there are no large yards or locomotive servicing areas but scenery that would have been consistent with a coal road.  That meant all of the stuff that did not fit in this theme went to other good homes.  To me CNJ was passenger along with long coal trains. 

The cool thing is on can easily place Conrail, CSX, NS and NJT into the mix if we simply step forward in time so the theme can change from time to time and be scenically correct.

I have way too many interests in this hobby to limit myself to one theme or particular era. Some here may recall my layout on a door, the theme loosely a Swiss village, with a mix of trolleys and small locos. I'm about to start my next layout on a door. This one will be loosely themed on Baltimore harbor and will feature small trains and trolleys.

A center piece will be a wooden ship model I built some years ago that looks vaguely like the USS Constellation. I plan on doing a couple more themed door layouts, one most likely a Christmas one with Lemax and Dept 56 and smaller US tinplate, and one highlighting a big main station, with my European MTH and Darstaed tinplate mixed in.

These four very different modules will be connected by a couple of mainlines that will pass through all of them, allowing me to run bigger scale consists from whatever era/country takes my fancy at the time.

In addition to PRR by Lionel, my layout, like some others, is themed after 50's-60's department store Holiday layouts (or so I tell myself).

Lionel tinplate track, accessories, Plasticville (although I ran out of room and the Plasticville is still relegated to boxes) on flat benchwork.

The Grandkids love operating the accessories, I guess more than they would like looking at a static plastic building kit.

Here's a few pictures.

I put subtle TV refrences on my layout.  I have a 1/43 '69 Charger that I decorated as a General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard and a business labeled Boars Nest complete with hubcaps and authentic signage.  I have a WKRP radio station in a scratch built structure called the Phlem Building, and I have made a traffic safety billboard featuring Barney Fife.  I have also included local scenes and businesses  Now that Lionel has a smiley face water tower in the new catalog, I can duplicate my neighboring town of Ashley, IN!  My layout is viewed by the public and they enjoy the refrences. 

The theme of my layout is, uh..., "Having Fun with Old Electric Trains!"

The 1950's. Well not the "real" 1950's I guess. Sort of a "Leave it to Beaver" with Ward Cleaver played by Larry the Cable Guy type of 1950's. Complete with a trailer park and a gun and fishing tackle shop!

My theme is the 1950's. Classic and stylish cars adorn the roadways, children play safely at the playground without worry, families have picnics and enjoy being together, gas stations take good care of their customers by checking oil, washing windows and checking tires, honest people do an honest day's work, well built houses have nicely manicured yards, ladies are dressed nicely and the most exciting way to travel is by rail.

My layout is life the way it should be.

Fabulous! So much for everybody to see and enjoy on that layout. I could watch its trains travel their loops for hours on your beautiful layout. You've captured a real sense of playfulness and fun there, IMHO, John.

Thanks Allan, but for now my railroad is in the very start of being built. I have the benchwork up and some track down but not a bit of scenery or anything really wired yet. 

Any feature on semi realistic railroad operations would might a great feature.  How to do it in a limited, small space.  

My theme is in my signature:

PRR Panhandle Division (the Weirton, WV - Steubenville, OH area).  While I have stated a timerange of 1948-1957, more accurately the time is 1954.  Weirton Steel is the PRR's largest customer on the division and the power and glory of the road is on display in Grif Teller's 1953 calendar art "Crossroads of Commerce".

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/2415514336655464

George

I'll be building within a 12X16 foot space, Lionel O-gauge track with Johnson roadbed.

Theme to be 3rd Ave. El at one end, semi-urban in the center, then Erie through

Middletown, N.Y. at the other end with as close a replica of Grandma's house as I can

get.  Early 1940's, around when my parents met and all went off to war.  Only music of the era will be present.  An elongated dog-bone may fit the bill, but I'm working on

other trackplans too (still using only a ruler, a pencil and scale-sized jar and bottle

caps for the curves.)  I might also do Middletown all in snow. 

     HOPPY

Sounds like the state my own layout is in.  I am getting close to a track arrangement I can live with, but still haven't started on the scenery.  All in due time, just so long as some progress is made on a consistent basis.  Just keep us posted as the layout progresses.

Yes, a feature on operations on a small layout is always welcome, as are any features covering small layouts (which is likely what most of us have).  Interesting large layouts, small layouts, and anything in between are always welcome in the magazine.

I model the "plywood desert"

I don't have a lot of free time to spend with the trains, so I split my time between working on the layout and running the trains.

As I've moved to scale equipment, I have cut down to two railroads, the Reading and B&O, and the more modern lines they morphed into, namely the Chessie and CSX.  Since the announcement of the NS heritage locomotives, I will also be adding a modern Reading engine and NS engine to the layout.

Jim

Urban railroading

Peter

My theme is allovertheplace.  I model Pensyltuckohiagan.  I also have a large switching yard.

..... 

Dennis

As my signature line states "Home of the Midwest Mainline"

Steam to Diesel era in the central plains of Missouri & Kansas

Missouri Pacific, Santa Fe, Frisco, Wabash, Chicago & Alton, Texas & Pacific

All O-27/semi-scale/traditional sized......no "scale"

Operating accessories galore.....I play with my trains.

My brother-in-law had a 30x20 HO masterpiece that was realistic down to not only the rivets but the rusty nails and the right type of grass.  He had operating sessions....realistic of course.  Exciting for him I suppose.  His club stopped inviting me after I asked "Where's the log loader?". 

To each their own and there's room for all of us.

The high cost of fuel oil has doomed diesel power, so the company management decided to replace all of the diesels on the roster with nuclear technology steam power.

Until new steam locomotives arrive, vintage steam engines are being purchased and re-manufactured for passenger and freight service. The management has found many communities eager to trade-in their park display streamers for 1st generation hood units, so the supply of 20th Century steamers is adequate.

Nuclear technologies from the US Navy's submarine programs are being put to good use in the new generation of steamers. Like the current generation of nuclear powered aircraft carriers, the new generation steamers will not require refueling and power plant overhaul for up to 20 years.

'40s - '60s New England.  Boston and Maine/Maine Central.  I plan to build at least one more layout in my lifetime, and it will be hi-rail, set in the fall season, with lots of colorful foliage.

Thanks largely to MTH, I now have a fairly good sized roster of B&M and Maine Central equipment that I really enjoy.  Still waiting for someone to make the B&M Pacific #3713, some B&M/Maine Central 44 tonners, and a B&M Ten-wheeler.

I'm a big fan of theme modeling. Whether I even bother to read a layout article in a magazine usually depends on whether the layout has a theme that gives it some coherence.

My own theme is ATSF operations in the period 1990-95. Consistent with that era, "money" trains -- intermodal and vehicle trains -- are prominent, though manifests and grain show up too. There are no F3s; the F unit around is an FP45 in Super Fleet colors.

I model the DT&I from approx.. 1960-1980 around the Flat Rock/Downriver area.

On my carpet layout I run Lionmaster UP Challengers and a Lionmaster UP Big Boy pulling a consist of MTH Mojave Red RR freight cars and a MTH Montana Rail Link RR Caboose.  Nothing really special, but I like it.  The Mojave Red freight car is a bright RED & a bright BLACK.  These are really nice freight cars, wish I had a lot more.

My theme is the Pennsylvania Railroad in the mid-1940s to early 1950s from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.  Harrisburg mars the end of three catenaries from NYC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia with the lines west.  Focal points are Lewistown and Mount Union where I have a personal interest.  While I collect 1:48 PRR equipment from all eras any non-PRR is only from my theme era and is from railroads that interchanged with the PRR.

Jan

That was a nice editorial. I've always had a theme to the layout - it helped me figure out what to build / buy next. That said, the themes have changed over the years and I've churned my collection to mirror them. Once it was an Illinois granger line in the 1980s, then it was Midwestern interurban line... had a dozen or so trolleys. For the past few years, it's been the Island of Sodor Island (Thomas) but steam-only.  Now, I'm pondering creating a similar layout featuring Ivor the Engine...

Here is something to go along with your WKRP building. It would make a nice billboard. Of course this was a longtime sponsor of WKRP and was referenced many times.

Interesting thread.

Lots of good input ideas.