What determines the locale for your layout?

The freelanced layout that I'm building is being made to look like New England in the 1940s - where I've lived and travelled for more than fifty years. I know how the scenery, architecture, buildings, roads and railroads look here, and that's what I'm trying to model. My railroad is only 10-by-5 in O gauge, so the track plan is just an oval with a single track of O-54 that is supposed to be a rural branch line. One half of the layout models a hill through which there is a short tunnel, and a stream and riverbank lined by industrial buildings. The other half consists of the center of a small town with cobblestone streets. Some buildings are scratch-built and based on New England prototypes. I'm satisfied just having a short freight or passenger train running through the scenery - as long as it looks like New England.

MELGAR

 I'd use fast terrain change, tunnels, bridges, and or lines of trees, etc as a strong visual divider and do both; a very small, flat New England-ish town/stop to the right; and the rest rugged terrain reaching west along the rear to a destination in the hills. Dividing it visually could allow for apperant elevation change on a water level track with some good detailing. (i.e., carving hills down into thick foam to produce valleys below the track grade. 

And a yard in closest to the controls if your going to have one

How you actually like to run your trains is just as imoprtant to consider as looks.

  Do you want to "Loop"? "Travel scenically"? "Operate" only pototyically?  Load/unload? Freight? Passengers? Switch cars with switchers? What buisnesses would you be interested in servicing?

  I mean you could go with back to back train yards, back to back towns, back to back buisiness service each other, or one no-stop twisting loop of various topographies with just background filler.

Since the Razorback Traction Co. is basically a 4x8 test track with delusions of grandeur, any scenery is based on my sense of humor (which, admittedly, is not merely twisted but actively sprained).  So, an Indian chief can be riding a triceratops past the Batmobile towards a Monkees-bedecked Clarksville station with perfect equanimity...  ;-) 

Mitch 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Since the Razorback Traction Co. is basically a 4x8 test track with delusions of grandeur, any scenery is based on my sense of humor (which, admittedly, is not merely twisted but actively sprained).  So, an Indian chief can be riding a triceratops past the Batmobile towards a Monkees-bedecked Clarksville station with perfect equanimity...  ;-) 

Mitch 

And that’s not the half of it.  There’s Fortesque, Norma Bates Kitteh, etc., etc.,...  

Adriatic posted:

 I'd use fast terrain change, tunnels, bridges, and or lines of trees, etc as a strong visual divider and do both; a very small, flat New England-ish town/stop to the right; and the rest rugged terrain reaching west along the rear to a destination in the hills. Dividing it visually could allow for apperant elevation change on a water level track with some good detailing. (i.e., carving hills down into thick foam to produce valleys below the track grade. 

And a yard in closest to the controls if your going to have one

How you actually like to run your trains is just as imoprtant to consider as looks.

  Do you want to "Loop"? "Travel scenically"? "Operate" only pototyically?  Load/unload? Freight? Passengers? Switch cars with switchers? What buisnesses would you be interested in servicing?

  I mean you could go with back to back train yards, back to back towns, back to back buisiness service each other, or one no-stop twisting loop of various topographies with just background filler.

Although I don't have a track plan at the moment, I would like to try to have it run in a loop but would be built to look like a point to point for operations (My club layout is built like this). My last layout was all independent loops and it got boring quickly, however it is nice every now and then to just watch your trains run through the scenery. Most of the layout will run against a 24 foot wall however there will be an L shaped part at one end that can be bigger and have a divider to make it seem as if theres more scenery for the train to travel through. I would like to incorporate some sort of small yard and locomotive facility and to have a double track main line if possible with at least two towns.

bmccarron posted:

I am curious as what are the determining factors that make you choose a locale to base your layout on? .....

.... I originally planned on modeling east coast with mainly PRR and NH equiptment due to the childhood visits to Strasburg and growing up in Southern New England. I have also spent much time near mountains in the PNW, Pennsylvania, and Virginia ....... .

.... I am probably overthinking this but would be interested in your thoughts on your selection.

Some folks are lucky, they've always had a definite locale selection. I'm the opposite, and I've had different locales that appeal to me. And, I acted on them over the years.

I've done gritty, industrial New Jersey (where I'm from). Picturesque, central Pennsylvania mountain coal mining (where my mother is from). I've had an entire layout inside of Henry Ford's Rouge plant. I bought tug and carfloat kits from Walthers, and put them in the wilderness of southern British Columbia, as CP did.

So, you're not really "overthinking" this. It's a big decision. Or, you can be like me, and build relatively small layouts, and change locale/era as the feeling hits you. 

I'm not much of a loop runner. I do very nicely detailed scenery, between spaced industries/engine facilities/etc, and run the train though them.

Have fun.

My O layout is a small 5x8. For maximum interest, it is very "populated". About a third is circus/carnival/amusements, the rest sort a of city. It seems to work, since it takes about 20 minutes to really view it. Once, I was showing it to 6 house guests, who seemed to especially enjoy the building interiors and the fireworks show. When we returned downstairs, I realized that I forgot to run the trains. 

Mine's easy -- the high plains of Texas and eastern New Mexico, the region where I live.  

(I saved a lot of money by not having to buy scale trees. )

Interesting question. I suspect that I'm embarking on the last two model railroad layouts of my life. I intend to have two smaller layouts, each catering to a dependable interest I've had for a looong time. They are:

* HO scale "KC Lines". An urban industrial theme. Based on the railroads and railroading of the Kansas City area that I witnessed as a lad during the 1950's and 1960's. I will be representing essentially all of the lines of KC during the early 1960's. Into my KC Lines "theme" I will be modeling my own proto-lanced "Kansas City & Gulf" railroad as the "primary" road. The other railroads of KC will be transfers/connections/etc. This layout will appease my desire to model reflections of what the railroading I experienced as a lad.

* HO scale "Colorado & Pacific". Circa 1880's. I will be trying to model a helper section of my own freelanced "Colorado & Pacific". I want to use this layout to explore my creative side, and I fully intend it to be of the "funky fantastic" genre of mountainous layouts. The wife and I both love Colorado, and I love the link n' pin era of railroading in the great state of Colorado. I am looking forward to having my own "slice" (interpretation) of Colorado upon which to indulge.

Oh, and I am also a "V scale" (virtual scale) modeler: When the mood and time incline, I enjoy working on routes (virtual layouts) that I have created, as well as operating trains thereon via computer simulation. V scale has its own elements that it can bring to my hobby of trains that conventional modeling never will be able to do, and vice versa.

Mine is based on a "hypothetical" shortline, operating between two suburbs of a large city.

I plan to use individual elements from real places, and combine them into my fictional environment. (A business from here, a house from there) and make my "town".

I grew up in California with both the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific near by.  Although we were too poor to go anywhere on them, I liked the colors and equipment of these roads and probably would have modeled them if not for my father-in-law.  He was the Pennsylvania Railroad's biggest fan.  His HO layout, then his O layout were 100% Pennsy.  When he passed, I inherited all his trains (most now upgraded to command) so the Pennsy became my road.

My locale became the east coast and while mostly freelance I try to use Pennsy style structures and late 40s eastern scenery.

I have no Locale on my layout, of course right now I don't even have scenery really started. My is all my own creation that I am calling J & SO Lines. In honor of my wife's Father and Mother. So I will have things that reference them, and her family on my layout. So when I do get around to working on the scenery it will more than likely have a large variety of buildings on the layout. I do know I am going to go with more of a fall setting though.