The Doobie Brothers’ song 'What a Fool Believes' plays softly in the background.
Host Frank Madwood takes to the mic.
Host Frank Madwood takes to the mic.
Frank: Last week we received a postcard from a listener in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying that on the show we too often confuse layout with model railroad. He wrote that we’d be doing a great service to the community by clarifying the terms so that those listeners of a more weak-minded disposition, such as his cousin Cal, wouldn’t prattle on about their tremendous model railroads that were in fact just layouts.
I don’t think we have any weak-minded listeners, but it seemed like an interesting topic, and we asked Professor Mary Ellesmere, director of the University of New Toronto’s Centre for Rail Guided Transportation to help us understand if there is any distinction between layout and model railroad.
Professor Ellesmere joins in me in the studio today to discuss what she found. Professor Ellesmere, welcome to the show.
Background music fades out.
Mary: Thank you, and, Mary, please.
Frank: Mary, is there any difference between a layout and a model railroad?
Mary: Yes and no. In everyday writing and conversation those terms get used interchangeably, but if we look back at some old writing in the field, we often see layout being used to talk about a temporary arrangement of track, often put together on a floor, especially near or around a Christmas tree, with model railroad reserved for a more permanent or fixed configuration that in some way tries to replicate something about an actual railroad. A model railroad, especially its track plan, will often be referred to as a layout, but those temporary setups aren’t referred to as model railroads.
Frank: So, layout is something temporary and doesn't necessarily represent a real railroad?
Mary: That's right. Strictly speaking, layouts seem to be more about loose, temporary, free-form fun. But, in everyday usage, layout is often used to talk about any type of track construction from something temporary under a Christmas tree to a highly, detailed, fully operational, historically correct, permanent display of trains.
Frank: You brought along a number of quotes from old books and magazines to illustrate how layout has been used. We set up Don in Studio C to read them to our listeners in his best radio voice. Don, are you there?
Don: Yes, Frank.
Frank: Mary, this first piece is from none other than H. G. Wells.
Mary: Wells' 1911 book Floor Games describes a game he and his two sons played called the game of wonderful islands. This book might be the earliest about play with layouts.
Frank: Didn't he write a book called War Games?
Mary: You might be thinking of Little Wars that was published two years later in 1913.
Frank: I probably am.
Mary: Floor Games is a bit different. It describes some games where using soldier figures - because not many civilian figures were available in those days - bricks, boards, toys, planks, wind-up trains and track, and whatever miscellanea could be found around the house, two islands would be laid out on a floor, and they'd play out stories that came to mind from the scenes they'd build. They'd continually iterate the physical scenes and stories based on the scenes and stories they imagined. This could go on for a few days until the floor had to be reclaimed for more mundane purposes.
Frank: No battles?
Mary: Those came later in Little Wars.
Frank: How does our word layout figure in this?
Mary: It turns out Wells never uses the term layout in the book, even when discussing train track set ups. He talks about 'arrangements', but these arrangements share a lot in common with our train layouts. And arrangements is a good word for them.
Frank: That's your cue Don.
Don: Yes, Frank. These we arrange and rearrange in various ways upon our floor, making a world of them.
Frank: What's next Mary?
Mary. This piece is from the April 1927 issue of Meccano Magazine. Think of it as layout planning guidance where the terrain is a whole house. Floors are involved like in Floor Games. And the whole thing is temporary of course.
Don: It frequently happens that, owing to the limited floor space available in a small room, particularly one containing a good deal of furniture, a satisfactory layout is difficult to arrange. In many even quite small houses, however, there is often a fairly long hall or landing that can be pressed into service, thus making possible a much longer run than could be obtained in any of the rooms. In the case of a landing it is often possible to arrange the layout so that the line passes into and round a bedroom, and it is quite exciting to watch the trains disappear into the room and come into view again in business-like fashion shortly afterwards! The possibilities of a layout of this kind are almost unlimited. We know of one case in which three boys, each of whom possesses a good supply of Hornby train material, have a glorious time almost every Saturday afternoon by combining the whole of their railway material and laying out an elaborate track on a landing.
Frank: The Hornby company published that magazine, and manufactured Meccano and model train equipment didn't they?
Mary: Yes, the piece is a bit self-serving. Unlike Wells who looks at building an entire world from things you readily get - from a store or around the house - the focus here is trains. The model train and track manufacturers are always looking for ways to promote their product, which isn't bad, and one method is to suggest ways to use lots of track. But it plays on something boys and girls like to do: build their own miniature worlds.
Frank: And the writer referred to that Hornby miniature world of track as a layout.
Mary: Yes, and the term model railroad, or model railway in this case, didn't appear in the article.
Frank: And then there's W. K. Wathers of Walthers fame.
Mary: Yes, beginning in the January 1934 issue of Model Railroader he wrote a series of articles describing the journey from a layout under the Christmas tree to a full, permanent model railroad.
Frank: One last time Don.
Don: "Well, if this isn't the best Christmas I ever had." Such was the remark of 14-year old Bill Smith as he surveyed the electric train outfit all laid out under the tree.
Frank: How do you recommend we use these terms ?
Mary: That's not for me to say, but keep in mind that layout isn't always just another way to say model railroad. Layout can imply a loose, temporary and unfettered alternative way to approach the hobby, and for that, it's good to know its hidden meaning.
Frank: We'll keep that in mind. Thank-you Mary for coming in today.
Mary: It's been a pleasure.
Frank: Next week Wescott and Schopp return to discuss omnivagant trefoil streetcar layouts, er, model railroads, er, model traction layouts, er, oh fudge. Take us home Bobby…
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