Has anyone designed a railway based in speculative fiction, rather than simply freelance or alternate history? I am imagining a very long-term idea regarding the creation of a layout set in a total fantasy world undergoing some level of industrialisation and therefore having railways. I have no real idea what layout shape to make (I'm thinking not square, and could use any track plan that could be laid out on one two sheets of 1200x300 or 1200x400mm hobby ply, though this may still end up quite wide, or built on another material entirely) though I could use plans I have for the space, but have no idea what to put there. What industries would be served? Should I do a village halt or urban scene? What tone should I set - Perdido Street Station? Deadlands? Night on the Galactic Railroad?
I'm looking for something more fantastical than simply "what if this railway that doesn't exist now had never gone out of business" or "what if Tom Berenger was right and the Panama Railroad actually was 3'6" gauge and therefore could have bought used QGR vehicles without repainting them?" but which makes more sense than Penola Fantasy model railways' "toss a mismatched bunch of train sets together and haphazardly pile random toys all over the place and charge tourists to see it". I wish to see if the idea that a plain fantasy subject can be modelled to a high standard instead of looking like a collection of unconnected toys. Google images does not show a lot of promising items. Angst -Lesspork, and one British modellers rebuttal to it, felt a bit lifeless to me. Others have included a 40k-themed layout that looked like it fit the universe OK, but showed a lack of planning and standard of scenery that made it look more like it was something the kids threw together to play on. At the 2005 expo in Ipswich I saw a reasonable one in [On30?] though the dragon working the blacksmith was a bit too jarring. Jim Wallas' fleet is modelled rather well, but the design and planning still leaves it bit too Hallowe'en-decoration-themed to me. Are there any fantasy railways out there that are modelled to a high standard like I see in the magazines, and still look like they stand out as "fantastical" without becoming an awkward mess like this:
NO Thomas, NO Chuggington, and definitely NO Underground Ernie. And, layouts made from a handful of unrelated train sets, showing Euro, US and British trains running together don't count. The idea is steampunk/Victorian Science Fiction/Gaslamp or Modern Fantasy, not Just Train Wrong. What train would orcs/dwarves/aliens build? What architecture would work on the layout? What would be carried? What terrain exists in this land? Would the undead have to take trains with no windows? Would dinosaurs be carried in stock wagons? Would pilots need their own underframe and actually be a small wagon in front of the locomotive, in order to guard against derailments caused by hitting a warjack? Do we need elves or dwarves, or are we all thinking of them because they've been in every fantasy since Tolkien?
Consider these to start with:
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14598
http://www.fantasytrains.net/
I wish to show that we can use our own imaginations to make great works of railway modelling, and not stuff every show full of Thomas and LEGO because the public expects nothing more than having their kids entertained.
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