What makes a good layout?

There's been some discussion recently on the ModMod mailing list about what makes a good exhibition layout. While different people have different tastes, I can sum up what appeals to me in four words.

• Atmosphere
• Verisimilitude
• Movement
• Distinctiveness

Layouts that appeal to me always have a clear sense of time and place. They should have a good but consistent standard of modelling. They don't have to be huge monsters, sometimes small but well-detailed layouts can be inspirational (as in 'I could build something like this'). But they do have to work, and need operators that know what they're doing.

I have some pet hates as well. There are too many layouts that feature some or all of the following 'features':

• Layouts that look good but run badly.
• Architecturally impossible structures, especially bridges.
• Obvious anachronisms.
• Layouts where 50% of the locos is one-off depot specials or short-lived prototypes, which would never have been seen together at the same time and place.
• No attempt to run prototypical train formations despite the correct stock being available off the shelf (N gauge layouts seem to be bad offenders at this; how many malformed Virgin Cross-Country locomotive-hauled sets have you seen?)
• Unpainted brass kettles (I'm surprised how often you see this on finescale kettle layouts)

These are some examples of layouts I've liked, all of which display differing degrees of Atmosphere, Verisimilitude, Movement and Distinctiveness.

Dewsbury Midland
The Manchester Model Railway Club's massive 00 gauge slice of urban West Yorkshire. It alternates between 60s steam and 70s blue diesels at different shows, but the big draw is the superb architectural modelling.

Chee Tor
The MMRC again, this time 2mm finescale. Set in the limestone hills of Derbyshire in the mid-60s, it's the sort of thing you can only build in a small scale, where the scenery dwarfs the trains.

Dduallt
Yes, I know it's a narra gauge kettle layout, but it's an actual prototype, well-researched and well-modelled. Just about the only really good model of a preserved line I've ever seen. Set in 1988, it represents the Ffestiniog's famous spiral.

Acton Main Line

One of the first really high quality diesel era N gauge exhibition layouts, now retired from the exhibition circuit, sadly. It's a very well-researched and well-detailed model of the real location in west London circa 1989. With six running lines there's always something moving, making the layout a crowd-puller.

Hedges Hill Cutting

A prime example of minimum space N inspirational for people who didn't think they had space for a layout. It's very small but extremely well-detailed slice of south London that just oozes atmosphere.

Woodhead

Another example of the minimum space N genre, this one evokes the bleak hills of the Pennines, on the now closed Woodhead line, featuring the distinctive 1500V DC locomotives that were unique to this line.

Shaweport

Another smallish N gauge model, representing the North Staffordshire main line in the early privatisation era. Although it's not a model of any specific real life location, it's firmly anchored in time and place by the rolling stock.

Därlingen
Being into Swiss-outline modelling myself, I have to include a Swiss N gauge layout, and this is the best one I've seen on the circuit. It's a model of a prototype location, a small passing station on the single-track branch from Speiz to Interlaken.

Europ 3
Another big all-action crowd-pleaser, a large HO layout based on an Italian electrified main line. I don't know enough about Italian prototypes to know how accurate it is, but it certainly looks impressive, with a high standard of scenic modelling and plenty of movement.

Stoke Summit
This is one of those layouts where it's the stock rather than the scenery that makes it. The layout is set on the East Coast Main Line between Peterborough and Grantham, and consists of a long straight line in a cutting fed by a massive set of off-stage storage roads. The owner clearly loves building coach kits, and has gone to a lot of effort researching accurate train formations. It really captures the experience of watching the trains go past on a busy main line, never knowing what's going to turn up next.