Lake District, Norfolk or Cornwall; which is easier?

[AndyH01]

Hi all.
New to all this. I have currently just laid some track down to play with.

I'm now starting to think do I want to model a specific area or make uo, tempted to go somewhere in-between owing to.lacking skills and finance to do a proper job.

Struggling for inspiration so thinking about where we go on holiday in our VW campervan, we mostly frequent Cromer in Norfolk but other favourite places include Cornwall/Scilly isles and in fact been on the sleeper train from London to Penzance and Lake Districts.

Out the 3 areas, which be easiest/cheapest one to model and ideally replicate the track plan in the space I have?

Whilst I imagine these routes are point to point in real life, I want at least one maybe 2 loops. It's also got be fun and interesting to a 6 year old.

From my initial quick research Norfolk had around 100 miles of track and one tunnel. Lake District would have I guess viduct/height ?

[flying scotsman123]

I'm a big fan of picking an area as "inspiration", if not modelling a real location as so many places have their own architectural feel, associated either with the geographical location, the original railway company, or a combination of both.

However, I think you may be looking at things the wrong way around when it comes to a track plan. All areas of the country have all sizes of stations, so if you're looking for a small station in Cornwall or a big station in Norfolk or the other way around you'll find it. It's probably best to work out what "sort" of station you want and can fit first, then pick an area of the country and look for a station in that area that closest resembles what sort of arrangement you'd like. How many platforms do you envisage, and how big a goods yard, if at all?

I can't really think of any cost implications for any particular region over and above another. Easiest depends, it'll mostly be determined by what sort of material the local buildings and architecture are made out of and what sort of scenery, and how you go about re-producing that. Cornwall makes me think of a light rough dressed stone, the Lake District a rougher, darker granite, and Norfolk bricks for example. Lake district scenery is going to be altogether more rugged than Cornwall and Norfolk too.

[Bufferstop]

Wide open spaces are more difficult to model than cramped town/cityscapes, retaining walls/embankments are man made and avoid the sweeping curves of a line through the countryside. Often the railway was there before the buildings avoiding the scene where starting with flat fields the railway builder appears to have gone straight for the middle of the only hill for miles around.

[BarryMX5]

I presume you will be buying RTR stock predominantly. It might be worth considering what is available for each area.
This month's Hornby Magazine has a 36 page Southern supplement and the Withered Arm was a very popular modelling subject. Padstow regularly had West Country Pacifics with only a few coaches as well as 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s. And Kernow Models has produced a range not only rolling stock but signal boxes etc based on the area.
Sorry if this advice is biased towards only one of your possibilities but I don't know much about Norfolk or the Lakes!

[Ironduke]

I did a layout based on Cornwall. Lots of inspiration available and I watched Doc Martin religiously of course. You'd better like GWR/western region trains though. And fishing boats, harbours and beaches unless you find somewhere in the middle.

[captrees]

My layout is on the fringe of the Lake District, and the original plan was to do Oxenholme to Bowness and Oxenholme to Lakeside via the Arnside viaduct. Windermere and the odd steamer would be in the middle. However this is not a loop, and I agonised how to incorporate hills, viaducts and tunnels to achieve this. After a while I found it didn't matter, it was just a case of creating an illusion without stressing about the geography. It became more important to bring in the types of locomotives, rolling stock and buildings to suit that illusion, and to discard items that simply didn't fit. I know little of Norfolk or Cornwall. But Norfolk is flat and can incorporate boats and canals which could be fun and quite simple. Good luck with it.

[BarryMX5]

[quote="Ironduke"]I did a layout based on Cornwall. Lots of inspiration available and I watched Doc Martin religiously of course. You'd better like GWR/western region trains though. And fishing boats, harbours and beaches unless you find somewhere in the middle.[/quote]
Rob How could you ignore Bude, Wadebridge and Padstow - those iconic SR locations

[Chops]

Sounds great, all around. “Henley,” is a conglomeration of memories of a British childhood. I suspect
unrecognizable to an Englishman, but to my North American comrades not so bad as they have not a clue!

[Bigmet]

No clue to time period, but Norfolk is now pretty accessible from RTR, from the LNE period to present day. In steam there are a couple of real 'character locos' available, the 'small goods' J15 0-6-0 dating from 1883, (the last wouldn't be withdrawn until 1962) and of course 'Toby the tram' J70 0-6-0 for which a good scale model is now available. There's a good supporting cast of more modern steam types as rebuilt or introduced by the LNER and BR.

The GER Society have a fine range of station plan books: advantageously for modelling, many stations were small even on the main line where express locos could be seen, because there wasn't much money when they were built.

[End2end]

“Henley,”

I was in Henley last weekend walking along the river and I'll be in Cornwall at the start of September.
Let me know if you'd like me to take any photo's of anything in particular AndyH01.
Thanks
End2end

[Ironduke]

I did a layout based on Cornwall. Lots of inspiration available and I watched Doc Martin religiously of course. You'd better like GWR/western region trains though. And fishing boats, harbours and beaches unless you find somewhere in the middle.

Rob How could you ignore Bude, Wadebridge and Padstow - those iconic SR locations

Fair point.

[fourtytwo]

Norfolk is FLAT, I live there, so your baseboard is very simple and you have no adhesion problems

[glencairn]

How could you ignore Bude, Wadebridge and Padstow - those iconic SR locations

Easy!!

Glencairn