Essay - Exhibition Layouts More Creative?

Why Exhibition Layouts Are More Creative

By Nicholas Kalis

All other things being equal an exhibition layout demands greater creativity than a large layout.  In therein lies their appeal to me and I would venture to the thousands who come out to see them at European model railroad shows. Visitors are impressed with builders who make do with less yet still wow their audience. 

This should not be taken as a swipe against larger layouts - they too can and do achieve heights of greatness - they just have more leeway as to what they include. While large layouts can exhibit great creativity, the demand for creativity is not as great. A large layout can impress just by its sheer size and the extra labor and materials it commands for its completion - not so with the exhibition layout.

Before going any further I should explain what I mean by layouts telling a story. With any model railroad, the story - coherent or not - involves era, place, season, management, how the railroad earns its revenue, challenges the railroad faces (geographic, labor, etc.), and weather.

Why the greater creativity with exhibition layouts? Exhibition layouts being smaller must deal with

• Telling its story - and every successful layout must tell a story - nothing can be wasted - every item on the exhibition layout - backdrop, valance, fascia, rolling stock, track, motive power, scenery, structures, vehicles, figures - must all contribute to the story. This is often seen in great fiction writing; the often-innocuous detail one encounters early in a book, can often turn up later in the story line; so too will features in a smaller layout contribute to the story.
• There will not be sufficient room - as in a larger layout - to repeat features - the exhibition layout builder gets one shot at making his point with some feature - that feature must be clear - that is it must illustrate the point to be made without confusion.
• So, the exhibition layout must carefully choose the road vehicles, the structures, the figures (both human and animal) to be dead on appropriate for the era and place being modeled. How did this railroad earns its living? In an exhibition layout there is little room to explain so everything must be clear and well thought out. I would guess that great exhibit layouts require some teamwork in the sense that the builder collects ideas from trusted advisors.

These points were made clear to me when as a young man I lived in constrained quarters - my first studio apartment and then later a one-bedroom garden condominium. Living alone with few financial resources or space, I would visit my local public library and borrow decorating books; but not just any decorating books. I would focus on those books aimed at decorating the small space. The contrast between books aimed at homeowners decorating larger homes and those books assisting those seeking to decorate smaller spaces was very apparent. What did I notice? Smaller living spaces required more creativity to achieve the goals one has for their living space - comfort, aesthetics, storage, some open space even when the space is constrained, and probably some effort to keep costs down. A smaller residential space poses more challenges in balancing the various needs one has in decorating their space. Every piece of furniture, every wall color chosen, every floor covering chosen must be thought through carefully - there is little room for error so to speak. Sounding like how the builder of an exhibition layout must think? Yes. To extend the analogy, exhibition model railroads must make a similar effort to decorators of small spaces. The creativity that results in an exhibition layout facing those same challenges is what excites the crowds attending such exhibitions.

Revised January 29, 2023

Revised March 16, 2023