Modeling Cliches to Avoid when Building your Layout

[Sumpter250]

Every once in a while, there comes a truly eye opening discussion. Mileswestern, I think you've hit on one of those discussions.

landforms that don't pay homage to the processes that created them.

Not only rock formations, but the general flow of the "growing" areas (grassy knolls , forested areas, cuts through areas that are mostly soil, etc.)
Very few rivers end in lakes (or ponds), and we add them to justify a neat bridge.

Nachoman,Could you help me develop some articles about geology on model railroads?

Excellent!!!! The small knowledge I have of geology, comes from modeling scenes.

too many tunnels in a prairie layout

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :oops:
Guilty.......but no longer. A well modeled "cut" can be just as "spectacular as a tunnel, and, perhaps, more appropriate. Whether a cut through a low hill, or through rock, the detail in a cut is rarely modeled well.

layouts that pay little attention to the rock type beneath the land on which they are "built". I see too many canyons and cliffs of that ubiquitous grayish-brown stained plaster rock casting.. In the real world, rocks are many different colors - not just gray or brown.

......and rarely is a cliff, canyon, or cut modeled with different rock strata. Not only color, but texture differences exist in almost every exposed rock strata, Yes, there are exceptions, a sedimentary rock layer tilted up, may be all one color, but then the "grain" will run vertically, not horizontally. (vertical being greater than 45 degrees, horizontal, less).
The two most valuable resources are: 1. nature, and 2. your eyes!
Anyone who has seen Northlandz, has seen just about every cliche ever used in a model railroad.........and some that have never been used before, or since.
A small "island" in a stream:    

Front to back, this is 72 scale feet of stream, running straight. Most streams/rivers, modeled with a curve in their course, don't allow for the deeper water on the outside of the curve, and the "beach", shallows, on the inside. ( think about where and how the water flows, in creating the banks of a stream, or river.