Coming Soon: RAILROAD.NET Layout Design Contest

[Otto Vondrak]

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages... I would like to present to you an idea I've been kicking around for a while. We would like to sponsor our own layout design contest- three winners to be selected and presented on our site with an accompanying article about their design. I would like to present my initial ideas for the contest, and let you folks help shape how the contest will be organized.

The Contest

1. The room size will be determined by our staff, and presented to you for download.

2. You may enter a design in any scale, however it must be a model railroading scale- G, O, S, HO, N, or Z.

3. You may enter up to three separate and distinct entries.

3. Three final winners will be chosen out of all the entries. Entries will be judged by the RAILROAD.NET staff, and a select panel of judges (TBA).

4. Three prizes will be awarded- First, Second, and Third. Prizes and amounts to be determined.

5. Entries not chosen for the contest will be considered for Honorable Mention and future display on RAILROAD.NET.

Entries

1. Drawing of the room will be available for download from our site, or you may choose to re-draw the room dimensions yourself. Your final design must be submitted in a usable electronic format (GIF, JPG preferred). If you would like to submit your drawing as a hard copy, it must be clean, legible and "camera ready." Drawing should be accompanied with a text introducing yourself, the guiding principles behind your design, and possible construction and operation ideas.

2. We would like to launch the contest December 1, 2004, and close it March 1, 2005. We would hope to announce winners at the end of March, 2005. Prizes will be awarded at that time too.

3. Entries that do not meet our requirements will be disqualified.

Other

I considered having one winner in each scale, but I would really prefer to only award three prizes in total. Hopefully we will get a good cross-section of plans submitted from all scales. Most likely, we would not return any materials mailed to us- unless you included a SASE. I am also considering adding a nominal entry fee of US$5.00.

Comment

I would now like to open the floor for your comments and suggestions. The comment period will end Nov. 25. We would like to launch the layout design contest Dec. 1, 2004.

Layout Design Primer: http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/B ... r/TOC.html

-otto-

[stuart_iowa]

i would be interested in looking at what people copme up with. I am not creative enought to do a project or enter a contest as i usually take a track plan i see and make it work for my space..started 3 layouts in the last 2 years, moved to one house only to get a divorce once track was down and a ran one train around, now small l shape in the gf basement
lol
stuart

[Otto Vondrak]

Actually, I'm looking for comments about the contest itself. Does anyone have any suggestions for the rules, the entry procedures, etc? Does anyone else think this is a good idea? Would anyone be willing to participate?

-otto-

[CRail]

What if you took your 1 for each scale idea but changed it a little. You could have 1 design from each scale make it to the finals, then out of those 6, have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, place winner.

[Otto Vondrak]

Best three designs will win. I think that's fair (and easier than a playoff schedule). I expect the majority of entries would come from HO and N designers. If we got more from the other scales, that's great- all entries will be judged equally.

=otto=

[sjl]

Otto,

My $0.02:
1) Please try to ensure the room size selected is not too similar to something already done by the magazines. That will help the creativity factor. Maybe a garage-size room, or something with an unusual footprint representing a bay window or other feature.

2) The preference for electronic format, while understandable, may discourage the computer-challenged (me, for example). Camera-ready will need clarification as well.

OK, that's two pennies worth of thoughts....

Ron

[Otto Vondrak]

Thanks for the input- we have a very interesting floorplan in mind for the contest. Not impossible, but not just a "box" with the usual staircase and funace/water heater to overcome, either.

Electronic formats are preferred... some people may decide they want to work in some CAD program... which is fine as long as they can supply us with a GIF or a JPG in the end- or a clean printed copy that we can scan. And if you prefer to draw your plans with pen and pencil, that's fine too... you can either send us a nice clean copy, or you can scan it and send it to us as a GIF or JPG... either way, I'll spell that out more in the final contest rules. By-hand drawings are not disqualified!

-otto-

[JDFX]

Criteria and the sorts.....

1.) Whats the $5.00 for????

and now, some thoughts on criteria...

A.) Originality.... Probably the most important, or close to it in my opinion... There are how many layouts depicting Tehachapi Pass??? What about Horseshoe Curve??? Get the point... Its a "me too" location...

Now, if you told me you modeled the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley, or perhaps the Elmira Branch of the PRR, or perhaps some small secondary line of the Rock Island, now we are interested.... Its not something that we see often..

B.) Practical use of space... Yeah, sure, we can get by with 24" wide aisleways (suck those guts in, I know I have too, HAHAHA) but seriously, how many people are going to really want to do stomach excercises everytime they want to run a train???? Lets be realistic....

C.) Buildability.... I can really ramble on this one.. My philosophy has always been what is the "average Joe Modeler" normally capable of??? I mean we hear stories all the time about 20 cork screw helixs, mushroom layout designs, etc... But come on, seriously, how many people are really gifted with such ability???

Or we see some rather strange ideas like the guy who built his layout on steel studs... Come on, who is really going to go that route?

This dosen't mean I am an L girder benchwork only man, I'm not, but I'd think that the average modeler is more likely to apply some of the new foam techniques to design WAY before dragging steel studs through his house, and into the spare room, pissing off his wife in the process.....

D.) The ZEN of track and scenery: Go ahead and laugh, but its true, all to often we see (although the tide is changing) some really rather poor choices in track arrangement and/or scenery...

For example, guy has a small corner on his layout, which he needs to fill with something... Alot of people would go great lengths to shoehorn in another siding and factory in that corner just so they had one more destination on the modeled portion of the railroad... EVEN if it meant modeling a spur that barely fits a 40 foot boxcar on, next to a building that on its best day probably couldn't produce enough widgets to fill that boxcar up...

There are many things involved with the ZEN of track and scenery arrangement.. I won't go into the long list here, but another example is tracks running parallel to the layouts edge, as opposed to being canted on various tangents and soft curves.....

E.) History: For those who are doing designs based on prototypes, better know some history on the region your designing your layout around... Shame, many ideas (until recently with the various yahogroups) don't ever see print because although the design is good, the author knows little about the operation of the railroad its based on...

I'm not saying you need to know every dividend of every quarter for the past 100 years, but be realistic... How many through trains a day? How many locals? Do the locals work both directions or only one way? Passenger traffic?

If your modeling specific industries as well, know the company names, and what their product is....


I'm sure there are other criteria, but I think this should light a fire under a few people's butts to get the discussion going....

[Otto Vondrak]

JDF- you and I are more or less thinking along the same lines as far as how the entries will be judged. I am also considering a special Youth Category/Prize for best layout design.

As far as what's the $5.00 for? Well, more or less, any prizes awared from this contest will come out of our pocket (just like the operating costs of this site do). I'm hoping that the number of entries will help fund some good prizes... and whatever is left over will go into the operating fund for this site.

As far as possible prizes- I would like to award gift certificates to a major hobby distributor for 1st and 2nd Prize, and a subscription to a magazine for 3rd prize. Something along those lines.

-otto-

[JDFX]

Otto,

I'm only on the same page as you are because I am actually in the process of designing a layout for my living room...

I'm fortunate to have a wife who understands the need, and is willing to live with a 11 x 13 x 2 foot deep layout, as there is no other space in the house...

Since the layout must share the living room with the TV, couch, etc.. and that we have people over often visiting, its super important that whatever I design, it has to be top notch, not only in practicality but also appearance and plausability...

So, using all that I know in layout design, I critique myself all the time, and I'll admit, its very tempting to try and get that last industry squeezed in, but I know, in my mind's eye, it just won't look right...

Many a design has either been completely trashed, or certain elements salvaged for use on other larger designs...

Its not as easy as it looks folks, or atleast for us who still use graph paper, pencils, compass and a ruler...

Although they talk about accepting up to 3 designs per person, I'd be suprised to see anything more than 1 or 2 from any person...

The prizes seem like a good idea, that should inspire some to enter and try to win...

[CIOR]

Otto,
A suggestion on the formats.
Do a .bmp format of the building layout, with all obsticals (stairs, furnace, walls, doors and so forth) this will allow people to do it by MS Paint, or use paint to print it on their home printers. Since MS Paint is on almost all PC's.

Doing other formats too, .jpg or .gif will open it to more people.

Sounds like you guys have a good idea
This sounds like a fun contest, can't wait to see the room plan.

[Otto Vondrak]

Good idea- I will make the drawing available as a.bmp, and as a .jpg. I'd rather not have people use MS Paint, though, since those drawings are really hard to display- I'd rather have people draw their plan by hand and just scan it to send it to me.

Maybe it's just easier to have everyone send me a hard copy of their plans instead? Then we'll have greater control over how they are displayed on the site...

-otto-

[JDFX]

Otto,

You'll need to set up a snail mail address as well... I know at least for myself, should I choose to enter, it will be a hand drawing on graph paper...

[Otto Vondrak]

Snail mail address can be found here:

http://railroad.net/contribute/submissions.php

-otto-

[CIOR]

Agreed, hard copies would give you the most control over posting quality.

The only reason I suggested the MS Paint, was the fact that almost all have it, and it allows the use of BMP for printing out if they so choose.

I guess even though I have alot of options I am conflicted in what to use.
I have AutoCad, as I use it to do hardpoint design (seing if things will fit, since in cad you can stack it in simple enough!)
I like hand drawn, for unlimited design ability.

But such is life.

Why not have 2 contests. One for those willing to pay the $5, these would be the ones that would win the prizes.
The other would be "overall" so to speak and wouldn't win a prize, other then having their plan shown....

Just an idea, as I am sure there are many that might not be willing to pay, but want to display their talent. Just a thought.