Seeing the World

I was reading through old posts to a thread over on railroad-line.com.  The thread, titled "Sweetwater - A Rubber Gauge Railroad" (total coincidence that my layout design includes Sweetwater, OK) was started by Mario Rapinett who, best I can tell, is the creator of the FRocks method of scenery.

In the second half of the thread he linked to a Picassa photo album by Daryl Huffman.  Daryl is a talented modeler and has won a number of awards at various narrow gauge conventions, etc.  Looking through the linked photo album I noticed something.  The pictures it included were all of ordinary things but looking at theme from a "scenery" perspective they were very interesting.  Daryl apparently has a highly tuned ability to notice details of the real world.  I can only assume he then translates these to his models.

It reminded me of several years back when I was an art student and taking core drawing.  The problem most people have with drawing is not that they cannot move their hand properly; it's that they can't see.  Their mind interferes and ignores what the eye sees and instead draws what the mind "sees".  The outcome of this style of drawing is a caricature of the mind's concept and almost always looks nothing like reality.

Looking through Daryl's photos I began to wonder if the same is true of model railroading.  We model the world as we see it in our mind and not really how we see it with our eyes.

Narrow gauge modelling certainly has a reputation for being being fanciful, imaginative, or just plain cartoony.  Many "freelanced" layouts come from the same place Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm comes from:  A stylized, romanticized perspective based on the mind's perception and not on what we really see.

Is this good or bad?

If we were to "zoom in" and consider just 1 specific model, a boxcar or structure, it most certainly bad is bad to build it as the mind "sees" it.  Specifically, following the eye (vs. the mind) when it comes to things like weathering, rust, etc. has been proven to produce far better results.  If this is the case for specific models then does that mean it's the only option for larger "zoomed out" elements like our layout theme?

I suppose it's the difference between cartoons and accurately rendered, realistic drawings.  One it's necessarily better than the other.  Cartoons, however stylized they portray the world, still have to adhere to some fundamental perceptions on the world -- Bugs Bunny is an upright, walking rabbit, completely implausible, yet he still follows very closely the walking and movement exhibited by humans.  He's fake on one hand, but exhibits real attributes on the other.  In this same way implausible "cartoon" narrow gauge railroads are fun yet they still in some sense follow very closely the attributes and appearance of real railroads.

Whether we are freelance modelers or die-hard prototypers it seems our railroads will always be limited by our own ability to see with our eyes the small details and translate those to our models.  While certain modelling techniques, chalks, airbrushing, etc., is somewhat important knowing where we're going is likely more important.  Being able to "see" gives us the where and whether we use that for cartoon railroads or real is totally up to us.