I have been following his channel on YouTube, really amazing work!

For sure.

His layout is also an excellent example of doing a backdrop right.

Photorealistic prints, and paintings, only serve to break the verisimilitude of looking at a model train layout.

Having a more abstract background that does not draw your eye away from the modeling by trying to be too realistic is how they should be done.

In my opinion; the overwhelming majority of layouts and modules overuse backdrops and partitions.


He gives a good breakdown on the how's and why's of his layout in this interview:



It has been a long time since I poked in on the US side of the hobby, and this interview is an interesting example of how the ideal of running 'prototypical operations' on ones layout still dominates the US model railroading hobby mindset.

Not that 'prototypical operations' aren't done across the Pond. But I've never seen the relentless emphasis on it like you do from the US hobbyists, and in the US hobby literature.


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