For me one of the elements that makes any model railway come alive is the amount of people/vehicles you can see.

I see many layouts in the magazines that are excellently modelled and superbly operated, but still appear sterile because the streets/platforms are almost deserted.

Now I know that mirrors life because sometimes the smaller stations are deserted and only the busy terminii are full of people most of the time; and there we have perhaps one of the biggest differences between Heritage models and others.  Preserved Railways HAVE to have  lots of people there, they would not survive without them.

At the same time it is the special events that draw the biggest crowds. The presence of the little blue engine with the funny face will guarantee hordes of youngsters and their parents.

So how can we model these extra crowds when we are having a ‘special event day’ on our Heritage Model Railway.

My answer is ‘crowd modules’. Here’s what I mean;

(these have only been placed on the layout as a demonstration, normally they would appear to be ‘embedded’ realistically)

So there you have it 'instant crowd' that does not have to be left on your layout frozen in time immemorial!

Mike