The Award
winning ....
Here are some unsolicited and unchanged (except for spelling errors) comments from people who have seen the layout, both in person and from photos on various web pages ...
This looks to be a finely crafted, & most imaginative layout! Excellent work!
Fantastic work and a really unusual and really neat layout.
Wow! That looks brilliant Doug. Something (the subway) I have always thought about doing.
The level of detail there is awesome! That is some really fine work!
Boy, if "patience is a virtue", than this is a very virtuous layout. The detail and accuracy is outstanding and the effort put into it shows.
Oh, wow! That looks too cool for words.
Excellent work, the detail is amazing!
Outstanding! I love those tall buildings. It looks like a real place.
Your layout totally blew me away, I drool every time I see it. Its no wonder I love N scale look at what you can do with it.
This layout is a super-detail masterpiece! Excellent photos, & just simply AMAZING modelling! Why subscribe to the modelling press, when I can just go online & see work of this calibre?
Doug your layout is simply amazing! Fantastic work!
What a crowded, busy, highly detailed, urban scene! Fantastic modelling, Doug!
Great to see some more shots of your city scenes. There are plenty of model railroads featuring industrial or rural scenes but few that feature the detail-rich environs of the central business district.
Wow that's a lot of work! It looks very realistic, nice work!
I continue to be impressed by your layout!!
Congratulations Doug! its an inspiration!
Wow! Lots of work (and time!) went into this and it came out superb!
This is simply astounding! Excellent work. I don't miss my lapsed magazine subscriptions one bit when I see this!
That's a great "busy" city scene Doug. Love the bus interchange idea. Looks good.
Amazing work! There is so much detail in everything!
Looking absolutely fabulous !!!!!
congratulations to the master!! :-) I look foward to the pics I think this on going layout must be some kind of reference point for any scale and type of layout.
Excellent work Doug! Love the "hustle & bustle" at the bus station. The workshop area has been really well scenicked. Top work.
Setagaya deeply impressed me.
It's encouraging to see the interest in Japanese prototype. Let's hope it spreads. Great job, Doug. The time you spend documenting your layouts (even the ones you don't build) has helped me, and I'm sure others, a lot. Many thanks.
Wow! Doug! The bottom picture with the "depth background" is: AWESOME! Great Job!
Lookin' good! I love all the signs and ads on the buildings and in windows.
Masterful job, Doug! Thanks for posting the latest photos. I've never seen photos of any layout that does as good a job as Setagaya in capturing the look and feel of dense, heterogenous, asymmetric urban Japan. Most photos of Japanese-built layouts that I've seen in Kato and Tomix planbooks give the "Disney-style" idealized look. You've built the real thing. And did it from a seamless-looking mix of Japanese, European and at least one American building kits. This layout just keeps getting better-and-better. Adding a large video screen to the side of a department store really works.
As always with your layout, it looks most impressive, Doug.
A real work of art. (A colleague's comment when looking at the article in February's 'Continental Modeller' today. He was particularly impressed by the photo on page 84 showing the Atlas skyscrapers.) A 'gold standard' to aim towards. I'm full of admiration. Why wasn't it the 'Layout of the Month'?
It's an inspiring layout and well deserves the win. Even better has been the fact that you've never been afraid to attack it with a saw and change it around when the mood strikes.
A real work of art. (A colleague's comment when looking at the article in February's 'Continental Modeller' today. He was particularly impressed by the photo on page 84 showing the Atlas skyscrapers.) A 'gold standard' to aim towards. I'm full of admiration. Why wasn't it the 'Layout of the Month'? Will immediately go to the Setagaya website.
W O W ! I am impressed. What a marvellous piece of work you did and the magazine article was excellent. Worthy of such a complex layout. It couldn't be more authentic. I love the Kouban. Where did you get all those buildings? I am amazed at how much you managed to get into that space.
Last week I had an opportunity to get the Feb 2006 Continental Modeller at MB Kleins in Baltimore USA (US$6.50) to see the piece about Doug Coster's Setagaya. It's an incredible article about an incredible layout: 8 pages of text and 21 colour photos and a track plan - an essential reference for anyone who wants to model urban Japan. Great detail in the close-up shots. I was rushed when I visited the shop and don't know if I got the last one, but Kleins may be able to order other copies for JR fans in the area. I don't follow modelling magazines very closely, but I wonder if this is the most detailed English-language article about a Japanese-themed layout that's appeared in recent years. I wouldn't be surprised. Congratulations, Doug!
Congratulations on the awards; based on the website pix, I'd say they are well deserved.
My congrats too to the layout, its a real inspiration for me while designing my own layout! The city scene and the subway station are fantastic!
This is the most unbelievable layout I have ever seen, and certainly the most unique ! Well done.
Fantastic Job Doug! I love the Subway cut out...........COOL!
Doug, it's always a pleasure to see updated photos of Setagaya. I like the blue-windowed Diotown high-rise you added on the right side of the layout. Please take more photos before decommissioning the layout. It is truly a work of art and will be a sad day when the last show closes.
A comment after the exhibition in Melbourne - "On behalf of the Committee, I'm writing to thank you for bringing your quite outstanding 'Setagaya' layout to our annual exhibition weekend, and hope that you enjoyed being with us. This most unusual exhibit caused quite a tremendous amount of interest and much favourable comment. I doubt if such a successful portrait of the compact Japanese urban landscape has ever been previously achieved in any scale, let alone N - no wonder you have received so many awards and acclamations ! How on earth are you going to top this one ? Again, many thanks for allowing us Victorians the privilege of seeing this tour-de-force !"
Congratulations, Doug, on all the awards! I'm glad to have had the privilege of seeing this layout in person.
love the use of the tomix overhead station bridge units to create the bridge between two buildings! very clever! lookin good!
Keep up the awesome work on that layout, it's incredible!
And the final word that says it all ...
At one exhibition, a middle aged lady was heard to comment that "this layout is ridiculous - there could not be such a place looking like this - so many buildings and so crowded" ... Another person standing next to her replied, "Excuse me madam, I have just returned from Japan, and it is EXACTLY like this !!!"