Model Railroad Hobbyist | November 2016 | #81 IMAGINEERING column Rob Clark Collaborative design for model railroaders | Sharing knowledge on the internet I’m building a 1930s freelance US short line railroad called the Cornhill and Atherton and, as all free- lancers will know, it is a difficult path to follow. Because there aren’t specific prototypical guidelines, the opportunities to create something “wrong” are manifold. As a UK-based “Imagineer” I face some extra challenges, not helped by the fact that I have not even visited the US. Everything has to be researched or guessed, and this means I rely heavily on others to keep me on a sensible path. This has evolved into a way of working I think qualifies as collab- orative design, and I would like to share my very positive experi- ences of this approach in a model railroading situation. What is collaborative design? Collaborative design, very simply put, is a group of people work- ing actively together on an initiative. It has its origins in software XX EXPLORING THE CREATIVE SIDES OF THE HOBBY • INDEX • TABLE OF CONTENTS