How do you photograph an American outline model when your closest station is all European stuff?

I've shot models against real equipment that didn't match plenty of times, and honestly both approaches work, it just depends on what you want the photo to say. If you blur hard enough, say shooting wide open at f/1.8 to f/2.8 and putting a good ten feet or more between you and the background train, the real one turns into colored streaks and the model reads as the only subject. The trick there is getting low so you're shooting the model at track level, which flattens the perspective and makes the background smear read as generic platform rather than specific country. A longer lens helps too, something in the 85 to 135mm range, beacuse compression makes the background train feel closer and less identifiable. What kills these shots is midday sun and a busy platform. Overcast or late afternoon, empty-ish platform, tight crop, and nobody can tell a TGV from a Vifty at that point. But I'll be honest, the lean-into-it version is usally the stronger photo. There's a long tradition of deadpan mismatch shots in this hobby. I once photographed a GG1 model sitting at Altona station in Hamburg next to a line of ICE sets and it looks absurd in the best way, like a postcard from a timeline that never happened. The mismatch only works if you commit though. Get the model dead level, nail the focus, keep the real train sharp enough to recognize, and let the viewer do the double take. Half-blurred half-committed is where things look off, which sounds like where you landed.

One more angle for you: there's actual history connecting the two worlds. Amtrak leased an ICE trainset for testing back in the early 90s and ran it on the Northeast Corridor, and the Genesis cabs were reportedly styled with those ICE lines in mind. So if anyone gives you grief about a US diesel on a European platform, you've got a legitimate excuse baked in. I'd try both versions this weekend, same spot, one wide open and tight, one everything sharp, then let them sit for a day before picking.

Back in the film days we couldn't fix backgrounds in the computer, so guys I shot with would just bring a printed backdrop or a piece of painted masonite to the platform and hold it up behind the model. Crude, but it worked. These days I'd say shoot your version and then try a heavy crop in editing before you reshoot anything. Cropping tight changes what the background 'is' more than people expect. Also, what time are you going? First light on a Sunday, the platform is empty and the light is warm, and that alone fixes half of these mismatch shots.

Still finding my feet here so not sure if this helps, but I had a similar mismatch problem with a model I wanted to shoot at a freight yard near me. What kind of worked was going at dusk instead, the real trains turn into mostly shapes and lights after dark so the country they come from stops mattering as much. Station lighting might do the same for you. One thing I wondered reading your post, do you get funny looks holding a little train up on a live platform? I felt ridiculous at the yard and nearly packed up before I got a single frame.

The dusk idea is the one I'd back. I tried somthing similar with an old British outline loco I brought to a station over here, and shooting it just after sunset was the only time the background stopped mattering. The real train was basially a dark shape with lit windows, so the country it came from just didn't register. One thing I'd add: let the platform lights do some work too, a bit of glow behind the model gave the shot depth that my daytime attempts never had.