Railroad layout

[magnum3]

Hello fellow train hobbyists,

So this is my first post and its been a long time since being around the hobby...A brieft background, my grandfather worked for and retired from EMD and was immersed into trains and the hobby since a child himself.  He used to take me to IRM every summer and had countless trains back in the day.  Since his passing many years ago I'm just finding myself getting interested in the hobby again and wanting to share this interest with my daughter.  I actually just purchased our first train a few weeks ago.  As many of you, its now addicting...I want to purchase another steam engine and eventually create a layout...Here is now my question...I want to create an O gauge layout...I grew up around the Burlington line and would like to try re-creat a layout resembling that area of Lagrange/Brookfield area of 30's-40's  When creating a layout with two loops...Is it more appealing to keep the two trains of the same railroad or ok to switch up and have two different railroads?  My first engine is a Santa Fe steam, my 2nd I was thinking a Burlington Route?  Thoughts from you guys...

 

 

[Water Level Route]

Hi magnum3.  

In terms of what trains you run, that is entirely up to you!  Some prefer to have a single road's motive power, others prefer a variety.  For what it's worth, the Santa Fe and Burlington shared some territory, so if it is some degree of realism you are worried about, you are okay there.  Now a Santa Fe and an Alaska RR might raise some eyebrows of the prototypical crowd, but others couldn't care less.  In the end, it's your railroad.  Do what you have fun with.

By the way, as you get into more specific questions related to scale/gauge, you may have better luck in the Classic Toy Trains forum, depending on what it is, as this forum is geared more toward (populated by?) the HO & N scale side of the hobby.  As for this question, it's perfectly fine to ask here.

Best of luck, and don't be a stranger!

[magnum3]

Thanks Mike much appreciated. I think I'm going to go with the Burlington Route Hudson. Just need to save up for it now. 

[The Milwaukee Road Warrior]

magnum3

Is it more appealing to keep the two trains of the same railroad or ok to switch up and have two different railroads? 

Ah the beauty of modeling: you make the rules. If you want to have multiple lines running like you would at a junction or interchange, you can.  Everything is ok.  You can follow the prototype of the line you like best and recreate it in perfect detail, or, like me, you can take your favorite line and location and freelance - take liberties so to speak.  

I considered trying to faithfully recreate the Milwaukee Road shops and quickly realized it was beyond what I could do.  So my setup retains much of the flavor of that location while the street pattern differs, building are in different places than in the real world, canals, hills etc are also where I decided they would work best for my space constraints.  This is called proto-freelancing.  You're kind of winging it, but you are loosely basing it on something, somewhere in the real world.  

A modeler on Flickr has a plan drawn up for this same location in Milwaukee.  The dimensions are eye-popping.  Club sized for sure.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69512540@N04/50639771792/

[riogrande5761]

We can tell you what we like or what I like, but you have to decide for yourself what you like.  If EMD is in your family, you may want to build a model RR that follows a RR that used a lot of EMD loco's.  D&RGW was entirely EMD after the mid-1960's, for example.  Other RR's were a mix of EMD and GE and Alco.