I am looking for good reference material to help me model the early 80's. I am aiming for 1983 but am flexible enough to go a year or two either way. I have picked up a 1984 ORER, a Conrail color guide and have been searching YouTube for videos of railroads in that time period. Next payday I will pickup the D&H color guide. The thing I am having trouble with is knowing which railroads were in existence, what freight cars are appropriate and what paint schemes. Kalmbach has produced a several publications for those modelling the popular 50's or "Transition era" but I am not finding anything to help me withthe eighties. I lived through it but my memory has gotten a little foggy. Just wish I had taken more photos. Any suggestions?
If you are interested in the D&H I would go ahead. If you really dont have a particular interest, I would hold off until you do more research. Those books are $59-65 a piece, and if your model railroad planning budget is limited, your money is more wisely spent elsewhere.
Wikipedia would get you started. The ORER will tell you what railroads existed in the 1980s (at least on paper).
RR Fallen Flags is a good place for photos, as well as RR picture Archives. Im sure someone else will chime in with some other good online photo resources.
There is a book called North American Railroad Family Trees that would also be helpful. The 1980s were an interesting time in US railroad history. Can be found in your local hobby shop or
https://www.amazon.com/North-American-Railroad-Family-Trees/dp/0760344884
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staggers_Rail_Act
A lot of short lines got started in the 1980s.
What type of railroading interests you? Conrail and D&H existed in the 1980s. D&H was absorbed by Guilford then subsequently booted out, bought by CP in 1991 and has been since parted out.
Maine Central and Boston and Maine lost their corporate independence. Milwaukee Road Western extension was abandoned in 1980 and the eastern part of the sytem became part of the Soo Line in 1986.
Indiana railroad was started in March of 1986.
Here is a good conrail locomotive reference:
http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/locomotives.html
CSX and Norfolk Southern were both formed in the 1980s (the exact details are a lot of corporate stuff that, while fascinating, I have no interest in explaining here).
We lost Chessie the cat with the merger of Chessie System (C&O, B&O, WM) and Family Lines (L&N, Seaboard, Monon, and several more) to form CSX.
Norfolk and Western and Southern Railway merged as well in the 1980s (to better compete with CSX).
Burlington Northern and Santa Fe were still independant railroads (Sante Fe had a somewhat hilarious merger failure).
UP has been there since the first transcon was completed.
SP and Rio Grande merge after the failed SPSF merger (Kodachrome was pretty cool though) in 1988.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe%E2%80%93Southern_Pacific_merger
Hopefully thats enough to get you started. The ORER will tell you every single piece of interchangeable rolling stock that existed the year it was published. You can search the different railroad online photo archives for specific pieces of rolling stock after reading through the book, or you can check the photos on line and compare the reporting marks to the ORER to see if that car existed during your time frame. 50-89ft box cars are probably a good bet. You would likely only want rollerbearing equipped trucks (plain bearings were banned from interchange I believe by the 1980s).
I would suggest the Freight Cars book by Jeff Wilson (https://www.amazon.com/Model-Railroaders-Guide-Freight-Cars/dp/0890245851) (Kalmbach out of print, check LHS),
as well as Track Planning for Realistic Operation by John Armstrong (Third Edition in print, buy it from the forum masters or your Local Hobby Shop)
and
Freight Yards by Andy Sperandeo (out of print, Kalmbach, try your Local Hobby shop or https://www.amazon.com/Model-Railroaders-Guide-Freight-Railroader/dp/0890245762 ).
The last two books are invaluable track planning resources for your model railroad.
Don't forget that Trains covers the current RR scene, so it did that for the 80s. I don't think they offer an archive like MR does (says stuff is online since 2004), but sellers of past paper copies or a local library may be able to help.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I would try to track down the Car & Locomotive Cyclopedia 5th Edition from 1984. That is a sort of Walthers catalog for prototype railroads and would have very good coverage of the rolling stock that was new as of 1983.
https://www.amazon.com/Locomotive-Cyclopedia-American-Practices-1984/dp/0911382011
I usually try to get a Cyclopedia that is "new" for my era and on the assumption that you see lots of freight cars and locomotives that are a decade or two old, I also try to get prior editions. This can get pricey unless you get very lucky at a swap meet.
There is also a 1980 edition, presumably the 4th., and 1970, the 3rd edition (which I was able to find at a swap meet for a mere $25).
Old copies of Railway Age are also useful to get a feel for an era.
Dave Nelson
Many of the Kalmbach/MR books on modelling different industries will cover different times...like 'this type of car was used to haul ____ in the steam era, but by the 1970's, this other type of car was used instead.'
Not sure if they still publish them, but Kalmbach used put out a softcover Diesel Rosters book every 3-4 years. I have one from I think 1982, it's handy to be able to see what each railroad was using at that 'snapshot' in time. I imagine you could find one from the 1980's online or at a RR flea market pretty easily.
Search on Railcarphotos.com. You have to create an account, but they have a very comprehensive search engine that allows you to filter by year, car type, roadname, etc...
http://www.railcarphotos.com/index.php?
I use this regularly as I model 1988. I am able to search for appropriate cars in appropriate roadnames for my North Dakota layout. Ive been able to find photos of dozens of cars that I've used as guides for painting, weathering, kitbashing, and just plain buying appropriate cars.
Modeling whatever I can make out of that stash of kits that takes up half my apartment's spare bedroom.
The fine folks at Bluford Shops offer this most excellent timeline--just FULL of dates and info:
http://bluford-shops.com/bluford_93_024.htm
I screenshot the whole thing and placed it in a document with room at the right. If I find anything I want to add, I just put it "over there".
I use it frequently.
Check it out; you won't be sorry!
Ed
http://www.railpictures.net
A free site and no account needed.
It is a great resource. I went to the easiest (IMO) search feature I've found on the Railroad sites and typed in 1983. I found 1851 picures for locomotives in 1983 for the USA. You can further define the search feature by state, railroad and/or loco type.
You of course can type into any search engine a request for images of whatever you are looking for.
As noted above the http://www.railcarphotos.com/index.php? site is also extremely good for rolling stock and creating an account is free.
Good luck
Tom
If you've zeroed in enough to want to know more about those two RRs, then another good place to look for info are the respective RR historical societies:
http://www.dhbridgeline.org/blhs/blhsmain.html
http://www.thecrhs.org/