Looking for information on N scale model railroading. Doing a layout set 1950's to 60's. Looking for information on what locomotives both Diesel and steam would have been in use in this time frame.
Any help would be great.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
When I started in HO, your timeframe that was modern era. So, I'm still enamored of that time.
Most diesel locomotives we're 4-axle units, like GP9s and various F units by many manufacturers. This was the tail end of the steam era, and depending on your prototype there may have been more or less steam, maybe very little steam at all.
The good news is that at the end of every train was a caboose.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
List of Diesel locomotives 1918-89
https://urbaneagle.com/data/RRdieselchrono.html
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Hello All,
Nowadays, modeling in N scale is not as restrictive as it had been in the past- -as far as the availability of varied and quality locomotives and rolling stock.
Are you restricting yourself to prototypical era constraints or allowing some latitude in what you run?
The infancy of diesel power was pre-WWII. Twenty-first-century steam locomotives have been produced by the Chinese.
My pike is set in the 1970s to 1980s.
Four axle diesels rule the roost due to space, track constraints, and prevailing ownership of the line.
With the era I model there are no "restrictions" on steam power, other than what I have said above.
However- -6-axle, Alternating Current (AC) power, emission restricted, tier III diesels do not fall within the "constraints" of the time frame I model.
Within the era you have chosen to model, diesel motive-power had been firmly established. While the heyday of steam had long come and gone for most Class I railroads.
For the most part, steam power had been relegated to secondary lines and excursion trains.
That being said- -if you love steam, go heavy on the steam power.
Larger 2-6-6-6s along with articulated 4-8-8-4s, and smaller consolidated 2-8-0s, along with 0-6-0 and 0-4-0 switchers would be appropriate.
If you are not that keen on steam then sway your roster towards diesel, as I have.
EMD GP diesels are the mainstay of the fleet on my pike. GP40's and GP30s handle the bulk of the traffic.
General Electric 44- & 70-ton switchers handle the yards and light-duty runs.
There are also F-Series and RS units in service.
You could also consider ALCO PAs and GE "U-boats".
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"My railroad, my rules." I completely agree!
There is no such thing as the "modeling police" that will shut you down for running what you want. If there were...I'd be in "modelers prison" more than I run trains.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
While everyone of us has to decide on how strict we want to be with ourselves (since it really is only for ourselves after all), it can be enjoyable to do the research and become knowledgable about your chosen era. But if you really do choose "an era" (rather than just run anything that you enjoy seeing) then a full two-decade era is awfully broad. Just by way of example, a fair amount of steam in 1950, and lots of F units; almost no steam (and none at all on many railroads) and already fewer F units by 1960. Big changes in just a decade.
My general advice is IF electing an era is important, then try to make it a five year swing. 1960 to 1965 for example; this does not eliminate errors but maintains more plausibility, and it makes research easier.
Someone - perhaps retired Model Railroader staffer Jim Kelly? -- made the point that when someone says they model a range from year A to year B, what they are really saying is that they are modeling Year B, since that is the absolute cutoff date for the newest rolling stock or structures, but with the risk of being more and more unrealistic the more stuff from Year A that was, or might have been, gone by Year B is on the layout.
And the more our own lives overlap our era the more we notice this. By which I mean, if someone says they model the 1885 to 1900 era, relatively few of us know enough to say "that was running in 1885 but was gone by 1900." If someone says they model 1960 to 1969, more are knowledgeable, and even more are if the era is 1990 to 2000, and so on.
If a modeler really cares about this (and no rule says you have to care, but to some people it is very important to get this right), then valuable (if expensive) resources are the various Car Builders Cyclopedias and Locomotive Cyclopedias for the years in question. So I have Cycs for the last year of my era, showing the absolute "newest" stuff I should have, and the edition before that, and because locomotives and rolling stock have useful lives measured in decades, isolated editions before that. In the 1967-70 time frame I know some C&NW locomotives from the early 1950s were still seen; rolling stock from the 1930s was still seen but getting rare. Now and then something really old would be seen, and around 1968 a friend and I found a 1919 built boxcar at a tannery in hide service.
While I understand this is of no importance to many modelers, don't dismiss the enjoyment that can come from making yourself knowledgable about the actual eras of various pieces of rolling stock, ditto structures, ditto highway and other signs, advertising billboards, and so on. But it is a slow process, a potentially expensive process, and while the internet can be a great resource and help, it is not the be all and end all for research.
Dave Nelson
dknelsonSomeone - perhaps retired Model Railroader staffer Jim Kelly? -- made the point that when someone says they model a range from year A to year B, what they are really saying is that they are modeling Year B, since that is the absolute cutoff date for the newest rolling stock or structures
This is the quote as I remember it:
"Anybody who claims to be modeling the 1950s is actually doing a very poor job of modelling 1959."
I set my date very strictly, Tuesday, August 3rd, 1954, at 2:00 in the afternoon. This is for my own personal reasons, and I do not think that it is the right approach for very many people to be so rigid.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
What railroad?
By 1950, the MP had pretty much purged all the steam and by 1952 they ran their last steam run.
Most roads had stopped steam by 1956. A few (N&W, UP, shortlines) had steam into 1960. Those roads that had steam after 1955 generally confined it to a couple routes or terminals and were diesel everywhere else. If you want to run a steam operation you really need to model the 1940's.
1950's and 1960's was most F units (FT, F3, F7, FA) and first generation hood units (GP7, GP9, GP18, RS1, RS2/3, RS11), with the first 2nd generation hood units showing up at the end (GP30, GP35, C424/425, U25B).
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
SeeYou190"Anybody who claims to be modeling the 1950s is actually doing a very poor job of modelling 1959."
Generally things are relatively consistent over about 5 years. At ten years there are generally a large number of changes and over a 20 year span things on pretty much any railroad have changed so much that its difficult to model that wide a span if you are trying for any degree of prototypical fidelity. If you are modeling the PRR in the 1950's and 1960's you are really only modeling until 1967, because the PRR ceased to exist in 1968 with the PC merger.
A 1969 railroad would be a very, very different mix of engines, cars, traffic flows, from 1950. A 1969 train wouldn't look at all like a 1950 train.
dehusman SeeYou190 "Anybody who claims to be modeling the 1950s is actually doing a very poor job of modelling 1959." Generally things are relatively consistent over about 5 years.
SeeYou190 "Anybody who claims to be modeling the 1950s is actually doing a very poor job of modelling 1959."
Generally things are relatively consistent over about 5 years.
I agree with everything you say. It was not my quote or my opinion. I was just trying to help a previous poster with the quote.
I guess I should have included a disclaimer!
SeeYou190I agree with everything you say. It was not my quote or my opinion. I was just trying to help a previous poster with the quote. I guess I should have included a disclaimer!
My comments weren't disagreeing or contradicting anything you wrote, I overlooked removing the quote attribution.
Who makes the best running and most realitic loco's for the ones mentioned in this thread? N scale :)
Could go as late as 1965 in the time frame but still would like to have one or two steamers as well.
Accept for a very few RRs, steam had largely been replaced by diesel by 1956/1957. And, compared to HO, N-scale in steam is pretty limited. So, if you want to model steam in it's final days you'll need to turn the dial back to the early 50s to maximize your selection in N-scale.
That said, the Proto 2000 0-6-0 & 0-8-0 switchers are very nice locomotives. BLI makes an N-scale 2-8-2 Mike - both light & heavy versions. I don't know if the decoders are problematic like they have been for some of their HO locomotives. Whether you operate in DC or DCC is another thing for consideration and another thread.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
FWIW. There are 2 steam locomotives in regular service in Texas after 1960. In Trains magazine article about 20 years ago, a retired F W & D engineer talks about 2-8-2 #454 making a regular from Wichita Falls to Abilene until 1962. Same year Dallas Union Terminal retired 0-6-0 #7 that was the yard switcher. It was very similar to a Southern Pacific S-12, but it not originally an SP locomotive.
Mike
Looks like the proto 2000 only comes in HO, I do see the 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 by other companies in N scale. Will have to look more, Anyway I see you model New York Central (NYC). I used to work in NYC and lived at one point along what used to be a old and not used since the 70's New York central line that went to upstate New York along the saw mill river parkway area.
Your current layout in HO on 4x8, Wonder if could shrink that down to N scale and make it work on a 3 by 8 benchwork. The 1940's era would work for me as well. Have been interested in that line anyway.
Andrew
Kalmbach offers some books with a lot of information. Mainline steam was pretty much gone by the end of 1960, but carried on for a few years on some remote shortlines.
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12663
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/mr9110401
lstmysock11Looks like the proto 2000 only comes in HO, I do see the 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 by other companies in N scale. Will have to look more
Andrew,
Walthers did release a USRA 0-8-0 in N-scale 10 or so years ago. There is one currently on eBay in the CB&Q road name. I thought they also released the 0-6-0 in N-scale, as well, but I don't see one listed.
lstmysock11Could go as late as 1965 in the time frame but still would like to have one or two steamers as well.