Those who know me will attest that I am from the schol of limitless imagination. I refuse to copy anything and my settings, structures, and theme are completely mythical, which works well for me. I do use prototype equipment and everything is accurate for my era.....early 50's.
Now I see two and possiby more HO offerings in steam, An SP AC4 and 2-8-0 in Daylight livery, and a green C&O Greenbriar (?). Personally I think they look quite nice, and I would never dengrate anyone who eventually owns one, but is scale HO going the way of 3 rail tinplate? 60 years from mainline steam traversing three generations could have an effect on scale fidelity.....or is it just fun?
Just my two bucks....and I am really from the school of having a grand time in this hobby even if it means running a 4-8-8-2 with red and orange stripes on the boiler.
HZ
Remember Walthers' Penn Central steam decals?
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
Howard,Every modeler has his own modeling style that is based on his/her acceptance. I would never buy a (say) PRR or B&O DD40X or a Penn-Central steam engine.
OTOH I will never be a true advance modeler,rivet counter etc. I do insist cars and locomotives fits the era I model and I will not use whimsical industry names.
I go for believability and emulate a day's work of a industrial switching road following basic operating and safety rules based upon my experience as a brakeman...
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Up until recently, I was a dyed-in-the wool "serious" model railroader, who tried to be as close as possible to the chosen prototype - in all aspects. That has changed dramatically, when my health started to go south and my trembling limbs won´t handle all the delicate detail any longer.
Now I am back to where it all began and I don´t mind mixing and matching prototypes, eras, and regions, as long as I am simply enjoying what I am doing. The crazy thing is that I seem to be enjoying myself more than before!
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Days of yore, other than brass, MANY models were strictly fantasy - remember how you could get pretty anything Santa Fe even if the particular prototype never even got close to a SF color on it?
All the whimsy - Walthers Oscar and Piker. Jailbox. Peanut One. And yes, the Penn Central steam decals. which caused a huge stir in MR.
Today there is far less of that, the occasional fantasy model like the Daylight painted 2-8-0. But usually labeled as such, as well, so the unsuspecting newcoming isn't fooled (unless they skip over the 'fantasy' wording).
There's still a subset of the hobby who buys on appearance - hey that's a 'cute' loco, let's get it. As long as they are having fun...
I'm no rivet counter. I know some of the rolling stock I have is not exact - it's close, it's era appropriate, and that's good enough for me. Does every rivet line up with the prototype photo? Is it the exact make of brake wheel as seen in the photo? I frankly do not care. I'm not running modern tank cars on my 50's layout, and I'm not running Civil War era box cars on my 50's layout. But I'm also not running strings of strictly rivet counter accurate cars either.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I'm modeling the 1890s. I know I'll never get more than hand grenade close with the current market.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Howard Zane I am really from the school of having a grand time in this hobby even if it means running a 4-8-8-2 with red and orange stripes on the boiler.
In simple terms, most people model on their own terms and what each enjoys or finds satisfying varies as much as there are different people. So what ever floats your boat!
Model Railroading is Fun, or should be,
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have decided that I am an LPM - Loosely Protoype Modeler. While I follow the Maryland & Pennsylvania, I freely add in stuff like a G&D boxcar. Since I'm in S scale, close enough includes things like an EBT 0-6-0 (slope back tender with scale wheels) that will be lettered for the Ma&Pa. What I am after is capturing the spirit of the railroad in the early 50's, but I like billboard reefers.
And so it goes. As others have noted above, I do what's fun for me.
Paul
I think there always has been liberties taken with regards to paint schemes on various models.
For example: .. There have been dozens of paint schemes applied to the classic Santa Fe steel caboose.
Also: .. Athearn has been selling essentially the same line of passenger cars for decades with a variety of paint schemes.
Another: ... The Kato business car is a nice model of a Burlington protype, and it has been available in numeorus other railroads.
So, I don't think there has been a change in direction. Manufacturers will most likely continue taking liberties with paint schemes.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
I've been wanting to post a thread of this nature lately. I'll chime in here.
Just earlier this year, I decided to officially quit sweating the small stuff that was hindering progress and enjoyment of the layout. It's liberating! For example, I just bought some freight car data decals to use. Are they 100% accurate for the era or prototype? As I told the shop owner, "I don't care. I can't read them anyway (at normal viewing distance) I just want to see something on there". And I may letter some wood chip cars in roadnames that didn't have those specific ones.
That "Crane Shed" I built has some small compromises, but accepting them made it possible to build it, rather than put it off until I find an "accurate" way to model it. Accurate? Well, the real one was well over 400 feet long! Mine's 5 feet long. Isn't that in itself a wee bit of a compromise?
I can now fudge a little on era correct equipment, as long as it's not obvious. How far and wide we allow ourselves this kind of license is just how it hits our eye. My layout is, after all, not a testimony to history.
I do like to keep it as real as reasonably possible. Even a little whimsical stuff gets old fast, so I don't go there either.
Again, lightening up is liberating. It's fun again. Dan
I like to say I have a limitless imagination as long as it can be explained somehow, what I mean is if I want to build and use a monstrosity of a locomotive that never even remotely existed I'll do it, as long as I can come up with a background for said locomotive, I draw the line at whimsical stuff like dinosaurs, aliens, ect. If you want to get out a clicker counter, calipers, scale ruler, and prototype drawings and paint chips out every time you see a model more power to ya! But I'll settle for what "looks" right (to me of course).
Like anything else no two modelers are the same and we never will be, that's what makes us individuals and human beings.
HAPPY RAILROADING!
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
I have no idea how to describe myself, but I model exactly what I want to.
.
The STRATTON & GILLETTE exists in a world of complete nonsense, but the date is EXACTLY Tuesday, August 3rd, 1954 at 2:00 in the afternoon.
I am insanely strict on some things, but have a complete devil-may-care attitude about others.
My imagination runs everywhere and knows absolutely zero limits.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
To quote (I don't know who deserves credit for this):
"It's your railroad and you can run what you want!", or "do what you want" or any variation thereof.
That says it all.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Some times words from others ring home...especially from greats. I think John Allen once said that how strange or bizarre your model may be, rest assured that there was once a prototype for it. This could be a stretch of sorts, as I doubt that a cab-forward had Daylight paint or an NYC J3a was painted for Con Rail, but these words make a decent case for deviating away from established accuracy...and as mentioned, just having fun with your choo choos.
On a similar note, I love folks who claim to have discovered ways of doing things and take full credit for it. There is a current well known modeler who claims he invented weathering with alcohol and India ink...........sure he did as did my dad back in the 40's did with Windsor and Newton colored inks and alcohol....but Dad never claimed this was a first. Some say I invented using red rosin paper for scenery shell and coining the phrase....glue shell. Nah, I did write an article about it in RMC back in '06, but I'm sure someone else was doing this years before me.
Back to words.....Harry Truman once said that the only thing new in life is the history you have not yet learned.
Again my two bucks....and I'm sorry if i got off message a bit,
I'm a low-level snob. I admit it. I won't ever own the IHC New Haven 4-6-4, a non-steamlined (NYC?) Hudson painted for NH who only ever had steamlined Hudsons. Or the IHC NH C-415 (NH had C-425's...and not in green/orange!). Or any NH GG-1. Or the Athearn SDP40 in NH, etc.; all things that weren't ever close to anything real. If someone else wants one of these seriously fake models, more power to 'em, but inside I'm laughing and/or cringing. I'll never laugh in their face because that's mean, but my inner dialog is having a grand ol' time.
That being said, I like whimsy occasionally. If it makes me laugh, it's all good. The Cab Foward 0-4-0T? Sure! Amtrak steam? Fun! Oscar & Piker? I smile when I see 'em. I even helped design a BLEEP. Yep, a BL-2 cab on a Geep shell/chassis. Sort of like the ATSF BEEP (Baldwin + Geep). Put a brass wagon wheel antenna on the roof of the BL-2/CF7 combo, and you get a "Holy BLEEP". It's all in good fun and not meant to be taken seriously. But these serious fake models just cheese me off. When I was a kid, and not knowing any better, I bought a whole A-B-B-A set of Athearn F7's in NH paint plus the entire matching Athearn stainless steel passenger car set. It was only after I had spent a lot of my teenage hobby money did I learn they were all fake and painted in a bogus paint scheme. I still resent that almost 30 years later.
As we get more educated via the computer, we learn that things were not as we were told. Things first appeared way before we knew and lasted way beyond what we thought. This started happening for me when I looked into early diesels (used to be strictly steam). The S-1 though S-4 could have all been built in the beginning, the parts were there (except for hidden parts) and could have been built years earlier and in fact was but not sold as it was in prototype stage. So I have a lot more potental diesels for my 1939 era. Who knew there were PFE's used into the 70's, I'm talking the old wood ones. Now this is a one off and not on interchange but who knew. Just started exploring early non train inventions and this stuff was invented way before we knew, cruder but still was there. We live in a remarkable age where information is not swept aside as easily (goverments are discovering this every day). We can learn of early stuff like couplers that were in patent stage long before railroads had them (they didn't like change much, proubly still don't).
Howard ZaneI think John Allen once said that how strange or bizarre your model may be, rest assured that there was once a prototype for it.
But as far as I know, no one has found a prototype fro "Emma" the Organic Switch Engine!
Paul3 I still resent that almost 30 years later.
Maybe it is time to let this one go. However, I am not one to talk. I am still carrying a grudge from a bad ruling in a game of Scrabble 28 years ago.
SeeYou190But as far as I know, no one has found a prototype fro "Emma" the Organic Switch Engine! .
Who really knows? Possibly a stegosaurus would make a fine switch engine...just the clean-up after a day's work could be a downer for the yard crew.
SeeYou190But as far as I know, no one has found a prototype for "Emma" the Organic Switch Engine!
For those moderns not 'in the know', that's John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid #13.
Part of the issue with 'fakery' v. imagination is in the presentation. If I had been sold an expensive NH passenger train as prototypically accurate, I'd be hopping mad, too. One canonical example of this is the Tyco "GG1", which is no more correct than calling a Gazelle a 1928 Mercedes. On the other hand, if I want a fantasy NH GG1, it isn't that much of a stretch to imagine either how NH could come to have GG1s in 'their' paint scheme or what such a scheme might be. And I wouldn't have to invoke Rule 1 if some nitpicker came up to complain...
Howard ZaneWho really knows? Possibly a stegosaurus would make a fine switch engine.
The STRATTON & GILLETTE experimented with an Organic Switch Engine also. Just as John Allen stated, the biggest advantage was that it was able to make a runaround move without a passing siding. He also stated that the advantage to switch both standard and narrow gauge with no modifications was an advantage, but the SGRR has no narrow gauge trackage to make these tests.
At the end of the day it was decided not to be a worthwhile alternative because as you suggested, the clean-up was unbearable.
From Jurassic Park
I used an organic switch engine many years ago: a class DEM (deus ex machina) 0-5-0. I was not aware of any particular environmental implication a little hexachlorophene (legal at that time) would not redress.
i think a model railroad stands out if it has "integrity". one definition is
the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished
i'd suggest that model railroads having intergrity have a consistent theme and level of detail.
The writer Orson Scott Card warns authors not to use unfamiliar words that a reader has to think about and distracts from the images being described.
a small highly detailed scene, on a model RR otherwise less detailed, may be a distraction from the world being modeled. More modern day equipment or structure may seem out of place. the wrong paint scheme on a more prototypically accurate RR may catch someone's eye.
Some things will be more noticable to some people and not others.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
gimme30 I've decided I want to stray as far from reality as possible. Don't know about dinosaurs, but aliens? Maybe!
Many people here might not be excited about your plans, but I am!
Your plans might require a new thread, but I would love to hear more about your concept, inspiration, and ideas.
right now as the layout sits in semi-hibernation until fall (summer is for hanging out on the deck with the dogs and a beer) there is a GG1 parked next to a Big Boy, Challenger, Pennsy T1 (the 4-4-4-4), and some PAs. But dang, it looks cool. And that’s all I care about. My only concession to reality is trying to stay within transition era. Although GN big sky blue is one of my favorite paint schemes. Trying to figure out how to make that work, but that paint scheme is obviously (to a graphic designer) late sixties at least, so that throws a wrench.
On my first layout, before I knew anything about all the stuff gong on under the layout, I was going to build a “hell railroad” underneath— all red, cavernous, somewhat scary. just a simple mainline, no turnouts. Maybe I’ll do that someday. Nothing as terrifying as H. R. Geiger’s railroad (gives me shivers thinking about it), but fun weird. And mostly out of sight.