era of models

[Anonymous]

What era do those early Athearn, Roundhouse, Train Miniatures, et al models represent? I would like to have an APPROXIMATE era by model series number by manufacturer. Too bad they don't offer this info on models that don't bear the BUILT DATE.

[cefinkjr]

[#welcome]

You're entirely correct. This is something we've been complaining about for years with very little result.

What we need is for every manufacturer to clearly identify the year in which the item was first used and when the last one was donated to a museum or scrapped or whatever. There may be one or two smaller manufacturers doing this but I don't know who they would be.

You certainly can't rely on the BLT DT on model freight cars. I've known them to be off by 20 years or more.

And we haven't begun to talk about things like lettering rolling stock for popular railroads that never had one or decorating a model in an anachronistic scheme.

The bottom line is that you've got to do enough research before buying to know what you're getting.

[soapbox]

Chuck

[orsonroy]

Yup, research is the key. You need to know several variables if you want to be a knowledgable model buyer, and are at least thinking about modeling close to a real time and place:

Is the basic model accurate (or close) for any real car ever built?
When was the prototype car built?
What years was the prototype car used between?
Which railroad(s) had that type of car, or something close?
Which paint scheme is really appropriate on that model car, and for what years?

Believe it or not, there's a LOT of this sort of information out there for freight cars. Over the past 20-30 years or so, there has been a growing interest in railroady things besides engines, cabooses and passenger cars. What the heck, it's the freight cars that actually made the railroad money! Unfortunately, most of this information is scattered all over creation, and it would be virtually impossible to track down everything you'd need on your own to create a decent database to work from.

Fortunately though, the internet has matured enough to become a truly useful research tool, even for freight cars. There are several sites that offer more than enough information for the average modeler to get a good feel for prototype modeling.

The single best source for general freight car information, either online or in print, is the NEB&W's website:
http://railroad.union.rpi.edu
It's a pay site ($5 a month) but contains more information than most people can use on period freight cars (1900-1960 or so). Organized by car type, the site will walk you through freight car design theory and construction, and includes lists, histories, and photos of MANY different feight cars and railroads. It's a work in progress (has been for 10 years), so it's not all-inclusive, but it's a fantastic resource nonetheless. The site also includes a fantastic list of almost every HO scale freight car model ever made, what it's a prototype of (if anything), what it can be kitbashed into, and which railroads had the cars in question. Looking through this section alone can answer most of your questions. And don't overlook their scenery and architecture sections; they're almost better than the freight car section!

If you still want more information on how to prototypically model freight cars, there are some great Yahoo Groups out there that deal specifically with this aspect of the hobby. The lists are the haunts of hardcore freight cars historians and modelers (geeks),. but the hard data they have and freely pass along is priceless. I generally just read and enjoy the history that the messages contain:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyRail/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PassengerCarList/

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cefinkjr


What we need is for every manufacturer to clearly identify the year in which the item was first used and when the last one was donated to a museum or scrapped or whatever. There may be one or two smaller manufacturers doing this but I don't know who they would be.

Actually, I think this is becoming more common. Folks like Walthers and Accurail identify the build and/or common use dates for their cars on their websites, and I've noticed that Atlas has started doing it too.

[Jetrock]

It's not too hard to do this sort of homework online, or even with the most basic amount of research. While it would be nice, I don't see how manufacturers are obligated to list such things.

Heck, plenty of manufacturers still release engines painted for railroads that never owned them, or entirely fanciful/nonexistent items.

What would you put on the box for a "Dockside" painted with an AT&SF logo? "These locomotives are suitable for any era because they never actually existed, but our marketing folks tell us that folks will buy anything with a Santa Fe logo on the side."

The responsibility for such details are on the buyer--if you care enough about such things, I'd assume you would be willing to spend a few minutes doing a Google-search, or asking on a forum like this one for this sort of information.

If it's not worth ten minutes of someone's time, I'm not at all convinced that that person has much interest in research or accuracy in the first place.

[cefinkjr]

Good points, all !!

Yeah, I should do more homwork before buying a model but in most cases, it isn't that important to me. Case in point: I model late summer 1943. But I couldn't resist Walthers' troop sleepers -- not built until the fall of '43. In my world, we built them earlier than in your world.[:)]

I'd still like to see more era information from manufacturers and, if Walthers and Accurail are doing this, my apologies and an 'Attaboy to them.

Chuck

[Anonymous]

That's part of the fun of this hobby -- if we don't like how the 'real world' did it, we can change it to suit our own tastes. That'll probably drive the rivet counting, "but it's not prototypical!" types nuts, but hey, my hobby, my railroad, my rules. [:D]