how do you model your layout

[Anonymous]

i was going to freelance but i decited to model a realistic layout and i went prototype,so let me know what u like to do.

[Anonymous]

Mine's a freelanced location and track plan, but I run assorted prototype locos on it depending on what I feel like running. Sometimes it's preserved 1st-generation diesels (it's a museum line), sometimes modern heavy freight (run through main line power hauling freight to industries on the line). I've considered building a prototype location - the station in my home town - but decided against it due to the size of model that would be needed and the amount of scratchbuilding that would be required (and there's always someone who looks at your months of work and says "oh, you've left 'insert scenic item here' out"). Freelancing means you're free to add as much or as little scenery as you like - I based the scenic work for my layout on some photos of an old New York rail yard found on www.oldnyc.com .

[egmurphy]

Mine is freelanced in that there never was a line constructed through this area (although the idea had been discussed). I've researched enough to be able to generate (in my mind anyway) a reasonable story line for how/why/when the line got built. I'm not trying to reproduce any specific geographic details but the scenery, industries and traffic are supposed to be at least close to what would have been expected to be seen in the area and during the era.

And I was able to at least duplicate the prototype pant scheme for the engines......it's easy, I'm in to steam. Let's see, will that be the black engine with white lettering, or the white lettering on the black engine.[:D]

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

my trackplan and location are freelanced, i kind of make it up as i go along, but I model Santa Fe, Rio Grande, and Amtrak. (layout is supposed to be somewhere in Texas)

[Anonymous]

I prefer freelance/total fantasy. You never have to justify the existence of too many different railroads that way. Re-creating a world in miniature--with a story behind it for those who question your choices!--is a lot more fun.

[Anonymous]

I model the Rock Island - in 1996, as a regional road!

But I also have the other roads that actually operated in this area in that year:

UP, BN/SF (merging), and AMTRAK.

Sometimes I replace my RI with my IMRL and IAIS locos, to be "real".

[Anonymous]

My layout is freelanced somewhere in central Oklahoma, but I model the BNSF and AMTRAK.

[Anonymous]

My motive power and equiptment is a s prototypical as I can make it, but the scenery is freelanced. Typical of the area, but freelanced, none the less.

[mikebonellisr]

Freelance, but based loosely on the putnam div. of the NYC.98% of the people that view my layout are not modelers and most of those know nothing about steam.I've even taken the liberty of { GOD FORBID] painting and lettering some pennsy G5's, A5's & K4's in NYC livery because I LIKE IT,and not that I would care anyway, but nobody knows the difference.

[Anonymous]

Mine is freelanced. It's loosely based on what it's like out in the southwest region of the country, but with a little of the midwest and the southeast thrown in just to give it some extra character. The roadnames I model are Santa Fe, Rio Grande, Southern Pacific. Amtrax also makes an apperarance every now and then.

[Jetrock]

I model a prototypical region that had a lot of railroads running around it--downtown Sacramento in the transition era featured SP, WP, SN, CCT and the occasional AT&SF engine. I've seen too many photos of cars from all over the country being pulled by SN engines or motors to worry about the names on my rolling stock--I'll run whatever I like, be it GN, Rock Island, Southern, heck, I'd run a G&D boxcar on my line.

I do like to stick fairly close to the prototype, though. Whether others do or not is up to them...

[Big_Boy_4005]

Prototype all the way, though very compressed, about 10 to 1. It includes most of the highlights of the area, including mainlines, junctions, yards and industries.

[Fergmiester]

Freelanced as I don't have the time or energy to get into super detailing. Besides with freelanced I can run anything, anytime I want. The best of all worlds!

[Anonymous]

My layout is purely freelanced. It could proably be located anywhere in North America.

[darth9x9]

A freelanced-prototype. I model Chessie but I don't want to model mile-by-mile of what the Chessie had and didn't have. My layout will have the 'feel' of Chessie. It is mostly like what Bruce Carpenter did on his BNSF layout where he has industires that aren't on the BNSF but he wants them to justify the traffic he wants to see. Lastly, I have some units that Chessie never had but I like to think of them as 'experiments' on the railroad such as:
- Chessie B&O GP-38-B (cabless)
- 2 B&O GP-50s
- 2 Chessie C&O SD-45s

And yes, I just had my modeler's license renewed last week!

[tomwatkins]

My layout is based on a real stretch of railroad, the western end on the Southern Railway's Murphy Branch, but with some rewriting of history. In my version, the Southern and the L&N exchanged trackage rights after the floods of 1916 and rebuilt both the Southern' and the L&N's Murphy Branches to handle more and heavier traffic. This lets me run much larger locomotives ( up to and including light mountains) and larger trains while still modeling the area with quite a lot of accuracy.

Have Fun,
Tom Watkins

[88gta350]

I voted for other because I model a real line that was abondoned in the 40's, but move it to modern day as if it survived. Check out my website to see the whole story.

[Catt]

I freelance,but I have connections to 3 prototype railroads.My Grande Valley RR. is totally frrelanced and has been since 1978.

Inspite of that the GVR has connections with Canadian Pacific,CSX,and Norfolk Southern.I find this is a bonus in my modeling because I can trim my GVR locos to my taste,but I also get to see how close I can get to prototypical appeearance on the other roads.

By the way the GVR started as an HO railroad ,but now is an N scale railroad with an 0n30 branch.[:D]

Nuther by the way for you,I also connect with other members of NARA and most but not all of them (that I connect with) are freelanceed.

[simon1966]

My track plan is from my imagination and dictated more by the space I have. Individual industries are modelled after very specific locations.

[Anonymous]

My track plan and structures are freelanced. One is practically forced into such on a table top layout. But I can model the prototype in my engines and cabooses (although there are a handful of freelanced items there, too).

---jps

[Anonymous]

UP, SP, ATSF, Rio Grande, WP, and MoPAC, somewhere in the west. There'll be actual citys, like LA, Omaha, and Cheyenne, but the track plan will be totally free lanced. The locomotives I will run will be from the 40s and 50s era, but I will have a few "time travelers" from the future on the layout, like an FP45 and a DDA40X.

[Anonymous]

After 3 freelanced layouts that were not that fun to operate, I spent a lot of time thinking about operations. I wanted to operate trains of all 4 (back then) western roads, because I had a lot of rolling stock in those colors (but mostly SP). I came up with the Idea of a paperwork railroad that they all had rights on, but running in places that don't have rails today or never did. So essentialy it's a bridge route.
So I guess you could say I model prototypical trains on a freelance route.

And let me say it's a lot more fun operating on a model build for operations.

[Noah Hofrichter]

I went with both because I currently run a freelanced layout with prototype rolling stock and engines. My Next layout will be very strictly prototypical, aside from skipping certain towns and country space in between towns. It'll be based on the WSOR's Reedsburg Sub, from Madison to Reedsburg WI.

Noah

[Anonymous]

mine is both CNW never ran on the trackage that my layout runs on UP owned it and CWN interchanges with CaNW a freelanced cyber (although not for long) railroad

[CP5415]

MY WAY! [;)]

I model my railroad as I see fit. I mostly model the CPR but with an interchange with the MEC & another interchange with any other railroad I see fit.
After reading about people limiting themselves to certain locomotives, eras & or railroads, I'd get bored with that fast.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not my cup of tea!
I'll run anything & everything on my layout. If someone wanted to bring something other than the CPR or MEC, I'd say bring it!
Steam, diesel, don't matter to me!
I run my V&T 4-4-0 with my AC4400's
I can, because it's my railroad

Gordon

[n2mopac]

Hard to answer this one. I model a prototype railroad and location (BNSF Wichita Falls sub from Fort Worth to Wichita Fallt, TX, summer 2000) with prototype interchanges with real shortlines, but my operations, though reflecting reality, are freelanced to suit the layout, availability of operaters, and my own personal desires. I also take some freelanced "modeler's discretion" to include some scenic elements that are purely freelanced (i.e. a freelanced coffee shop in downtown Bowie, TX named after my daughter for one). I suppose the best term for my style would be "protolanced" though I strive for a high level of prototype integrity.
Ron

[vsmith]

Freelanced, narrow guage mining and industrial layout loosely based on southwest desert prototypes like the Arizona Copper Company RR and a few others. I just model whatever intrigues me from many different sources.

[dragenrider]

I model a free lance short line with intersections on both ends with Mopac and running rights by same.

[Anonymous]

I would say I model both because I model a fictional place. But a real railroad (csx) and I use prototypical operations. That is my answer and I believe i'm going to stick with out.


Wait... no that's my answer
Andrew Miller

[krump]

nothing prototypical about mine at present. kind of a combination of all memories - residences, businesses of significance, basically the entire province "shrink-wrapped" into a 10X14 room...Vancouver BC area neighbouring Prince George BC and Michigan USA