SeeYou190 riogrande5761 Modus operandi here at MR forums. It seems to be either people searching on topics and not paying attention to the dates, or some in need of yet more coffee clutch type discussion. . I have no idea why you feel it necessary to make the same comment every time an old thread comes back. . No one will make you read them. You reply all on your own. . Old topics can make for some good discussion. . -Kevin .
riogrande5761 Modus operandi here at MR forums. It seems to be either people searching on topics and not paying attention to the dates, or some in need of yet more coffee clutch type discussion.
.
I have no idea why you feel it necessary to make the same comment every time an old thread comes back.
No one will make you read them. You reply all on your own.
Old topics can make for some good discussion.
-Kevin
On the GRAVELY garden tractor forum I post on, we have threads that are still active after 10 years or more. One of them is mine, it details all the improvements I designed for the GRAVELY riding tractors.
People are still reading it, still posting, and I still update it from time to time. I started it on August 19, 2011. It is still on the front page........47 pages, 931 posts, 148,000 views later.
Sheldon
riogrande5761Modus operandi here at MR forums. It seems to be either people searching on topics and not paying attention to the dates, or some in need of yet more coffee clutch type discussion.
Living the dream.
BigDaddy Someone ressurected a necro thread instead of post in the current thread http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/278169.aspx
Someone ressurected a necro thread instead of post in the current thread
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/278169.aspx
Modus operandi here at MR forums. It seems to be either people searching on topics and not paying attention to the dates, or some in need of yet more coffee clutch type discussion.
BTW, what is your favorite color?
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
BigDaddySomeone ressurected a necro thread instead of post in the current thread
That was me.
My searches could not find my newer thread, but I did find this one. I did not want to make a new one again, so I ran with what I found.
Maybe a better search function will be in the update Steve Otte has told us is coming.
maxmanNow, on the other hand, is there anything we can do about those standalone periods that seem to populate the left side of your posts?
Nope.
My employer's Information Management System was originally designed in the 1960s, and it has not been fully updated since then. Typing in the IMS, which is a big part of my job, requires all kinds of special "rules", or the whole thing becomes unstable.
For instance, it will not separate paragraphs, so you need to install the "stand alone" periods on the left. The older entries in IMS are just a wall of text before someone allowed the periods to make it more readable.
Also, no apostophes are allowed, so I cannot use contactions. There are a lot more rules I need to abide by.
That is also why I type "1960s" instead of "1960's". My unusual use of Capitized Words in sentences also comes from the rules of usage for the IMS system.
So... dealing with the fact I am a creature of habit, I just use the periods in evrything I type rather than try to develop different habits for different forms type to fill out. I use the IMS rules everywhere, sorry.
An AMC show spinoff: The Walking Dead Thread?
I caught that.
Mike.
My You Tube
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
SeeYou190 maxman Make up your mind. A couple minutes ago you said you model in April. April is in the Spring. I model August, 1954. The page on the calendar has not changed since I started my second HO layout 20+ years ago. If I typed the wrong month somewhere, well, I apologoize for any confusion. -Kevin
maxman Make up your mind. A couple minutes ago you said you model in April. April is in the Spring.
I model August, 1954. The page on the calendar has not changed since I started my second HO layout 20+ years ago.
If I typed the wrong month somewhere, well, I apologoize for any confusion.
Details, details, it’s all in the details!
Anyway, the only reason I commented at all was to let you know that I was thoroughly reading your posts, even if it were 3 in the morning.
Now, on the other hand, is there anything we can do about those standalone periods that seem to populate the left side of your posts? (to which you reply: and Merry Christmas to you and the sleigh you rode in on.)☃️
maxmanMake up your mind. A couple minutes ago you said you model in April. April is in the Spring.
It is in my signature line, and is a constant.
You can be assured that the STRATTON AND GILLETTE will not do the "Time Warp" back to April.
SeeYou190 I model the Summer of 1954 because that was the magical intersection of most of the equiment that I wanted to operate. -Kevin
I model the Summer of 1954 because that was the magical intersection of most of the equiment that I wanted to operate.
Make up your mind. A couple minutes ago you said you model in April. April is in the Spring.
You are up way too late. Me too!
I prefer 1900. Why? Because:
Fred W
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900....
I model a typical autumn day sometime between 1938 and 1956 on the NYC. I have a deep passion for the 20th Century Limited and the stories it has. The NYC also played a key part in railroad history where I live near Syracuse N.Y. There are still many signs around town that still exist...from signal poles to freight station platforms. Our current Time Warner headquarters is in the NYC station and they have kept the old building design and art deco look to it. Plus I love to run anything from a hudson to diesels. Tim
A true friend will not bail you out of jail...he will be sitting next to you saying "that was friggin awesome dude!" Tim...Modeling the NYC...is there any other?
I'm 40'ish and I model the modern era. I have plenty of steam power for my layout but I run them like UP does on excursion runs. I can remember SP running behind my childhood home and they ran 2 old 0-8-8 switcher on the rails behind my house and they were something to remember. They did the pusher duty over the grade and did the local switchout. The transition was a little slow because of the 7% grade that we had over the coastal mountain range we had.
Think about it for second Steam is the grand era. Raw power, if you could see UP 3985 4-6-6-4 blasting its way thru our gorge that we have here its a site. I've seen her twice here and just a couple of years ago I caught UP 844 4-8-4 working its way thru the mountain range here in eastern Oregon. Granted they were excursions but its still a site to see.
I like the modern era because I work in and out of some of the Intermodel yards as a truck driver. Don't get me wrong I love the steam and the raw power of drive rods pulsing back and forth to make iron meet iron to move freight or even passengers from point "a" to point "b" to get the job done. Steam is where it started for all this.
I find it easier to to model today than yester-year for me.
4x8 are fun too!!! RussellRail
I do model the 1950s and it was a real easy choice. Everything I wanted in a model railroad happened in the 1950s. In no particular order, these are the reasons.
1. Transition period. This is the most obvious. If you want both steam and diesel, its either the late 1940s or the 1950s. It's not just that I can run both types of motive power either. I have a fondness for first generation diesels, E and F units, Geeps, and RSes. I just don't see much that I like in the later decades.
2. Passenger trains. Sure passenger travel has survived in one form or another but the 1950s was the end of passenger service's heydey. People still routinely traveled between cities on trains and the railroads were still making the effort to hang on to the train travelers. I'm not sure what year the airlines overtook the railroads for intercity travel but I'm guessing it was some time in the latter 1950s. By the 1960s, the railroads had pretty much given up the fight. The handwriting was on the wall. Routes were cut and service downgraded. But in the 1950s, I can still run just about every type of passenger train I choose from a first class limited to commuter trains.
3. Retail railroading. So much of what I see in modern railroading is unit trains from a big shipper to a big customer. In the 1950s, I still have lots of opportunity to spot one or two cars for a wide variety of shippers and receivers.
4. Rolling stock. I like 40 and 50 foot boxcars and I want roofwalks on all of them. Model railroads have practical limits on the length of our trains so I would rather have more cars of a shorter length which adds interest.
5. Cabeese. I know they survived into the 1980s so this doesn't dictate the 1950s to me but pretty much rules out anything from about the mid 1980s forward. An added plus is that typically, a caboose was assigned to a particular crew in the 1950s which gives me a reason to have a large caboose fleet.
6. Peripherals. I like automobiles from that decade. I like the houses from that period. Businesses had more character too. Ma and Pa grocery stores, hardware stores, and pharmacies were still common back then before the big box stores ran most of them out of business. Besides the asthetics, it is much easier to find room on a model railroad for a small hardware store or grocery store than to make space for a Home Depot, Wal-mart, or Kroger's.
CN and CP, transition to modern. Why? Because as much as I love steam, I can't resist beautiful diesels. I swap out vehicles as required, and try to use buildings that are somewhat time-generic. My imagination is strong enough to overlook the anachronisms that remain. At least for me, life is too short to deny myself the pleasure of both steam and diesel. To each his own. Cheers.
Burlington Northern, 1975-1985. That period allows me to run ALCOs, Bicenntenial, tiger-striped, and patched units. As for choosing the BN while in Florida and never actually seeing it, it was a fluke.
Had other factors kicked in, I would have doing the SP in the 90s, or the Omaha Road (CN&W subsidy my great grandfather worked for) in the 20s.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Packers#1 2. I was born in 1994, and I've grown up with the modern diesels,
2. I was born in 1994, and I've grown up with the modern diesels,
Wow. I RETIRED in 1992.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I model 1997 or 2000, as I think it's a pretty good golden age of shortlines in the sense I want to model them. I originally started out with an era of 1971-2009 and then slowly worked to narrow down that era as my layout took form. I model the diesel era for two reasons:
1. I'm an n scaler, and there's a HECK of a lot more diesel era stuff available than steam era.
2. I was born in 1994, and I've grown up with the modern diesels, although I actually like 1st and 2nd gen and also GP38-2s, SD40-2s, and GP40-2s.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
regarding dis-similar computer systems, i was there when it happened. NYC used IBM for their car reporting system at even in those early days it was far superior to anything else available. PRR, on the other hand, used a Frieden card system that required to car movement car to travel with the waybill. i think it was an outgrowth of Singer Sewing machines.
in order to run a wheel report for an outbound train, with IBM the clerk just cut a couple of header cards and then put the whole deck in the keypunch machine and went and got a cup of coffee. this could even be done after the train had departed. the PRR system required the giant sized card to be folded into the waybill and a clerk had to hand feed the cards through the reader one at a time producing a punched tape that would later be transmitted by wire. it took about a half hour or more to run a 100 car wheel report and the train could not leave until this was done since the cards had to travel with the car waybills.
upon the PC merger in 1968 we Big Four types couldn't believe the wooden axle system they were using. of course after we stopped laughing we just cashed in on the overtime and laughed all the way to the bank.
by the way, nobody had figured on the problems with locomotives either. NYC engineers' agreement called for arm rests and the P company had mostly bar stool seats. 40% of their engineers would not accept 60% of the merged company's power for a lead unit.
grizlump
dehusman Heartland Division CB&QUSA operated the best passenger trains in the world in that era. This is before the government's policies put most trains out of busness in favor of highways and airways. While most people think of his period as the zenith of US railroading, it was actually an era of huge compression and the era when the fall was accerlerating. The zenith was probably in the 1920's, after that US rail mileage began to contract. Coal was falling out of favor as a general heating fuel and so the eastern roads were in a large part circling the bowl. By the 1960's the weak roads were failing or laying on the floor twitching, the LNE, NYO&W, CRIP, LV. Even the mighty PRR and NYC were in trouble. It wasn't until the next "big thing", computers, came in the 1970's that railroads started to pull out of the nose dive and by the end of the 80's the changes in regulation, etc allowed the railroads to actually begin to expand again. While the "transition era" was cool because of the mix of power and big steam engines a lot of the railroads were actually dead men walking. From what I've seen the US railroads peaked in the 1920's, bottomed out in the 1970's and are in the midst of a climb to a new peak right now.
Heartland Division CB&QUSA operated the best passenger trains in the world in that era. This is before the government's policies put most trains out of busness in favor of highways and airways.
While most people think of his period as the zenith of US railroading, it was actually an era of huge compression and the era when the fall was accerlerating. The zenith was probably in the 1920's, after that US rail mileage began to contract. Coal was falling out of favor as a general heating fuel and so the eastern roads were in a large part circling the bowl. By the 1960's the weak roads were failing or laying on the floor twitching, the LNE, NYO&W, CRIP, LV. Even the mighty PRR and NYC were in trouble. It wasn't until the next "big thing", computers, came in the 1970's that railroads started to pull out of the nose dive and by the end of the 80's the changes in regulation, etc allowed the railroads to actually begin to expand again. While the "transition era" was cool because of the mix of power and big steam engines a lot of the railroads were actually dead men walking.
From what I've seen the US railroads peaked in the 1920's, bottomed out in the 1970's and are in the midst of a climb to a new peak right now.
I submit one correction: computers did not help railroads pull out of the nosedive, but in the well-documented case of Penn Central actually accelerated the nosedive. Both PRR and NYC had computers in the 1960's--and they merged the two railroads together without considering that their 2 computer systems were incapable of communicating with each other. The resulting confusion did nothing to help an already bad situation.
Also, with their profitable 2,000 mile nominal mainline haul between Chicago and the West Coast, or New Orleans and the West Coast, the western railroads during the transition era were far from "dead men walking". Many were in the black. As documented by Fred Frailey in Twilight of the Great Trains, some truly first class railroads like the Santa Fe seriously considered opting out of Amtrak and continuing to run their own passenger trains (as Southern, D&H, and Rio Grande actually did, at least for awhile.) As a matter of company pride, the decision to end passenger service was very difficult for the Santa Fe, but without the mail contract, became easier.
Respectfully submitted--
John
Summer 2005
Reason is because that is when I was in Montana going to Montana State University. Sure college is 4 years but that was the year that MRL got their ACe's but also used a lot of their other old engines too. So I can still model engines like MRL's F45s as helpers and when Athearn Genesis provides me with MRL SD70ACe units I can model them too.
Sadly, I moved back to California a month before MRL got their ACes. Not a good move but I had to for a job. So to this day I have not see a SD70ACe in blue and black.
Also, this was the time that BNSF was coming out the the new logo. Cars and engines with the logo gives me a reason to keep them looking clean.
I'm considering the idea of what Joe Fugate does with his railroad: if it is 2010 then on his layout it is 1980. 2011-1981, 2012-1982, and so on. Kind of a cool idea, but for now, it 2005 for me.
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
VIEW SLIDE SHOW: CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW
I model the Seaboard Air Line operating on the West Coast of Florida up to about 1948/49 or there abouts. There are many things that attract me to these three primary elements of a model railroad that appeal to me - the railroad company, the era and geographical location. I have formed an emotional attachment to them to the extent that I have an ambition to create these elements in scale model form. I am happy that I am a child of the late 1940's and the 1950's. I can model late steamers and first generation diesels with their striking paint schemes..
I like coastal locations, the Sea, and industries like fishing and modeling a suggestion of the presence of the Navy and the Coast Guard. Various styles of architecture and industrial design - automobiles, trucks, airliners - I relate to all those things and so I want to model them. It's all an escape from the present and into the past.
Bruce
Just to clear up my perspective, I think the streamliners were the best. Dome cars, in particluar, were nice. I grew up next to Burlington's triple track mainline out of Chicago watching zephyrs and some NP and GN passenger trains. Santa Fe's mainline was a few miles south of me, and it was good to go see the warbonnets. Our family traveled by rail in late 1940's to early 1960's, and there were many very nice trains. We traveled CBQ, ATSF, SP, UP, IC, MILW, CNW, UP, PRR, NYC, B&O, ACL, and others.
Yes, the ridership began to decline as modern highways and airports were constructed. 707's and DC8's were flying by 1960. GM was advertising "See the USA in your Chevrolet". Competition precluded railroads from raising fares to match cost inflation, and by 1960 service was being reduced. The era of great passenger travel by rail was over.
That, to me, is enough reason to have model trains. In my little word, Zephys, Chiefs, the Empire Builder (orange of coures), and the North Coast Limited are still serving my 1/87 scale population. I enjoy every minute.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
I model the Driline Quad Cities circa 1995 because it was right here in my home town and I was the last person to take pictures of the engines as they left when it was dissolved.
It was a 37 mile railroad that functioned as an industrial switching and freight transfer railroad co-owned by both the BN and Soo Line.
Alot of interesting responses!
For me I really like being able to model what I can see. I like the look of new deisles, like the look of long coal trains, huge yards, etc.
I haven't really been rail fanning lately, only a few times have I been to a real yard, but when summer comes, and my new layout gets more complete (well it's never completely complete..right), I will be getting out and seeing alot of action! And get instant satisfaction of the "hey I got that on my layout!!" kinda of thing.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
West Coast S In my world it is never earlier then 1925 or later then 1927, I faithfully model the SP Ojai branch which was a major source of citrus and produce among other commidities, until 1932 the SP provided Pullman service for resort patrons, thus a good blend of operations are possible. As paved roads developed, many shippers abandoned rail service, changes within the industry also impacted later rail service. To be a glutton for punishment, i've chosen S scale where it has been necessary to scratchbuild or kitbash virtually all the motive power and a great precentage of the rolling stock. I can't precisely say where I get my inspiration, perhaps growing up in the Northern California foothills where we harvested an apple crop each year and pears every other year for sale to the local co-op where it was shipped by rail might factor into it.8D] Dave
In my world it is never earlier then 1925 or later then 1927, I faithfully model the SP Ojai branch which was a major source of citrus and produce among other commidities, until 1932 the SP provided Pullman service for resort patrons, thus a good blend of operations are possible. As paved roads developed, many shippers abandoned rail service, changes within the industry also impacted later rail service. To be a glutton for punishment, i've chosen S scale where it has been necessary to scratchbuild or kitbash virtually all the motive power and a great precentage of the rolling stock.
I can't precisely say where I get my inspiration, perhaps growing up in the Northern California foothills where we harvested an apple crop each year and pears every other year for sale to the local co-op where it was shipped by rail might factor into it.8D]
Hauling citrus? You just sparked my interest. I model the PRR and have lived in the east coast all my life, but there is something beautiful about California. Thanks for sharing your story. Do you have any pictures of the Ojai Branch during the 20's? Or perhaps some photos of your work?
To the OP, I model the PRR because I grew up (and still live) around Philadelphia, and there is a lot of unique railroad history here, like the Baldwin Locmotive works that was in Eddystone, PA. I also have a fondness for Pennsylvania in general, I think there are some beautiful scenic areas around Lancaster, and farther west past Harrisburg. In particular though, I have always been in awe of the intricate catenary system used in and around Philadelphia, although I model the 1940s mostly, its still nice to see modern acela trains glide under the wire near Upenn.
I also like the Reading, and the Norfolk and Western railroads, beautiful area, and unique railways. Again mainly the 1940s, but sometimes earlier.
I model what I see in front of me. I also happen to model all that I've seen for the fairly short (as compared to a lot of y'all) 26 years that I've been around. I'm modelling the CSX Dothan Subdivision from Montgomery, AL (the town of my birth, where I was raised) through Dothan, AL (as compared to the sub's terminus in Thomasville, GA). I currently live in Troy, AL, basically the mid-point of the section of line I'm modelling, so watching the grain moves, along with the mixed freights is fun for me.
I'd love to model way the area looked back when, I've always liked the ACL colors, but its harder for me to find the information necessary to do such. Perhaps as time goes on and more and more information might come available, I can model an earlier time, but since I didn't come along until 1983, when Seaboard was running the rails through here, its harder for me to relate to the earlier time period.