Big Boy ForeverUnfortunately for me, I bought cars and locos as I found them for sale at a good price, not considering time era.
This is probably cold comfort, but I would suggest that it is a reasonably common problem.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I model a fairly broad timeline---from about 1939 to 1954, which makes it quite easy for my locomotives and rolling stock to be time-accurate. I have gone 'outside' the timeline a few times, with freight cars that I liked and had builders dates in the 1960's, but a 50' plug-door reefer is probably about as radically 'outside' my time frame as I've gotten, lol. My diesels are 1st generation F's, and even my two streamlined passenger trains are made up of immediate post-war equipment. But for the most part, a train on my layout will consist of vintage 1930's and '40's rolling stock and pulled by steam locomotives.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Unfortunately for me, I bought cars and locos as I found them for sale at a good price, not considering time era. So now I have an issue of mixture of time eras with my rolling stock freight cars some of which I'm not sure of the time periods and that is the reason I've been asking trying to get some feedback.
I'm modeling fall, mid October, 1958. Well sort of. Maybe it's a year or two earlier, or is it later? What I'm really doing is trying to capture the culture and lifestyle of the South Carolina piedmont cotton mill towns. They were pretty much frozen in time. Other than automobiles, some of those towns looks like they did 50 years ago, there perhaps they were move alive then. To me the goal is to create an impression of deja vu in someone. If they think "I've been to that town, I just can't place it" then I've succeeded.
Its steam era, 1920s to 1940s for me. I try to keep people, buildings, and vehicles somewhere appropriate in that era. Although, most figures available are usually more modern. My layout is so small, I need to run equipment that is short. So I'm collecting rolling stock from earlier eras. I'm developing a sort of old timey but pinnacle of steam mash of eras with some people that travelled back in time!
I am modeling the late 1940s' -1950's end of steam era - and I have been as time specific as I can possibly be.
I have passed on and Chessie Cat logos and the Rock Island blue Rock cars.
Most of my rolling stock fits the 2000's, however, I do have a few that are just a little bit (some a lot...) out of that time frame... Either gifts, inherited, or just because I like them.... Whole part of the "it's my railroad" bit. Some of it I explain as belonging to a local historical society, and they "allow" their use on my railroad as a consession of my railroad funding their restoration, such as my 2 steamers, and then of course I need some kind of steam appropriate cars for the photo-freight. Others are also from the historical society, as my RR president and CEO (me) also is a board member of the historical society. (Exsists only in HO scale, and only in my train room.) Great thing about the proto-freelancing. I get to write the rules, to an extent. If any of my cars or loco's didn't fit the time, now they do. So all my cars and loco's fit my layouts era, within reason.
EDIT: Also how I get away with a shortline having runthrough power, trains, and unit trains from a class 1 RR when most shortline do not. Yes, there were, and are, some exceptions to this rule, but those are exceptions. Not the standard rule.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
I model "today", mostly accurately, but if CSX were to repaint all their logos white tomorrow, I wouldn't go crazy trying to catch up in a week.
edited cuz I can't type on an iPad...
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
Dual era, both modern, covering 1990 to about 2010. U.S Pre-ditch light ...early 90s, and post ditch light....late 90's early 2000s. Freelance short line.
It covers my desire to run old Alcos and new Gensets.
- Douglas
gregcisn't this simply picking a date (year) and not having any equipment built or re-built after that date, and probably not having anything older that 30 years.
That's part of it (and depending on your era you may be dealing with a 40-year or 50-year rule for interchange cars).
Another concern is representing cars with the appropriate changes to stenciling and safety appliances. The car above represents a prototype with the running board removed, the A end ladders shortened to four rungs, a separate grab added to the roof at the B end where the full-height ladders remained. It also received an ACI label to the left of the door, and a consolidated stencil at right between the dimensional data and the ladder. The safety applicance revisions date to circa 1966 or after. The style of consolidated stencil dates the car to about 1974 or later. Figuring all this stuff out is part of the challenge (and fun) of era-specific modeling.
Rob Spangler
You can always get a few passenger cars, or scratch build freight cars converted to tourist RR cars (example:flat cars with roofs and benches). Then you can run old locomotives and cabooses.
I try to keep my modeling to the PRR, 1964 - 1968, which corresponds to my railroad hiring date of 1-30-1967. However, I atend to freelance, so I allow myself a lot of leeway with historical fact.
Big Boy Forever How many here have exact time period accurate rolling stock, according to your layout time period?
isn't this simply picking a date (year) and not having any equipment built or re-built after that date, and probably not having anything older that 30 years.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Modeling in a specific era can be challenging sometimes. I'm modeling the '70's up through about 1977. With many rebuilds on freight cars during that era and the advent of Conrail, as well as many mergers during that time, many cars that look plausable on a layout from this era may well have build dates that are into the 80's. I have some of these cars but I don't feel that they need to be left off the layout as they sort of capture the feel of the era anyway. I also probably have way too many 40' boxcars for that era but again, they capture the feel, as I see it. Also I've seen many layouts, especially at clubs, where the time period, as well as the specific railroad, is quite eclectic. I try to keep specific era in mind when looking to add to my fleet, so I try to stay away from the obvious, such as the old AAR or wood sheath boxcars, for example; no steam, of course. Nothing against steam (not to offend all you steam fanatics!), it just doesn't fit the era I'm modeling.
Really, it depends on your definition of "accurate". But always keep in mind that my layout's purpose is for ME to have fun. If you don't like what I'm doing with it, go build your own layout.
So, the Connecticut Valley Railroad is loosely based on a New Haven branch line in the late 1950's. Structures, figures and vehicles are accurate to that period. Steam was several years gone from the real New Haven by then, but I still run some, and McGinnis paint (orange, white and black) was the order of the day, but I still have most of my stuff in pre-war green or post war orange.
So, nothing too far out of whack, but the locos span a good 15 years of history, rather than the late '50's.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Ive actually enjoyed finding a certain date in time to model, for me its the summer of 1989 on the MKT in Missouri. There was a merger with several railroads (UP, MoPac, MKT) so it gives me a ton of Loco and rolling stock options. I'm also a history buff, so its been a lot of fun doing the research as well. At the end of the day everything wont be perfect, but its a good time trying to get it that way.
The era is not depicted by just rolling stock. So I take your question as to the era of the layout in general such as streets,buildings, people's clothes, automobiles, etc compared to the trains. In this case, within 10 years.
Richard
Your question assumes that one has only one layout, or one set of equipment. I have equipment from all eras. I keep them in sets that are era appropriate with each other. I would not think of running the 1930s freight cars behind an SD40-2 loco or vice versa. They are in different sets and would look ludicrous with one another.
Modeling the early to mid 50's gives me a lot of leaway. Steam was still around, diesels were coming fast. Passenger trains were still carrying many folks. The limitation I try to put on myself '59, but I keep the post '55 to a minimum. I do have an Amtrak loco and cars, because I like the looks of them and am concidering a branchline that didn't exist in the 50's, but did use first generation diesel power, so it "looks right".
Have fun (that's what counts),
My layout will be accurate within my Conrail era 1987-89 and BNSF with Union Pacific in 1998-2007.
When companies makes a freight car I look for it in pictures to see if it was photographed in the numbers they are making. I also see if their in a era or year when it taken.
If so I buy it or not. The same thing like getting locomotives. Serial numbers and paint schemes got to match the year I'm modeling.
I'm not a rivet counter that's way to hard.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
My timeline is a little vague, the 1950's. I like steam engines, and they didn't last into the 1960's. So call it the 1950's. And in the 1950's boxcars were only 40 foot long, so I can have more cars in a train than I could in a later era of 50 and 60 footers. I was alive back in the '50s and still remember some stuff from that era. Like passenger service, which is pretty much dead now a days.
Except, for rolling stock that I really really like, such as a tri level auto rack (with a vehicle load) , some blue bird GP40's. And other stuff. like an ABBA set of ALCO FA2's painted for Mopac, that has no real excuse to run on a B&M layout. But I like them. It's a hobby.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I model the B&O during a 5-year time span between 1969 and 1973 (inclusive). This allows me to run an occasional passenger train for the earliest years, or a few Chessie diesels for 1973. Obviously I won't have both Chessies and E8's running at the same time. I have 45 1:87 Ford Mavericks to use as loads for my open auto racks, and their body style didn't change much between 1969 and 1973 so I have some flexibility there as well.
I prefer to keep my locos and cabeese as era-accurate as possible, since those are what visitors usually focus on. I'm not quite as strict about freight cars, I just need to avoid having anything too modern [such as Conrail]. I don't worry about build dates - at my age I need a magnifying glass to see those. As for the vehicles - I position all my post-1973 model-year cars toward the back of the layout and those of 1962-73 in the foreground.
For photographs, I want to be able to shoot scenes on the layout that look "real", i.e. no obvious anachronisms.
However, there is one Rule #1 car I want to run: An Exactrail 63ft center-beam flat car. These didn't appear until 1977, but 90% of my guest operators won't know or care.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
I am not very time accurate, The moose and buffalo were gone from my area by 1850, but I claimed to model 1950, until a friend asked to leave his "Mother Hubbard" on the layout to pull a thru freight. Doesn't really match any diesel.
I and the guys who come over have fun.
Dave
Big Boy Forever How many here have exact time period accurate rolling stock, according to your layout time period? How many don't or don't really care about time period accuracy on your layout? Just wondering, based on my last couple of threads asking for advice.
How many here have exact time period accurate rolling stock, according to your layout time period?
How many don't or don't really care about time period accuracy on your layout?
Just wondering, based on my last couple of threads asking for advice.
I think I'm pretty accurate; however, I'm not hard core about it. I figure if I don't know I've gota piece that isn't time accurate, the people who see my layout dang sure ain't going to know it anyway.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
I'm building a layout that I can use to "rotate" timeframes between 3 or 4 different periods. It would be a progression - that is, it won't be 1930 one day and 1990 the next. It will go say 1949 for several months, then 1967 for a few months, etc. through into this century, then go back to the start. In some situations, buildings will be able to be changed out, so an older brick building might be replaced in more recent types by a "tilt up" on fitting the same space, or an active signal tower in the steam days might be replaced by the same model, only boarded up and unused, in modern era.
I centered around transition era broadly, late steam to early diesel (a rather broad time frame), but violate that when I see locos I'd like to include that are outside that. The stretch of that focal period would span from the latest retirement of a 2-8-0 to the earliest acquisition (by UP) of a E-6, SD-7 or GP-9. The items that really strecth the time frame to impossible co-existence are a 2-6-0 mogul relative to an SD40-2. May not even be in the same century. They should avoid being in the same scene but the layout isn't very big!
I limit freight cars to the 40' ones generally and passenger cars to the 40s - 50s late heavyweights to early streamliners.
I have so far kept my locos to UP theme and feel no need to violate that but expect that may happen!
That's what fits my pistol (and the grandkids are not very particular). Nonetheless, I admire the many modelers who focus on specific timeframes, railroads and railroad geography. Many of these I see in the forum are very impressive.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
My time frame is from 1975 to 1985.
This way I can run some leftover PPR stuff - the Last of Penn Central and the beginnings of Conrail.
With this type of mix of equipment - most any thing eastern Road wise that the MFG makes is elegable to be on the layout as the Conrail merged RRs had so many companies involved!
So I can run PRR, PC, Conrail, Reading, EL, Erie, LV and the list just goes on and on - all on the same Layout!
Try that on your Layout and you would have the Prototype Police on your but real fast!
And with me modeling the Lowgrade line (which bridges between the Pittsburgh/Buffalo and the Harriburg/Buffalo mainlines) allowes be to run any engine type Conrail/PC/later PRR had as Conrail pushed all of the oldeset equipment up onto Coal Country (CR Lowgrade line) to haul coal!
I have seen as many as 7 GPs pulling a coal drag out of the mines - how many other modeled railroads would have this for a backwoods operation (nothing but the MAINLINEs would do this)!
So I have the best of both worlds - Heavy Trains - Lots of Power needed and slow traffic to make the trip seem longer!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Sorry for the double post, but I felt like I should elaborate on my post better.
I have a lot of Pennsylvania Railroad cars from the late 1940's up to the middle 1950's, as well as a fleet of PRR heavyweight cars. I have also created an imaginary car-I gave the Pennsylvania a Theater car. I have two K4s's, a T1, a USarmy 0-8-0, several cabooses, and more stuff all Pennsy. Well while I love the Pennsy, it just got too expensive to model an accurate era. So I started looking around for a modern prototype that almost no one models often, and it struck me to do a local carrier-the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. So far for the Wheeling I have a SD40-2, and about 6 Wheeling hoppers. I am also planning to have three SD40's done up in a freelanced railroad of my own design.
What of the Pennsy stuff you ask? Well, I solved that. I am going to keep it and use it in a railroad museum, and sometimes run them as "Steam excursions" and "photo runbys".
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
I started my BRVRR with the dual-era idea in mind. I thought a few changes of signage and structures would allow operations with the NYC in the late transition era to modern NS/CONRAIL (1990s) times with appropriate locomotives and rolling stock for each time period.
Didn't or hasn't worked out that way. Like Phoebe Vet/Dave I have a wide variety of locomotives from 1930s-40s steamers to SD40s and AMTRAK ADMs. My rolling stock varies just as much.
Throw in Thomas the Tank Engine, the Hogwarts Express because the grand kids grew up with them and any logical era is out the window.
I gave up trying to keep the trains on the layout time or even purpose appropriate when the grandsons are around. After having a Pennsy passenger train married to a 15-car coal drag with an AMTRAK passenger train on the outer mainline, I have just learned to live with it.
Who cares? The layout is for our enjoyment. There is nothing wrong with variety or even a spot of whimsy on occasion. And besides, when in the trainroom alone, I run NYC steam powered passenger trains or Santa Fe freights and anything else that strikes my fancy. Its my railroad.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/