I would conside the "fantasy paint" along the "what if..." scenario. Like the EL ES44 I mentioned. "What if EL was never folded into Conrail?" They could have a fleet of ES44's now.
Freelancing I consider a made up locale or railroad, or both, that is in a "it could happen" plausable setting, like my Lake Erie & Southern home road, in a made up location somewhere in NW PA/NY to NE OH region along Lake Erie, that interchanges with the real railroads of B&P, NS, CSX, and WNYP. Everything about it is made up, from roster, industries served, to locations.
Freelancing could also entail a entirely made up land, as Kevin has done.
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.
NYBob Never saw a discussion about the hobby companies producing engines with the what if they didn't merge etc. paint schemes. This is different from the heritage pain't jobs. Opinions?
Never saw a discussion about the hobby companies producing engines with the what if they didn't merge etc. paint schemes. This is different from the heritage pain't jobs. Opinions?
I think the original poster was looking for what curent paint schemes would look like for fallen flag railroads. In my case that would be what a modern PRR would look like. I have two E60cp engines one in five stripe and one in single stripe. I also have two E60 cf engines with just keystones. All are in dark green. I also have an AEM7 that is silver with a maroon band with PENNSYLVANIA on the band and metroliners in the shortlived PRR scheme with a thin red stripes around the windows and joined at the cab end. Prototype pictures of that are very hard to come by
richhotrainI may or may not be using the term "freelance" correctly, but in my mind it is a reference to using actual locomotive and rolling stock road names, for example Santa Fe and Western Maryland, on the same layout and, perhaps, on the same track even if the two railroads never appeared together.
You and I view freelancing very differently. I consider myself a freelancer, who is modeling a railroad that never existed in real life. This used to be quite common in model railroading when common locomotives and rolling stock were generic models. Some freelancers go to more effort than others to be realistic. Until I get around to repainting/relettering, my rolling stock will have road names that don't match the imaginary railroads I model. Or the real railroads my imaginary ones interchange with. I even have some locomotives that are brass or zinc colored.
To me, a fantasy paint scheme is very similar to what used to be called "foobies" - models painted for real railroads that never owned anything resembling the model. The fantasy paint scheme is a what-might-have-been had history taken a different turn.
Fred W
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon in HO and HOn3, where it's always 1900....
maxman richhotrain I don't have any problem with freelancing versus prototype modeling, but fantasy paint schemes If someone freelances but doesn't follow a prototype, say Utah Belt or V&O, doesn't the resulting paint scheme become a fantay scheme? Just asking out of curiosity.
richhotrain I don't have any problem with freelancing versus prototype modeling, but fantasy paint schemes
If someone freelances but doesn't follow a prototype, say Utah Belt or V&O, doesn't the resulting paint scheme become a fantay scheme?
Just asking out of curiosity.
I may or may not be using the term "freelance" correctly, but in my mind it is a reference to using actual locomotive and rolling stock road names, for example Santa Fe and Western Maryland, on the same layout and, perhaps, on the same track even if the two railroads never appeared together.
Taking it a step further, freelancing in my mind is mixing locomotives and rolling stock from different eras even though some of the locomotives and rolling stock have build dates that were later than the era being modeled.
Another example of freelancing in my mind would being running steam locomotives, mostly retired by 1960, alongside diesels first manufactured in the 1960s or later.
Fantasy paint schemes would be taking artistic license with road names that never exisited or paint schemes that never existed.
Rich
Alton Junction
To me the hobby is all about unlimited imagination, but I would never say folks who copy or model prototypes are strange.....just see the hobby differently than I do. Since Covid hit I have begun my "What could have been" series of rolling stock and structures. Actually I have been building and selling structures of imagination buildings since the 80's, but recently added rolling stock....www.zanestructures.com. Since 2019 I have built over 400 cars and sold about 1/4 of them to date. I'm greatly influnced by John Allen and his quote..."No matter how strange or different a model my be, somewhere a prototype possibly existed".....and I love building these...all from basswood. Enjoy the hobby in anyway which suits you. My layout is completely about this and the only thing that is correct are the locos.
gmpullman I don't think I'm in the market for such a thing but apparently there IS a market for such items. I suppose you could include some of the Holiday "special edition" paint jobs, then go into (you name it) NFL, state capitals, NASCAR, ad-nauseum. I'm OK with such things as long as the manufacturer specifies that it is not an accurate representation of a real prototype. If they can make some money off it and offset the cost of bringing new models to market, so be it.
I don't think I'm in the market for such a thing but apparently there IS a market for such items. I suppose you could include some of the Holiday "special edition" paint jobs, then go into (you name it) NFL, state capitals, NASCAR, ad-nauseum.
I'm OK with such things as long as the manufacturer specifies that it is not an accurate representation of a real prototype. If they can make some money off it and offset the cost of bringing new models to market, so be it.
MisterBeasleyHow about the beer reefers made from old Athearn BB reefer kits? I think these are Greenberg paintjobs. I have a few, just because they're ice bunker reefers. I don't recognize any of beer names.
For some reason, collecting beer reefers was kind of a big deal back in the 1980s/1990s, even amongst modellers who normally weren't 'collectors'. A couple of model companies made a variety of cars, some based on real reefers but many fantasy schemes for companies that really existed but never shipped beer by rail. The fad seems to have died down in recent years.
Although there are big national beer companies / brands (Budweiser, Miller, etc.) there are many local or regional beer companies that are well known only certain areas, like Schells Brewery in New Ulm, MN or Leinenkugel in Chippewa Falls, WI (although the latter might be a little bit known nationally due to the cast of the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 referencing "Leinies" a few times on the show). It could be the names you don't recognize are some of those.
I thought that some of these mergers were made too quickly. I would like to have seen a Penn-Northern or a Burlington-Central, or maybe a Santa Fe-Southern.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Fantasy schemes are awesome! I enjoy seeing different ideas and engines painted in unquie paint. Today with all the heritage schemes and short lines having SD-60s and SD-70MACs almost anything is possible. I model a lot of GTW, and my collection includes: SD70I, SD45B, SD60F, GP40X, GP60B all in GT blue and orange and an SD35P in passenger black and orange. GTW never had any of those engines.
I do have a factory made Toys R Us boxcar and a Vlassic Pickle box car. I actually put Kadees on them but never run them.
How about the beer reefers made from old Athearn BB reefer kits? I think these are Greenberg paintjobs. I have a few, just because they're ice bunker reefers. I don't recognize any of beer names.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
crossthedog OERRFailRanner I feel the need to have a manufacturer make a SPSF paint scheme line Your wish is my command, FailRanner.
OERRFailRanner I feel the need to have a manufacturer make a SPSF paint scheme line
Your wish is my command, FailRanner.
Yes! This! This locomotive reminds me of the time me and one of my buddies tried to make a layout plan with the theme SPSF in western oregon. Too bad he had stuff happen and asn't able to make it happen.
One thing I would like to metion, a fantasy loco i found on ebay one time was a dash - 10... it was a AC6000CW with a 8-40W cab and nose
For me, it depends on the scheme.
If I can plausably explain it, and like it, I would be inclined towards it.
Like the Erie Lackawanna painted ES44AC I have. NS could have done a EL heritage unit, in addition to the Erie and DL&W units they did paint. So it is a plausable scheme.
(Although mine is explained differently - my fictional line hosts NS run through's, and as a concession, NS allowed my railroad to tack a one-off locomotive on their GE order, and since they chose to not do a EL heritage unit, my railroad received the green light to do one.)
The Athearn AC4400CW NS Heritage units can be exlpained as "close enough" in my opinion to qualify, as could the Intermountain CNW ES44 #1995, UP simply did what NS did, and split their heritage painted units between EMD and GE units. So although these are all "fantasy painted" units, they are very plausible. (Yes, as model railroaders, we know that a AC4400 is not the same as a ES44AC, just like a GE is not an EMD SD70ACe. But I won't tell if you don't.)
The above Athearn and Intermountain units are very much like the AC4400 I am custom doing as a stand in for a WNY&P AC6000 unit. It's close enough that, unless you know locomotives well, and know that WNY&P 6003 is a rebuilt AC6000 unit, people won't notice the difference between them. (And it looks so close to the part, while in use it might even fool those who do know the difference between the 4400 & 6000 models if they are not paying close attention to it.) Those who know are expecting it to be a wide cab GE AC6000, and they see a wide cab GE AC locomotive, so they could assume it's a AC6000, even though it is not, and not even give it any other thought.
(Although now I ruined it by blabbing it here for all to read.... Just pretend you didn't see that part. )
I have also done a couple of "what if" freight cars, that, while not 100% correct, the railroad could have done them that way. (Right type, right color, but different logo or lettering, or right type, right lettering, but wrong color or size.)
So while the vast majority of my roster is correct, a few are fudged just a bit.
But hey, it's MY railroad, if I want to run it that way, I can!
drgwcs Not sure if this counts but my first train that I got when I was five was a Marx set with a Penn Central steam loco.....
Not sure if this counts but my first train that I got when I was five was a Marx set with a Penn Central steam loco.....
I know this isn't really what we're on about here but I recently got a sort of fantasy paint scheme that I didn't want - an Athearn MRL SD70ace that is definately a shade of purple not blue no matter what light I look at it in.
Anyways the real subject matter as Mr Pullman says as long as it is stated as such then why not? My thing? Not really but that everything John Deere caper has been going forever and makes money which isn't offensive to me.
Kato did a number of SPSF locomotives in N scale. The two that quickly come to mind were SD45's and U30C's some of which were actually painted in SPSF colors.
After the merger was rejected someone said that SPSF was short for "Shouldn't Paint So Fast"
I like SP, and all of its paint schemes to varying degrees, with that one glaring exception, Kodachrome!
That's probably why the ICC banned the merger!
Dan
Back during the 1980's Model Diecasting (Roundhouse) actually DID offer several limited edition SPSF freight cars, factory painted. They were still kits like everything else then, but you could get those freight cars with multiple road numbers AND there were some cars that were wishful thinking paint schemes, not factually correct on that particular car. They are rare but do turn up at the train shows.
John
One AEM-7 I didn't get to run:
on ebay the other there were a bunch of steam engines painted for conrail.
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
The spsf paint kob was called kodachrome after the slide film box for kodak's slide film. Same colors. Here is Athearn's version of that
Shane
I guess I should disclaim: the model shown was custom painted (by a modeller named Eric Miller), NOT produced by a manufacturer.
And wow, those colors are mighty vivid mustard and ketchup. Would you call this a McGeep? Merger King? Wendiesel?
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
OERRFailRannerI feel the need to have a manufacturer make a SPSF paint scheme line
John-NYBWDidn't the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe produce a SPSF (or was it SFSP) paint scheme on some of their locos before the ICC turned thumbs down on their merger plans? My fuzzy memory of this is that the paint scheme was red and yellow.
Didn't the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe produce a SPSF (or was it SFSP) paint scheme on some of their locos before the ICC turned thumbs down on their merger plans? My fuzzy memory of this is that the paint scheme was red and yellow.