Thinking of going Hogwild with Hogwarts Freight and Ferry

[SpaceMouse]

The era I am modeling is 1890's Redwood forest. The road that ran that area during that time was Northwest Pacific. The closest I have been able to come to that is SP, ATSF and Central Pacific--all a little off.

At the other end of the layout is Hogwarts. Still all steam, it is present day, and Hogwarts now has grown to Hogwarts Freight and Ferry. Here's Hogwarts Freight 0001.



So I have two choices. I can either reserach and convert all my period correct locos to Northwest Pacific or I can freelance. The obvious choice for freelance is the Hogwarts Freight and Ferry--and Hogwart's Lumber Comapny.

But I hesitate on painting the Heisler and MDC 2-6-0 as they are my best units here at home. I have no problem with the rolling stock and IHC engines.

So do you think the color scheme fits the bright colors of the 1890s?

[Anonymous]

This is a very good question, all of the locomotives I have seen in color from that era are painted bright and varied colors. Why not red and black? It sounds like it would fit in although I think that perhaps there would also be some brass trim and fittings.

The railroad I want to "model" is the Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth, which really did exist from 1880 to 1936. I have not seen a color photo or painting of anything from the line. My intention is to model the line as if it survived the Depression. If I had some idea of the true colors the road used would help me make educated guess's about changes through the years. Are there any ideas how could I get some information on the color sceam the company used?

[tstage]

Chip,

I would imagine that freelancing would probably be the easiest, least expensive, and less frustrating way to go about it. If you want, you could designate a small area of your layout to prototyping the NP. That way you (and the rest of the family) can enjoy the layout the way it is now but you can continue to study and research your prototype and work on it as time allows.

BTW, Is that your son in the background there?

Tom

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tstage


BTW, Is that your son in the background there?

Tom

Yep,

He likes to run Sponge Bob in a boat with wheels in front of the train. I'm going to put a Sponge Bob Bikini Bottom diorama under Hogwarts lake behind glass.

[simon1966]

Of course, if you go completely free lance, there will be no boudaries on what you can buy!! How will that go down with the "better half"??

[SpaceMouse]

She has been remarkably supportive. I think she likes trains more than she like guns. Anyway she had given me a big hunk of the basement to build my layout.

[Don Gibson]

AT LEAST your wife can't 'shoot' you with an O-6-0

[Jetrock]

um, SpaceMouse:

As I mentioned a while ago, the Northwestern Pacific was not completed until 1907. It was an agglomeration of six other railroads, one of which was an electric line.

Bright colors were common in the 1870's and 1880's--but in the 1890's the influence of Commodore Vanderbilt and his demand for more serious, businesslike engines was being heard.

Industrial locomotives like the Heisler were generally just painted black, rather than given fanciful color schemes--even the early ones.

Finally--In the 1890's, railroads often didn't have standardized color schemes for their locomotives, other than the up-and-coming "black."

So don't sweat (a) the color scheme, (b) whether Northwestern Pacific had one, or (c) whether your engines are colorful or black.

Conclusion #2: Feel free to play hob with reality. You can surmise that, for whatever reason, the Central Pacific built a line to the Northcoast in the 1870s. Or the Northwestern Pacific was created a decade or two earlier than it actually was. Or that Hogwarts is actually several miles east of McKinleyville. Whatever.

[SpaceMouse]

Hogwarts is in Trinidad.

[Jetrock]

Trinidad Head would indeed be a good place for Hogwarts...and there were trains up there, belonging to a logging company. They shipped out shingles and other forest products to boats off Trinidad Head via a cable system that sent bundles of wood from the top of cliffs to the boats--many Northcoast wood-products shippers did this, or they would tie big bundles of logs together like a big primitive barge and have the ship drag it back to San Francisco.

Beg, borrow or steal a copy of Lynwood Carranko and John T. Labbe's "Logging the Redwoods." Tons of information about Northcoast logging from the 1860's. There is an old issue of THE WESTERN RAILROADER from 1954 with information about the Arcata & Mad River Railroad.

Considering your catch-as-catch-can agglomeration of equipment, you definitely want to consider going freelance. I have a freelance Northcoast design myself--it's a tiny little logging operation known as the Burke Lumber Company. Not based on any particular prototype but drawing from elements of several Northcoast railroads, using HOn30 equipment I haven't built yet, and featuring locations and personnel named after my college buddies back at good ol' HSU. I'll pick a location in the woods where there weren't any trains and build a simple layout--I'm thinking between 2 and 4 square feet, just a switchback from a logging site to a small mill, with a small enginehouse and lumbermen's camp.

Back to Hogwarts: From what I have been told, the northcoast has very English weather.