odd prototypes

[Anonymous]

i was thinking today of things that would be a challenge to build,while flipping through an old issue of trains, when i came across an article on rebuilding iraqi national railways...now that would be interesting..maybe a port operation, cuz open desert scenery seems too easy..but piecing together prototype info for equipment from so many different countries in meter guage and standard, steam and diesel could kee a dedicated modeler busy for a long time!

anyone else have ideas for odd/rarely modeled prototypes?
nick

[IRONROOSTER]

Most foreign prototypes are not modeled much in the U.S. I think that most of the African and South American railroads would be a challenge. Some of the railroads through the Andes are quite spectacular.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

IRONROOSTER,

I agree and that is sad. In my travels particularly throughout the US over the last few years I have been visiting train stores and finding less and less non-NA product. On many occassions I have been lucky enough to find British ad European products at drastically reduced prices which I have bought and usually taken to the UK or Europe for other colleagues there. Of course some of these bargains have found their way onto my shelves and layouts as well. It's something of a pity really, because their are, as you suggest, a good many railways outside NA that are intensely interesting. But to go into an LHS in the US, or read a US based magazine you could be forgiven for thinking that only North America actually had railways!

John

[John Busby]

Hi all
Just reverse the situation for a moment and lets go to the U.K
and Modeling the US trains becomes unusual.
But if you want an odd prototype the Letrac (spelling) monorail[:D]
that looks like a weird fence crossing the landscape.
surly if you go back in US RR history you could find something odd
that did not quite catch on for some reason or US narrow gauge smaller than 3' gauge[?]
regards John

[dragonriversteel]

Some folks model trolley's {ooooooooo what fun that must be}. This is an odd modeling outside the box. Quite frankly, I can't see myself modeling anything outside the US. Not that there's anything wrong with it but it really doesn't intrest me to model railroads out side of North America.

Patrick

[IRONROOSTER]

QUOTE: Originally posted by John Busby

...
surly if you go back in US RR history you could find something odd
that did not quite catch on for some reason or US narrow gauge smaller than 3' gauge[?]
regards John

Actually there is a fair amount of 2' gauge products available in 3 scales. This site http://www.trainandtrooper.com/ is the best I have found.
Enjoy
Paul

[orsonroy]

Odd prototypes? I've yet to see a narrow gauge layout based on the thousands of miles of 3' track in the midwest, circa 1880. There was a plan to stretch a 3' "empire" from NYC to the Mexican border, and the tracks of several slim-gauge roads nearly got that far.

I've only ever heard of one operating layout based on the B&O's 5' gauge tracks circa 1860.