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Diesel switchers and passenger locos began appearing about 1935 with EMD's FT freight locos showing up in 1939. These were the only freight diesels until 1945. Then EMD, Alco, Fairbank-Morse, Baldwin, and Lima-Hamilton all built diesels for all segments of the industry. A large variety of steam was running throughout this time representing nearly all wheel arrangements. Most mainline steam was gone by 1957 with a few notable exceptions and some units brought back for emergency use. Get a copy of the latest edition of Kalmbach's Diesel spotter's Guide to find out what specific diesels are suitable for your road. Likewise Kalmbach's Guide to North American Steam Locomotives is a good overview of the steam in operation. I'm doing the same thing on my n-scale road. One of the most important things I can recommend is to do your research. Learn everything you can about how a real locomotive was set up for your area. Create a family appearance with similar appliances (especially on your steam equipment) on your equipment. Learn how actual railroads ran their maintenance and equipment engineering departments to figure out what should be used. And definately establish a power profile with classes of equipment not one of this and one of that. While collecting different models and types of equipment is fun and looks neat, railroads selected the equipment used in a particular area for what handled the load best and tried to keep the equipment similar for ease of maintenance. This will go a long way to making your road believable. Karl
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