John BusbyIt was the real locomotive I was referring to I believe at least one is preserved in NZ.
I think you're thinking of the "mixed traffic" 4-8-2 "J" class locos, here's a 1940s photo of a partially streamlined example.
And here's a link to the preserved Streamlined "Ja"1211.
http://www.mainlinesteam.co.nz/j1211.html
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
The layout I am currently working on is a HOn30 layout, depicting a freelance short line on a fictional island off the North Sea coast of Germany.
This lets me employ cheap rolling stock and locos from various sources, adapted to a small degree to give it a corporate look. I chose HOn30 for reasons of space & cost.
The layout is a micro layout in the best sense of the late Carl Arendt.
What: "Proto-freelance" alternate future Espee... one where they're still alive and kicking 1996+. More specifically, short lines that did business with the SP and were (eventually) bought out by the SP.
Why: Like most I grew up near a railroad and fell in love with what I saw on a regular basis. I was a kid when the SP was in its final days and was in high school when they finally folded and was aquired by big Uncle Pete. I grew up on the lower end of the middle class in the 'middle of nowhere' AZ, and with information at a minimum (and because i was a kid), I never really thought past the hypnotizing allure of massive lashup of tunnel motors roaring past draging multi-mile trains behind them... so I didn't even know that the SP was in trouble (as a business) and that the aquisition of SP by UP was the end of an AMAZING chunk of history.
By the time I got my act together and History actually became interesting to me (aka, well out of high school), there was yellow rolling through my old stomping grounds instead of bloody noses! I was right there and missed it! Grrr......
So, in my 'alternate future', the SP got a CEO in the early 80's that really knew his stuff and though it took several years of meager profits and copious quantities of hard work, the SP turned around as a business and started to become successful again. They brought back economical and high speed passenger service across the long flat stretches and difficult mountain ranges of the southwest. Frieght became comparable to trucking service in speed and costs. SP played the Green/Eco card and purchaced GEVOs, electrics locos, etc.
Not only where they successful in securing their position in the Class 1 railroad market space, but they even began to chip away at the UP and BNSF's territories by aquiring a few miles of trackage here and there.
With an environment setup such as this, it will give me a very wide range of power, rolling stock and scenery to model. I've two small shelf style (mini) layouts in the works as my current life situation doesn't allow for taking over of the basement.
Dave Loman
My site: The Rusty Spike
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in.... hey, someone's making a penny!"
What? D&RGW between 1965 and 1990. Secondary interest, SP of the 70's and 80's.
Where? Grande Junction Colorado and if space allows, include Denver and the Front Range.Why? I spent time traveling from northern California to Colorado in1982, 1983, and a last trip from Texas to Colorado in 1985.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
"JaBear" So What and Why do you model what you do???? Remember the is no "right " answer and there fore no prizes or second place, and this time I will now thank you all for your contributions. Have Fun Cheer, the Bear.
So What and Why do you model what you do????
Remember the is no "right " answer and there fore no prizes or second place, and this time I will now thank you all for your contributions.
Have Fun
Cheer, the Bear.
Why is a very subjective question. My why is mostly subjective. I model the local railroad that served my childhood home, upon which my father commuted to work behind steam, from which we picked him up in the evening, and which I rode to summer camp, to Grandmother's house, and into the big city.
The Boston and Maine carried the name of our regional city. It was never as famous as the Santa Fe, the Pennsy, or the New York Central, but it was OUR railroad, nearby, familiar, whereas the more famous roads were far away. In the 40's and early fifties it was a plain jane, kinda dowdy looking thing, rust red box cars, simple maroon with gold stripes diesels, cabeese painted box car red. In the middle fifties it was taken over by a fast talking president named Patrick McGuinnis who tried to change everything. New blue paint on boxcars and cabeese, new blue paint scheme on the diesels. I never really warmed to the new (60 years ago new) scheme. My models are mostly painted in the old pre McGuinnis schemes. Patrick McGuinnis had numerous enemies who finally got him, prosecuted him for a complex deal involving sale of passenger cars and sent him to jail.
I like steam engines, all the visible moving parts are compelling. The B&M ran steam right up until I entered high school. I also like diesels. So modeling the transition era is a natural, lets me run steam and diesel, and its the era I grew up in. Now if I could just purchase some of the distinctive B&M steamers RTR. The old IHC moguls make a so-so stand in for the classic B-15 mogul, too bad IHC is no longer with us. Some kitbashing of a Mantua Pacific yielded a fair to middling P-4 Pacific. But I don't have anything for the big T-1 Mountains or the humble P2 Pacifics that pulled so many commuter trains.
There are some objective reasons for me to model the B&M. I still live in "Mogul Country" so I can go out and photograph real B&M scenes. I scratch built a tiny rural passenger station from photographs I took of the original. There is a fair amount of commercial B&M rolling stock available so you don't have to scratchbuild everything. Microscale carries a decent selection of B&M decals so train show pickings can become home road rolling stock for just a paint and decal job. There are some very useful coffee table books of B&M photos, including the invaluable Northern New England Color Guide.
But the real reasons, the compelling reasons for my choice are the subjective ones, the objective reasons are just back up arguments, rationalizations, for doing what I want to do anyhow.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Hi JaBear
Thanks that's the beast
regards John
It is hard for me to narrow things down, so I guess you can say that I mostly model the Erie Lackawanna of the early 60's. The reason...I love the scenery. After taking a trip to Binghamton and touring that part of New York in '84, I figured it would be fun to model.
Having said that, I sometimes work on my freelance Trinity River & Western. Having grown up in North Texas, I wanted to do a fictional spin of the Frisco RR in Fort Worth. My aunt lived on a street right behind the Frisco yard in FW...my Dad and I visited the shops and roundhouse often. Cool stuff! I have been modeling my TR&W occasionally since '92.
Lastly, I like narrow gauge a lot. So, I also do a bit of that in On3. Growing up, we would take family vacations to Colorado and that is what got me going on that. My On3 Squaw Valley Narrow Gauge gets its name from my Dad's layout that he built in the 70's.
It is very hard for me to completely decide what I want to focus on more. Just don't get me going about the N gauge that I have...
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
I model trains because Model Airplanes got annoying and model ships didn't pan out!
I model the Northeast Corridor (a few feet at a time), and the main reason is because many of my family members lived near the Metropark station.
As a result, I've been seeing those big PRR Catenary towers for quite some time, and nothing was quite so exciting than seeing an AEM7 shooting up t o New York. Before I was ever even remotely interested in model trains, I would always be excited to pass by the Northeast Corridor. The NEC seemed to follow me where ever I went. I used to stand by the overpass near the Philadelphia zoo and hope a train would come by.
I ended up picking the late 70s though, since it allowed me to run Conrail (my favorite) under the wire, as well as GG1s and other types. I also managed to get a lot of the more rare and unusual models in HO, such as the E44As (very nice Alpha ones, all to scale and good runners), and a fleet of the Arrow III MU cars through a friend. At the same time, I also came across a lot of incredible data from that time period, such as freight schedules, train consists, Catenary diagrams.
Not only was the late 70s practical, it was an interesting time. Conrail had just formed bringing color (or PC black) to places it didn't normally show up before. Amtrak had just become the owners of the Northeast Corridor. the GG1s and MP54s were rolling through their last miles, "current" favorites like the Arrow III were only just being delivered, experimental European locomotives were rolling about.
There was a lot of things that were not certain in that time period, Would Amtrak fix the NEC? Would Conrail Last? What will become of the Northeast? a lot of old, rust and grime, as well as a lot of new, polish and shine.
Its all super fascinating.
Modeling Conrail, Amtrak and NJ DOT under the wires in New Jersey, July 1979.
I model the 1950's Norfolk and Western because I am fascinated with the era as portrayed in the photographs of O. Winston Link. I also want to see something that I was born too late to see, though I did have the opportunity to spend my early years along the N&W mainline in the 1970's.