I try to stick to one era in each scale.
In N scale it's CN and Great Northern circa 1956.
In HO scale it's CN and CP circa 1974, but I also have small fleets of Penn Central, Chicago & Northwestern, and Burlington Northern locos.
My modeling interest is in the Seaboard Air Line operating on the Gulf Coast of Florida during the late 1940's.
It was my original intention to model the ACL, FEC and the SAL. However, it soon became apparent that financial priorities at the time determined that I select just one of the three roads I was interested in modeling. It was not an easy choice but I did want to also do as much research as was possible into the road I eventualy chose to model . One road is more practical for me to model and think about than three - it's just that simple.
Bruce
I have my own railroad (The Golden State Railroad), which was a merger of nine short lines. It is a regional line running from northern California to southern Oregon. We mostly purchase second hand engines from any railroad, so until they can get into the paint shop you will see engines from the Hoositonic and Conrail in the east to UP and SP in the West and CP to the north.
Nah, I've tried very hard but am unable to stick with just one railroad.
I've tried many different railroads, but quickly became frustrated at all the stuff that is not available for many of them.
Now I'm modeling the Southwest--in the form of 3 scenes, in different seasons: 1. A Saguaro Desert scene near Tucson. 2. A Utah red-rock/autumn scene--based loosely upon UP's Echo Canyon. 3. A winter mountain scene also in red rock country.
All my diesels have been sold, and I'm using steam power that would generally fit at least some of those scenes. It is documented that UP Challengers actually did operate on the SP Sunset Route on occasion, etc. However I have a Rio Grande (1943 UP version) challenger operating on the Sunset Route, with UP 4-12-2's instead of the brass SP 4-10-2's (which are difficult to find and not cheap at all).
I'm trying to generally represent or capture the vastness of the southwest with appropriate steam power and rolling stock from the railroads I like--but again--the layout is a series of 3 large scenes.
Perhaps someday in the future I'll return to brass and buy the SP 4-10-2 and the DRGW 4-8-2's, but until then, I will content myself with the readily available 4-6-6-4's, 4-8-8-4's and 4-12-2's.
John
My railroad is proto-lance, mimicking trackage of railroads that really did exist in my area and that served the local communities, interchanging with other real railroads, and all set in a very precise time frame. My motive power is highly regulated and uniform, meeting the specific needs of a small branchline operation. There is no mixed foreign-road power, no Big Boys, or other such stuff that would never run on a northeastern branchline, etc. The HHRR represents a definite could-a-been, not simply a layout for running all sorts and eras of mismatched equipment at the operator's whim.
CNJ831
I model the CB&Q in the mid-late 60's. That is the only road that will be modeled, however, there will be interchange runs from other Omaha area RRs and occasional run through agreement power such as the CB&Q - UP Chicago to Grand Island train.
Ricky
If you pick the right location and era, you can have variety and stay true to prototype. I model the IC from Centralia, IL to Effingham, IL in the 1950s. In Centralia alone I can run the IC, the CB&Q (their yard was just West of the IC double track main and their main ran parallel to the IC Main and then crossed it) the Southern (crossed the IC main just North of the car shops and shared tracks with the CB&Q and then contined to the West) and the Missouri and Illinois used the IC main through downtown Centralia.
If that isn't enough variety, there was a crossing and interchange with the B&O at Odin, IL and a crossing of the C&EI at Kinmundy. In Effingham the PRR interchanges. That gives me a total of 6 railroads I can can run on my layout and still be prototypical.
Jeff
Nah! I run everything as I have not yet met a choo choo I did not like. I'm presently a recovering Western Maryland nut and for over 20 years everything had to have either a fireball or speed lettering. Then a friend brought over a Key Erie Triplex to run, and that was the end of prototype modeling for me.
My Piermont Division layout is based on The Appalachians during the ten years just after the big war. Piermont is a mythical road, but based on prototype influenced designs. Nothing is copied as I feel this hobby is about limitless imagination (at least for me). Motive power and equipment is leased from roads during this period that were upgrading everything and had great deals on used steam and first generation diesels. This rationale allows me to keep original graphics and again.....unlimited access to play with any toy I like.
Note: I would never critize prototype nuts and rivet counters as the hobby has much room for all tastes and I do enjoy visiting pikes based on what was once real or still is today.
So when you should visit, don't be surprised to see a Big Boy doubleheading with a GC&E four truck shay or even more bizzare lash-ups.
HZ
Well, yes and no--kinda .
My Yuba River Sub is a fictional California extension of the Denver and Rio Grande Western during the WWII era, so the PROPERTY is Rio Grande, as is the large majority of the motive power.
HOWEVER: Southern Pacific has been granted trackage rights over Yuba Pass when their Donner Pass route to the south becomes hopelessly clogged with traffic, and I have a reasonable representation of SP steam power for this purpose.
And since it's WWII and east-west traffic patterns are constantly changing, and the Rio Grande has their available steam power stretched to the maximum, leased locomotives from 'foreign' railroads occasionally make their way onto the property, most notably from the Colorado and Southern, Great Northern and as far east as the Chesapeake and Ohio. And I can do this without 'guilt', as railroads leasing steam power from each other was quite common during the 1940's and early '50's.
But generally speaking, for the most part, the steamers you'll see plying Yuba Pass and environs is Rio Grande.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Santa Fe ALMOST All the Way
I am a big Santa Fe fan, a member of Santa Fe modeling groups in their various incarnations since 1970. The main thrust of my layout building for nearly all that time has been representing the Santa Fe- concentrating for 30 years on some part of southeast corner Texas in the middle 1950s. Post-steam.
I have bought locomotives in other liveries when they were on sale, etc. usually with the intent of eventually making them Santa Fe. I HAVE other locos from other railroads, but do not plan to use them as such. Same for cabooses and passengers cars.
I have made a special effort to find or build SANTA FE-SPECIFIC freight cars…
Map and slogan boxcars
Map and slogan refrigerator cars with reverse ice hatch, transverse air reservoir, etc.
Santa Fe steel caboose, 5 windows one side, 3 other
Logging cars
pulpwood racks
50’ superinsulated refrigerator
Santa Fe prototype stock cars (Intermountain finally made some)
Caswell drop-bottom gondolas
Sulphur gondolas
I would like to build- when I get around to it-
BX-3 panel-side boxcars (only Santa Fe had them-- and THOUSANDS of them!)
“reefer-standard” salt boxcars
ice cars
dry-ice reefer
“Roofed” hopper
I have also collected some railroad-specific prototype design cars such as
PRR X-29
Milwaukee Road horizontal-rib boxcar
B&O wagon top boxcar
I try to get (or kitbash) freight cars from the other trunkline railroads in Texas, the TEXAS AFFILIATES of regional trunklines:
Southern Pacific: Texas & New Orleans (T&NO)
Burlington: Fort Worth and Denver
MKT
KCS
Frisco
Texas & Pacific
Missouri Pacific: International and Great Northern (IGN), New Orleans Texas and Mexico (NOT&M) Saint Louis, Brownsville and Saint Louis, Brownsville and Mexico (StLB&M)
Another related Texas-flavored objective is tankcars representing the TEXAS affiliate brands of national oil companies:
Conoco
Gulf
Magnolia (Mobil)
Phillips 66
Shell
Sinclair
Texaco
I am still missing Humble (Standard Oil). Here are three of them:
While the mainlines of my recent past and present under-construction layout are Santa Fe, they have short line connections. On my past East Texas layout, it was a lumber company owned common carrier patterned after Texas Southeastern, Moscow, Camden and San Augustine and the Kirby Lumber Co. trams. My freelanced “Johnston and East Texas” (JET) copied the prototype TSE’s ex-SP caboose, with my addition of the conductor’s canine assistant.
Might not go on a more-formally operated railroad...
The layout under construction is based on the Santa Fe at Galveston, ignoring the other roads that went there. Just not enough room. But I am building a working terminal railroad. It may be fully free-lanced, but I found a fascinating picture of a Galveston Houston and Henderson switcher with dual heralds- from GH&H co-owners MKT and MoPac. My excuse might be one used by the Corpus Christi terminal association for most of the second half of the 20th century-- all the railroads in town shared operation of the terminal line, one railroad per year.
Another temptation is the Texas Mexican Express. It never operated anywhere near Galveston. Nowhere east of Corpus Christi. It only ran 1976-1979. The Tex Mex had no passenger service in the 1950s, or even any passenger equipment. But all the cars- a mix of heavyweight and streamlined- DID exist at the time, only on other railroads.
And Tex Mex owned one pair of F7s in the 1950s. The 1970s passenger paint scheme was based on the earlier F-7. I just have to gather the prototype pieces from mixed eras and locations. It is a temptation.
So I am Santa Fe ALMOST All the Way.
I stick to modeling Norfolk Southern and Conrail for my motive power but I am thinking about picking up a Union Pacific to lash up to once in a while. All in all I have 12 Locomotives right now and soon will add more. I also have for right now until I paint it a Tower 55 Gevo Northern Pacific. Soon to be an ES40DC flying the Norfolk Southern flags.
Now my rolling stock is whatever looks good to my eye. Not to mention, having a very diverse rolling stock fleet that will be going under the weathering knife one by one.
I cheated, and created a company that specializes in rebuilds and steam programs in HO, loosely a conglamorate of what Ohio Central, RJ Corman, and others have done. So anything I want to run, I dod a little reasearch and get out that handy little temporal eraser we all creative licensing, rewrite this, tweak that, and walla!.
As for railroads, my first will be a diaroma with dad of the Half-Moon Orion and Northern, something we came up with a long time ago. It may become a travwelling module(s), we'll see. Then I want to tackle the CMPA (http://www.madisonrailroad.com/) interchenged with a modernized CHessie (CSX+the cat) and INRD/Monon? coal train run throughs.
-Morgan
I originally wanted to start a layout modelling the PTC (People's Traction Company), which is a trolley line that operated from Philadelphia to Willow Grove Park set in the early 1900's during the "heyday" of the company. But as I looked further into the history (of which I am still greatly interested) I realized that it would be a HUGE undertaking. Of which my beginner/novice/non-existant modelling skills would be wholely inadequate for the ammount of scratchbuilding that would be required.
So, I decided to start with something more manageable, that would allow me to develope and improve my MRRing skills. The New Hope & Ivyland is a Tourist and freight RR that is nearby my home, and only miles way from Willow Grove Park (as a mall now...). Now the steam "bug" has hit me ( the NH&I uses a 4-8-0 as the "main motive power" with the Diesels as a "backup" when the steam isn't running up to "par", and I have developed my own version of NH&I "history". I will have NH&I, SEPTA (SoutEastern Pennsylvania Trasportation Authority), NJ Transit, CSX, and Conrail on my yet-to-be-built layout. Albeit the layout will only model a distance of roughly 18-20 miles of "prototype" trackage...
Sam
May He bless you, guide you, and keep you safe on your journey through life!
I Model the New Hope & Ivyland RR (Bucks County, PA)
I protolance the New Haven's Connecticut River Valley Line in mid-1956. Historically a single track line that by the 1950s saw only a couple of freights every week. In my world, the floods of 1955 forced the rerouting of the Shore Line up the Valley Line to Middletown and back down to Cedar Hill.
1956 allows me to model a variety of motive power in 3 different paint schemes: hunter green and gold, dark green and orange. and the McGinnis scheme (orange, black, and white). Historically, the New Haven was an early adopter of dieselization, and by 1952 had no steam locomotives in revenue service. In fact, NH's last steam loco, a Mikado, which had been used to provide steam for snow removal equipment, was laid up in early 1956. But I figured, if I'm going to reinvent history, why not stretch it a little more? MY NH has 2 Pacifics, 2 Mikados, and a Consolidation still in service. Because I like steam.
And FWIW, most NH freights I've seen photos of have very few NH cars in the consist. A lot of Pennsy and NYC.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
No, not at all. If a locomotive appeals to me, and I have the funds, I purchase it. My road names vary from NS to NS to WM and beyond. So I just go with the flow.
I used to buy whatever paint schemes I liked (still do with the freight cars). However, now I focus on my freelanced shortline set in 1997 and 2000, with a freelanced parent rail company and also incorporate CSX and Norfolk Southern into the story. Right now I have two Geeps painted for my shortline, and a U23B wearing ATSF freight colors. I really like that particular paint scheme, and by having a shortline set in the years I have, I can come up with a plausible historic scenario to incorporate whatever paint schemes I like. However, I'm planning on having one Norfolk Southern locomotives and two or three locos painted for the parent rail line to handle freights that come off their rails. Overall, I can incorporate several rail lines into my layout while the focus lies on just one. (I'm planning on buying some shells for my shortline's locos and painting them into a new paint scheme for the 2000 era see the ANRR history for an explanation)
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Well... yes and no. My layout and theme is heavily based on Western Maryland practices, and it is the main railroad represented in the equipment roster. But, the base of operations on the layout is a division point yard modeled after Hagerstown, Maryland, where the WM interchanged with four other railroads. So, at any given moment, the engine terminal will have Reading, PRR/PC, B&O and Norfolk and Western equipment hanging around.
That way I can limit my purchases to 5 railroads... well, I have a little time warp going on, too, so I've got some steam, and I'm starting to accumulate some early Conrail stuff, too.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Hi!
I like to say, "I model the transition ATSF, with a minor in IC". Like a lot of kids of the 1950s, I fell in love with the Santa Fe and have modeled it since then. Growing up where I did in Chicago, I mostly saw the C&NW and Milwaukee trains. On vacations to Grandma's in southern Illinois (Anna), I enjoyed being trackside to the IC streamliners and fast freights.
Sooooo, my layout is generic midwest / Texas ATSF, with some track sharing for the IC - all set in the 1950s. Hey, that's what's so great about this hobby - you can do what ever makes you happy!!!!
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
I mostly follow the Ma&Pa of the early 50's in S scale. But I have some other goodies from before I settled on the Ma&Pa. These include a PRR GG1 and a WW&F Forney.
And of course I still have all my HO and O stuff as well as a smattering of N and G.
Sometimes I think I should model a hobby store 1:1.
Enjoy
Paul
There have been so many road's locomotives and freight cars passing throught the area that it is hard to choose just one road.
The supply of Soo Line and Grand Trunk Western locomotives and rolling stock in O Scale have been rather limited or random over the past 15 years.
I had to also get some BNSF, Santa Fe, BN, CNW, Rio Grande, and Chessie C&O for run through motive power and rolling stock.
The scenery looks like the location is on the Soo Line or Grand Trunk Western.
Andrew
Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer
Heck no! What fun would that be?
My Penn Lake Railway connects the Reading, Delaware & Hudson, and New Haven...so in addition to the PL power, RDG, D&H, and NH power roams the rails.
I also have some CP Rail and Norfolk & Western power that occasionally appears on run through trains.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
As a kid I had 5 locos from 3 different roads. When I got back into the hobby I was bound and determined to strictly follow a prototype and strictly acquire ONLY prototypically correct locomotives. Looking back on it, I'm proud that I actually stuck with that program for a full two years ... and I'm still full of admiration for those who do so. Well, maybe I shouldn't be proud; my wife would argue that the two years was simply the amount of time it took me to completely replicate the loco roster of my prototype short line ...
But one of the main lessons from this forum is that I'd say that literally around 90% are like me and just like model locomotives too much to restrict ourselves so much. All I can say in my defense today is (1) there is never more than one road represented on my layout at the same time; (2) three of the four roads that I collect in addition to the prototypically correct one did each, at one or more points in time, seriously consider acquiring or leasing my prototype. The fourth one is the other short line that I seriously considered in the first place, and I swap out the station buildings when I run that set of locos and cabeese.
So at the end of the day instead of the five locos from three roads of my youth, I have a zillion locos from five roads, all of them historically active in the region in which I live: my actual prototype, the Washington and Old Dominion in its diesel days; the N&W and B&O in steam only; the Western Maryland in steam and early diesel, with the "other" short lne being the Ma and Pa. Based on the other responses, seems pretty typical.
I try to stick with a region and a decade. The southeast 1975-1985 more or less. I have Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western, Norfolk Southern, SCL and CSX.
How's this for variety? In my early twenties, back during the very early 1990's (born in '68), I had a bunch of friends who were really into brass. Having no wife and kids yet, well--I sampled a lot, and traded a lot because they didn't all run well or weren't all accurate models (so I never owned more than maybe 5 brass engines or a half dozen or so total pieces at any one time), but I had it bad, and also got an education in what not to buy. We used to be among the first 20 sharks waiting in line to get in the door at Timonium for the feeding frenzy of brass...
Here's the mostly chronological list:
I'm counting 17 different railroads plus Alco Demonstrator. Engines I should've kept or that I miss: SP 4-10-2, PFM Crown DRGW 4-8-2, Hallmark/Sam ATSF 2-10-4's--but the 4-10-2 most of all.
Been "on the wagon" from the bad brass habit for 9 years and counting. I enjoy today's RTR metal/plastic/brass hybrid steamers; don't have to feel too guilty about the price--and they run pretty well. Even managed to keep wife nearly 15 years.
Do miss the old days, pre-internet, at Timonium. We had a lot of fun then.
recovering brassoholic
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
steamnutthe Washington and Old Dominion in its diesel days
There's a reference you don't hear very often-- you must live near my neck of the woods...
jwhittensteamnutthe Washington and Old Dominion in its diesel days There's a reference you don't hear very often-- you must live near my neck of the woods...
There have been two books (that I know of) written about it. Rails to the Blue Ridge: The Washington and Old Dominion by Herbert Harwood and The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad by Ames W. Williams
You're correct. You are a very frequent contributor and I note that you have refined your location from "Northern Virginia" to "Culpeper". I'm up in the Washington suburbs. BTW, Mr. Harwood has a new edition of his book out. Text is the same but a number of new photos, many of them the result of the W&OD interest group formed by David Guilladeau.
I model present day CN and CP in the Toronto area...CP doesn't generally have foreign power, but CN almost always does...BNSF, CSX, NS, UP, and others are seen here every day. Thus, to make it realistic one has to mix it up.
Don't have to worry about it. Ain't nobody making locomotives for 19th Century non-Class 1 Fallen Flags. So for my might-have-been Oregon short lines of 1900, I establish reasonable rosters, and do my best to fill them from there. There might be strange paint schemes until I get around to bashing, detailing, and painting a stand-in into something more presentable.
Fred W
Chief Engineer, Wiper, Bottle Washer, and Jack-of-all-Trades for the....
Picture Gorge & Western Railway - None more Picturesque!
Port Orford & Elk River Railway & Navigation Co - Home of the Tall Cedars
....having fun....
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900....