Mr. LMDBut since this idea might cost over $100 million, I would probably buy land or the ghost town of Evans, Illinois, build a Grand Scale model railroad, i think, with a full functioning mini train yard and stations and industries. wht unused land would probably be sold for real estate.
Do a google or bing search for "Train Mountain".
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
rdgk1se3019 Mr. LMDBut since this idea might cost over $100 million, I would probably buy land or the ghost town of Evans, Illinois, build a Grand Scale model railroad, i think, with a full functioning mini train yard and stations and industries. wht unused land would probably be sold for real estate. Do a google or bing search for "Train Mountain".
I will but i cannot promise there will be one exact correct result lol
Mr. LMD, Owner, founder
The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad
I model the Northern Pacific, in the transition. My location is Butte Montana. However the track plan and scenery are completely free lanced. This is because when I started out in 1988 I had no interest in prototype modeling. Modeling the N.P. came gradually to me at about 5 years into the project. Luckily, I used John Armstrong's "Track Planing for Realistic Operation" as my bible when designing the layout . Also, I am heavily into freight, whereas the real N.P. Butte Short Line was almost exclusively passenger traffic. So my layout uses staging in the middle of a basic oval. East staging is Logan Junction and West staging is Garrison Junction. Butte was a major mining town, Gold very early, silver later and finally Copper and other minerals. I have interchanges with the Great Northern and the Butte Anaconda and Pacific.
As is sometimes the case, I am considering starting over as there are portions of the layout which I feel just don't work very well. We shall see. In a couple weeks I will be retiring. we'll see what tickles my fancy then.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
NP2626 I model the Northern Pacific, in the transition. My location is Butte Montana. However the track plan and scenery are completely free lanced. This is because when I started out in 1988 I had no interest in prototype modeling. Modeling the N.P. came gradually to me at about 5 years into the project. Luckily, I used John Armstrong's "Track Planing for Realistic Operation" as my bible when designing the layout . Also, I am heavily into freight, whereas the real N.P. Butte Short Line was almost exclusively passenger traffic. So my layout uses staging in the middle of a basic oval. East staging is Logan Junction and West staging is Garrison Junction. Butte was a major mining town, Gold very early, silver later and finally Copper and other minerals. I have interchanges with the Great Northern and the Butte Anaconda and Pacific. As is sometimes the case, I am considering starting over as there are portions of the layout which I feel just don't work very well. We shall see. In a couple weeks I will be retiring. we'll see what tickles my fancy then.
Very detailed and interesting. i was thinking of protolancing, but it would have been impossible to do since my railroad is a combination of almost all of Illinois defunct railroads, SP/D&RGW, and a few others.
Freelancers...feh.
I'm modeling the B&O's 987th and a half sub division as it was at 5:07 AM on June 30, 1953.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Jumijo Freelancers...feh.
Huh?
NP2626 Jumijo Freelancers...feh. Huh?
Internet slang for "yuck".
Alton Junction
Mine is a free-lanced coal and mixed freight hauler in the Appalachian area set in the late 1940's-early 1950's. The only thing that really sets the date are the vehicles and build dates on the side of the freight cars. I
Why freelanced? So I could build a stable of rolling stock based on generic steam locos and other rolling stock that were available for a price I could afford back when I started this particular railroad almost 30 years ago. Back then, a specific prototype was only available in brass other than maybe Bowser PRR loco kits which at the time were out of my price range.
Having said that, would I freelance again? No, because of the work involved to build a significant number amount of rolling stock. It's a lot more time consuming to paint and letter cars and locos than I thought it would be.
George V.
georgev Having said that, would I freelance again? No, because of the work involved to build a significant number amount of rolling stock. It's a lot more time consuming to paint and letter cars and locos than I thought it would be.
Going prototypical won't necessarily eliminate the need to letter equipment. If you don't want to letter equipment you have to pick a location, era and railroad that has a lot of options.
I have a prototypically based layout and I have to letter almost all my equipment (I actually have build most of them too). Why? Because the loction, era and railroad aren't supported with any depth by manufacturers. I picked the era specifically for the challenge, because it was unusual and would require me to do research. I like doing research, searching for information and clues. Industrial archeology. I like building and lettering cars so it wasn't a barrier.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
It was a joke!
richhotrain NP2626 Jumijo Freelancers...feh. Huh? Internet slang for "yuck".
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
Jumijo Freelancers...feh. I'm modeling the B&O's 987th and a half sub division as it was at 5:07 AM on June 30, 1953.
Sorry you dislike freelancing, but I love it. Allows me to use my creativity to design and operate my own railroad and it do not want to spend a lot of time researching piece for piece of a real railroad.
georgev Mine is a free-lanced coal and mixed freight hauler in the Appalachian area set in the late 1940's-early 1950's. The only thing that really sets the date are the vehicles and build dates on the side of the freight cars. I Why freelanced? So I could build a stable of rolling stock based on generic steam locos and other rolling stock that were available for a price I could afford back when I started this particular railroad almost 30 years ago. Back then, a specific prototype was only available in brass other than maybe Bowser PRR loco kits which at the time were out of my price range. Having said that, would I freelance again? No, because of the work involved to build a significant number amount of rolling stock. It's a lot more time consuming to paint and letter cars and locos than I thought it would be. George V.
seem like an interesting and cool layout.
Burlington Northern #24 richhotrain NP2626 Jumijo Freelancers...feh. Huh? Internet slang for "yuck". I think he means meh. not modeling prototype! lol (this post is all in good hearted fun and shouldn't be taken as aggressive in anyway.
Couldn't word it any other way. thank you.
Today I remembered and article about what might be the benchmark in freelance model railroads. The article "Dennis Manwarren's generic railroad" appeared in the May 1984 "Model Railroader", according to the online index. I recall this was a well-modeled O Scale layout that had no specific place or name. The owner wasn't concerned about it at all, if my memory is right. Of course, that was almost 30 years ago, and the hobby has evolved over time.
georgev Today I remembered and article about what might be the benchmark in freelance model railroads. The article "Dennis Manwarren's generic railroad" appeared in the May 1984 "Model Railroader", according to the online index. I recall this was a well-modeled O Scale layout that had no specific place or name. The owner wasn't concerned about it at all, if my memory is right. Of course, that was almost 30 years ago, and the hobby has evolved over time. George V.
I freelance because I love the idea of having my own railroad and plus I love too many railroads to just choose one to model/
georgev I recall this was a well-modeled O Scale layout that had no specific place or name. The owner wasn't concerned about it at all, if my memory is right. Of course, that was almost 30 years ago, and the hobby has evolved over time.
Part of the evolution has been in the information available. It used to be very difficult to learn about railroads 30-40 years ago. Pretty much only what was in magazines, a few books or word of mouth was available to "research". Finding a store that sold topo maps was a huge coup.
Now, with the internet, the range of information available and speed at which it can be gathered is amazing. I have gathered as much information in the last 5 years as I gathered in the previous 25.
Despite the angst on various threads about not having RTR models in a particular railroad, the hobby has never before had such a huge variety of models available. It is absolutely staggering compared to today.
40 years ago if I wanted a hopper car for my train I had a choice of the Varney twin, the Athearn quad, the Roundhouse triple or 3 cast metal Ulrich varieties. Dada, dada dadats all folks. Now there are literally dozens of hopper models in plastic and metal. It was absolutely amazing when Athearn released 3, count em, 3 varieties of twin hoppers. WOW. That was huge. As more and more models were produced and more information became available, people started seeing the differences in cars and engines. That's where the big shift to following the prototype happened.
I think the difference between leaning towards prototype and leaning towards freelance is whether or not people want a challenge, and what the scope of that challenge is. For some the challenge is a collection (to gather as many items as possible), for some the challenge is a "NASA mission" (to get as many vehicles orbiting as possible without anything hitting the ground), for others its replicating as many aspects as possible as accurately as possible. Its a wide, wide range along multiple aspects. They are all equally valid, but they are not all equal.
I originally started to plan a totally freelanced railroad call the Weeahpa Creek. However, the simple act of trying to locate my fictitious railroad between my two favorite prototypes (ATSF and SP) brought my attention to a very interesting fallen flag located right in my own back yard (Orange County, California). The Santa Ana & Newport Railroad was built to move lumber from McFadden Wharf in "New Port" (now Newport Beach) to a connection with the ATSF in Santa Ana. The line was built in the early 1890's and lasted only about 5 years. At that point, the McFadden brothers decided to sell their railroad to the ASTF. However, the ATSF was climbing out of bankruptcy at the time and so could not purchase the line. In a round about way, the Southern Pacific eventually gained control of the SA&N and extended the existing SA&N trackage out to the SP main line in Westminster. This had the unique affect of creating a prototype continuous loop around much of the County. This scenario seemed ready made for a model layout.
My layout is still freelanced (or at least proto-lanced) since I prefer to model the transition era. Thus, my back story assumes that the SA&N remained independent through the 1950's. It continues to intechange with the ATSF but has also gained connections with the SP and the Pacific Electric in exchange for reciprocal trackage rights. This allows me to model the SA&N as a struggling short line using mainly second hand equipment as well as three prototype lines. The prototype based continuous loop of track allows simultaneous point-to-point and continuous operations (the SP ran short mixed trains around the prototype loop in the 1920's). This proto-lance approach seems to be a comfortable compromise for designing and constructing a layout. Although I have not attempted to accurately model the actual prototype line, I have used the prototype information to help me design a more plausible layout with multiple industries appropriate to the area. My scenery is designed to suggest actual locations, not duplicate them. Besides, this area boomed so big during the late 1950's and 1960's that few layout visitors could remember what the area looked like during the 1950's.
Hornblower
hornblower I originally started to plan a totally freelanced railroad call the Weeahpa Creek. However, the simple act of trying to locate my fictitious railroad between my two favorite prototypes (ATSF and SP) brought my attention to a very interesting fallen flag located right in my own back yard (Orange County, California). The Santa Ana & Newport Railroad was built to move lumber from McFadden Wharf in "New Port" (now Newport Beach) to a connection with the ATSF in Santa Ana. The line was built in the early 1890's and lasted only about 5 years. At that point, the McFadden brothers decided to sell their railroad to the ASTF. However, the ATSF was climbing out of bankruptcy at the time and so could not purchase the line. In a round about way, the Southern Pacific eventually gained control of the SA&N and extended the existing SA&N trackage out to the SP main line in Westminster. This had the unique affect of creating a prototype continuous loop around much of the County. This scenario seemed ready made for a model layout. My layout is still freelanced (or at least proto-lanced) since I prefer to model the transition era. Thus, my back story assumes that the SA&N remained independent through the 1950's. It continues to intechange with the ATSF but has also gained connections with the SP and the Pacific Electric in exchange for reciprocal trackage rights. This allows me to model the SA&N as a struggling short line using mainly second hand equipment as well as three prototype lines. The prototype based continuous loop of track allows simultaneous point-to-point and continuous operations (the SP ran short mixed trains around the prototype loop in the 1920's). This proto-lance approach seems to be a comfortable compromise for designing and constructing a layout. Although I have not attempted to accurately model the actual prototype line, I have used the prototype information to help me design a more plausible layout with multiple industries appropriate to the area. My scenery is designed to suggest actual locations, not duplicate them. Besides, this area boomed so big during the late 1950's and 1960's that few layout visitors could remember what the area looked like during the 1950's.
:O Wow. that's quite a history of that fallen railroad and also your railroad history is strong as well. what type of locomotives do you have on your layout?
I am modeling railroads mostly in my area i have TP&W Iowa interstate, and my beloved Peoria and Western FP9 i have some mopacs in the armor yellow to fit into the up that runs through my area and some indiana harbor belt but mostly short lines i have a BN gp 50 and the GP 59 in the southern paint scheme thats my heritage unit mostly in central illinois
My Brookfield & Western is a midwest granger type road. The layout will be set in the late 80's early 90's.The railroad operates between Chicago and Omaha. Traffic volumes would be some where between C&NW and ICG Iowa division levels. 3 to 4 pairs of manifest freights per day plus grain extras, a daily TOFC train and 1 or 2 KCS run through trains using trackage rights to reach Chicago. The layout will be focused around the operations of it's Chicago area yard called Elmhurst Yard. The yard lies just west of the Indiana Harbor Belt which is the RR's east end connection to the outside world. The reason for this concept is simple. I can operate motive power for every railroad in the Chicago area mostly bringing transfers into and out of Elmhurst Yard. The KCS trains would run through the yard maybe just dropping off or picking up cars depending on the trains direction, then would continue to Clearing Yard via the IHB. If I can ever get it built it would be a fun layout to operate.
Dan Metzger
keithh9824 I am modeling railroads mostly in my area i have TP&W Iowa interstate, and my beloved Peoria and Western FP9 i have some mopacs in the armor yellow to fit into the up that runs through my area and some indiana harbor belt but mostly short lines i have a BN gp 50 and the GP 59 in the southern paint scheme thats my heritage unit mostly in central illinois
Nice :)
Are your prot0-lancing?
dm9538 My Brookfield & Western is a midwest granger type road. The layout will be set in the late 80's early 90's.The railroad operates between Chicago and Omaha. Traffic volumes would be some where between C&NW and ICG Iowa division levels. 3 to 4 pairs of manifest freights per day plus grain extras, a daily TOFC train and 1 or 2 KCS run through trains using trackage rights to reach Chicago. The layout will be focused around the operations of it's Chicago area yard called Elmhurst Yard. The yard lies just west of the Indiana Harbor Belt which is the RR's east end connection to the outside world. The reason for this concept is simple. I can operate motive power for every railroad in the Chicago area mostly bringing transfers into and out of Elmhurst Yard. The KCS trains would run through the yard maybe just dropping off or picking up cars depending on the trains direction, then would continue to Clearing Yard via the IHB. If I can ever get it built it would be a fun layout to operate.
That is a smart idea and having that many trains operating would certainly make it feel like chicago existed on your layout.
Mr. LMDwhat type of locomotives do you have on your layout?
Mr. LMD,
At this point, layout construction costs have limited my loco fleet to the following:
Santa Ana & Newport = Two Santa Fe style MDC 2-6-2 Prarie kits upgraded with NWSL gearing, A-Line can motors with flywheels, added electrical pickup, LED headlights and MRC #1627 steam sound DCC decoders. The idea is that these locos were obtained from the ATSF as these locos were retired. Each is named for one of the McFadden brothers who founded the line. Both are heavily weathered to show long and hard use. I use these two locos to pull the "Merry-Go-Round" mixed trains around the layout's continuous loop. One Harriman style MDC 2-6-2 Prarie kit with similar upgrades. Also supposed to have been obtained second hand but I have yet to figure out who used such a loco. This loco is named for C. C. Chapman, a prominent citizen in early 20th Century Orange County history. This loco is also heavily weathered.
Pacific Electric = By the late 1950's, most of the "Red Cars" had been abandoned in favor of buses. Freight was still hauled on much of the remaining PE lines but diesel locos leased from the Southern Pacific replaced the old steeple cab electrics. I only have one loco to represent the PE at this time. It is an older Athearn blue box Baldwin S-12 I repainted in SP tiger stripes and lettered for the PE. I also added trolley poles since most of the areas that retained the overhead wires still used those wires to activate roadway crossing signals. This loco was upgraded with a Lenz fleet decoder (non-sound) and LED headlights. It attracts a lot of attention from layout visitors due to the trolley poles but no overhead wires on my layout.
Southern Pacific = At this point, I only have a pair of Athearn blue box EMD F-7A locos (powered and dummy) connected by a drawbar. I repainted both in the "black widow" paint scheme and even made my own SP nose decals. I also installed Walthers F-7 detail kits on each unit. I wasn't around yet during the 1950's but what I do remember from my lifetime was that the SP never seemed to care about appearance. Thus, these two locos are heavily weathered. A Lenz fleet decoder is installed in the powered unit with the rear headlght installed in the nose of the dummy unit.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe = I have a pair of Athearn blue box EMD F-7A locos. One painted by Athearn and one that I repainted in the red and silver "warbonnet" passenger scheme. Both units also received Walthers F-7 detail kits. Both have Lenz fleet decoders installed. These units are only lightly weathered. I also have an old (my very first loco?) Mantua Tyco EMD F-7 I repainted from a poorly executed (by Tyco) warbonnet scheme to the blue and yellow "cigar band" freight scheme, plus added a Walthers detail kit and a basic Digitrax decoder. Weathering is moderate. Unfortunately, the old open frame motor in this loco packed it in shortly after I got it running under DCC. The failed drivetrain has been stripped and the loco is now run as a dummy unit.
Planned future loco purchases include Bachman 2-6-0, 2-8-0 and/or 2-10-0 steamers for the SA&N, four-axle road switchers in "tiger stripe" scheme for the SP and four-axle road switchers in "zebra stripes" for the ATSF. Most of my rolling stock is cars 40' or less to keep the trains looking right on the 22" minimum radius curves on my layout.
HORNBLOWER
You have an impressive layout and a long history for your railroad. I would love to see your railroad just like any modeler and I know what you mean about layout construction. I'm thinking of moving my three folding tables out of my room and build a layout inside a custom trailer so i can have room in my room.
This is a general question to the proto-lancing or freelancing modelers, but do you have a locomotive class for your railroad? I for one used a baby named site where I looked up names that would work perfectly with my locomotives. However, I cannot open that file since my flashdrive isnt working, but I do remember what class and that was my nw2 class, Milan, which means ". little strong warrior".
I model a what if shortline called the Leelanau County Railway which is set in Leelanau, Benzie, and Grand Traverse Counties of Northwestern Michigan.
Mr. LMD This is a general question to the proto-lancing or freelancing modelers, but do you have a locomotive class for your railroad?
This is a general question to the proto-lancing or freelancing modelers, but do you have a locomotive class for your railroad?
If you are proto-lancing one would probably use the class system established by the prototype. So for example I would have class I-2, I-4 and I-5 2-8-0's on my current W&N branch. When I had my 1950's and 1960's era proto-lanced layouts I used class OE, DF1, DF2, DF3, RS1, RS2, RS3, RS4 and ERS14's (NW2, FT, FA, F3, RS3, AS16, GP7, H-24-66 and GP30/GP35's respectively).
I model the Whiskey River Railway, which is influenced by the miniature railroad my "uncle" had at his amusement park but I decided to model it as a full size railroad set in the late 1930's and early 1940's in south central Wisconsin that runs north to south. Basically every town that the line goes through will be a small switching layout within itself, as my layout is modular/sectional since my job requires me to move a lot. All in all I should have seven modules for the seven towns. I had two modules built but tore them apart because I wasn't happy with the benchwork, either being too flimsy or heavy.
Motive power is steam, mostly all hand-me-down locomotives from neighboring lines or lines that went the way of the Dodo bird. Currently the roster sports one two truck Heisler (for the future quarry), one Athearn 0-4-2T "Little Monster", two 4-4-0's, one 4-4-2, two Moguls, one 4-6-0, a Mikado and a custom contraption that has been on and off of the works, my 4-4-4-0 dubbed the "Super American".
I spend most of my time over at the Zealot forums, so most of the story is over there along with boatloads of pics. Please stop by!
Tyler
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Mr. LMD keithh9824 I am modeling railroads mostly in my area i have TP&W Iowa interstate, and my beloved Peoria and Western FP9 i have some mopacs in the armor yellow to fit into the up that runs through my area and some indiana harbor belt but mostly short lines i have a BN gp 50 and the GP 59 in the southern paint scheme thats my heritage unit mostly in central illinois Nice :) Are your prot0-lancing?