What does your roster look like? How do you decide what locomotives to add to your roster?
If you freelance, do you try to follow prototypes, or do you just buy whatever you like that fits your era?
Currently, for my era I have an GP38-2, GP40-2,SD40-2, SD45, SW1500. I have been considering adding some locomotives that have wide safety cabs to add variety.
Delete
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
KyleWhat does your rooster look like?
Modeling a fallen flag operating in the late 1940's adding to my rooster/roster is limited to
what equipment the road operated in that era & locale.
I'm fine with that actually because of the constraints this imposes on my spending.
What I can't buy, why then I kitbash or adapt existing models to represent say, locomotives operated by the prototype. No model exists of a Baldwin F7 0-6-0. I needed one or two so using historic photographs in several books I have I tore down the ubiquitous Bachman & Rivarossi 0-6-0's filling, fileing, shaping & adding brass detail parts to produce correct looking locomotives & tenders. I applied the same or similar treatment to build up a small roster/rooster of, Russian Decapods, a locomotive the prototype enjoyed much sucess with.
While there are many locomotive models I like the look of & would like to own, they realistically would be ouf of place in the small & specialized world I model.
Thank goodnes for that otherwise I would have driven myself broke many years ago.
Dusty.
OK Kyle, you are in for a bit of ribbing on this. Roosters crow at dawn, rosters have lists of rolling stock.
I am modelling Canadian Pacific in the very late 50s. So far I have 5 switchers for the yard, and an FM 16-44, a GP7 and three RS-2/3s for mainline freight and coal duty. There are also 5 FP7s (2 'A's and 3 'B's) for passenger duty. All are powered with sound.
I also have several steam engines in various states of assembly, some of which will be viable (barely) for the late 1950s and others which will be used for excursions.
Then there are my critters! I have two scratch built HOn30 switchers (one is shown in my avatar), and a few other HO powered items like a utility truck (scratch built), a 15 ton Mack switcher, a galloping goose style freight engine (also scratch built), a Grandt Line 25 ton switcher and a Grandt Line 15 ton box cab.
There will be more 'critters' as time goes on. I have managed to acquire several Tenshodo and NWSL Stanton drives which are ripe for scratch building.
There you have it! I watch eBay regularly for more CP stuff but I will only buy bargain priced items. Those are pretty rare but it does happen.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I model present day Deutsche Bahn in N scale, which leaves me with an enormous choice of motive power. Anything electric fits the bill, from late 1950´s electric locos to the latest TRAXX design, EMU´s, ICE train, former Deutsche Reichsbahn locos, and even a selection of steamers for a railfan special.
Hard to make up my mind, I could easily spend a fortune and a half just on locos.
Instead of a rooster, I use a henway.
Rich
Alton Junction
Gotta do my part..............
"WHAT'S A HENWAY???"
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Although my Layout is pretty much freelanced, my roster is the locos used by the Northern Pacific in 1953, excepting the curves on my layout are too sharp for mallets; or, articulateds.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
mobilman44 "WHAT'S A HENWAY???"
No, Rich, it´s 4 to 6 pound - and that´s including the feathers
OP, please forgive me for this digression...........
A few years ago we were in Fredericksburg (Tx) and walked by a picket fenced yard with a few chickens inside. All of a sudden a rooster let out a crow (spell?). Man, I was shocked at how loud he was. It was ear splitting for sure!!!
Sir Madog No, Rich, it´s 4 to 6 pound - and that´s including the feathers
OP - OK Kyle, I've had my fun, so I need to answer your post........
I model the 1950s, with the ATSF is the main road, but the IC does run its streamliners on the same trackage. No locos or rolling stock have build dates past 1959. There are a handful of steamers, but mostly diesels - F units, E units, RSDs, GPs, and various switchers that were around for all or part of the '50s.
Rolling stock is mostly from the ATSF, and other midwest/west roads that regularly found themselves on ATSF trackage. While I'm not a rivet counter, I am a stickler for the build dates and the plausable explanation for the cars being on ATSF trackage........
Kyle What does your roster look like? How do you decide what locomotives to add to your roster?
When I started out nearly 11 years ago, I bought every steamer from every road name simply if it looked cool. For diesels, I loaded up on a single road name (C&NW), collecting every type of diesel without regard to era.
But, as I progressed in the hobby, I began to focus more on prototype and era. So, I started selling off locos in an attempt to just match the desired prototype and era.
I still have a way to go, but I have managed to limit my roster to prototype (Dearborn Station) and era (mid-50s).
I choose the locomotives that fits my switching needs like GP7/9,SW1500s,GP38/38-2,GP40/40-2 SW1200,GP35 and Alco S4.
Two examples would be Summerset Ry owns a SW1500 and leases a GATX GP38-2 on as needed bases while Slate Creek Rail own a SW1200.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I mostly model the Milwaukee, although not in any particular prototypical place. I've got a lot of Milwaukee engines, and I'm very slowly re-badging those that are not to make them "right." Fortunately, there are a lot of Milwaukee diesels on the market.
I started with the Milwaukee when I was a young teen. A couple of those engines are running as dummies now.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
AW! Heck. I thought this was going to be a ''foghorn leghorn'' thread.
I likes, a lot of RS's, GP7/9's,SW's and DS-4-4-1000's, a few 2-8-0"s, couple 0-6-0's, lots of 2-8-2's, all in Zebra stripe's of course. Not to mention, all the SD40-2'S. F3 Freight,RSD 15's. Wow talk about a hoarder. Spread out over 64yrs. though.
Take Care!
Frank
My Nscale Maclau River is largely inspired by the N&W, in the steam age.
Steam Mallets were the king on this system, like the Maclau River.
In the beginning, all the steam rooster was nearly only Rivarossi/Atlas steam and a very few brass imports.
This roster has dissappear now; by 2003-2005 the new generation of steam models come on the market, better runner, excellent details and DCC ready for the most.
I have replaced all the Ri./Atlas steam by the new generation of N scale steam, made by Kato, Bachmann, Model power and Life Like.
Some of these company offer mallet in their catalog which can fit a place on my roster.
Only the few brass remains from the old roster, all of them (4) are Key imports second hand and only the 4-6-6-2 model run quiet well looking at the new plastic steam generation.
The car rooster is mostly 55 tons hopper and boxcar from the 30's/40's including flat, tankcar and all the car which were running at this time, most are MTL whith Atlas and Intermountain and a few Fox valleys models, my car rooster is nearly 500 cars and it's a all time growing rooster,whith two or three car each week.
Only MTL couplers are used on the system.
And I must agree I can't resist when I see a model which can be used on my layout.
And don't use staging on your layout, because.....you need much more car and locomotives (lol)
My roster has 2 parts.
1st part is anything the Ma&Pa ran in the 50's - that's 4 diesels and 8 steam locomotives plus 2 gas electrics. So far I have the 4 diesels and 3 steam locomotives in S scale.
2nd part is anything I like.
Remember. this is a hobby so have fun - whatever that is for you.
Paul
Darn, read this whole thread and did not find any information on adding a rooster to my farm scene. Bummer.
My loco roster is easy, I follow a specific prototype, so those are the locos I buy. Subset only, because I don;t have a hanger-size layout to duplicate the entire railroad. WHile it would be nice to have 80-some RS-3's, because, well, I love RS-3's, neither my layout space nor my wallet can support that.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker Darn, read this whole thread and did not find any information on adding a rooster to my farm scene. Bummer.
https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/530-230
My roster for my proto-lanced line,
the loco's are decided on by what the neighboring railroads used. As a small Class 3 with electrical operations, the line offers many chances for small steam and electrics. The biggest steam is purchased after everyone else is dumping them, and the P&NW picked them at scrap prices, because the owners are packrats.
My freelance road located in the Elkins WV area - has 6 2-8-0's in 5 different roads, B&O, C&O, WM, West Virginia Northern and my own Western West Virginian. I also have 4 mallets - 2-8-8-2 B&O, and EM1, a 2-6-6-2 C&O and a 2-6-6-2 logger painted in my WWV. I also have a pair of 4-6-2's and a 2-6-2. More loco's than I can use but they look nice in storage in the yards.
I have around 90 D&RGW engines which allow me to cover 1965-1990 time frame.
I grew up with and love the SP in northern California, 10 SP tunnel motors and 8 SP SD45's.
In addition 6 Amtrak F40PH's from Walthers and KATO, 3 Utah RR RSD4/5's from Atlas and a few pool UP SD45's and an SD40-2. There are 6 CB&Q GP30/35's that pooled with the D&RGW in 65/66.
As for rolling stock, about 24 BLI CZ passnger cars to model the RGZ and California Zephyr as well as a set of older Walthers Superliner I cars for the 1983-1991 Amtrak California Zephyr. I also have an uncounted fleet of freight cars and cabooses which would allow me to model common freight trains in the 1970's and 1980's, including around 7 modest unit coal trains (25-30 legnth), several fairly correct TOFC trains (with 40 and 45 foot Fruehauf and Brae trailers on 89' flat cars) a D&RGW Railblazer with 3 sets of Impack TT spine cars and 89' flat cars, and a good variety of freight cars which match those typical of that era (lots of SP PC&F and FMC box cars, and others identified in photo's of that period.
Kyle, you should probably go in and edit his topic title so folks browsing the General Discussion will know you aren't asking about a farm animal. Just sayin!!!! Unless you put Rooster in there just for a laugh... ya never know!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have 4-4-0, 4-6-0, 2-8-0, 0-6-0 and 0-4-0 engines. There might be a 2-6-0 at some point. There are 6 brass engines (not in service) awaiting redetailing, drive improvements and painting plus about 8 other engines (in service) that will be rotated out and redetailed to be more accurate engines.
I have a book of P&R engines plus a roster of the real W&N and I compare the engines available to those, purchasing accordingly. I have about 1.5 times the engines I need in order to cover maintenance. All of the engines I use are W&N, P&R or connecting roads.
My car roster is 43% open top cars (Gons, hoppers, flats), 40% house cars (boxes), 11% reefers (reefers, ventilated boxes) and the rest stock and tank cars. That breaks down 33% home road cars, 30% connecting roads and 37% other roads. About 50% are craftsman/resin kits, scratchbuilt, kitbashed or significantly modified, about 70% are lettered with decals or dry transfers.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Well my freight car roster is made up of boxcars, and covered hoppers. But I'm slowly getting tank cars, flatcars, gondolas, hoppers, and maxi well cars. (The roster is broken in three parts the largest is BNSF, the lesser ones are UP, leased companies.)
Locomotive roster contends of a few 4 C44-9W (2 BNSF 2 UP), 2 SD70ACe, and 3 SD90/43Mac, 1 SD70M. Union Pacific is the rest.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I started out modelling the NYC in the steam/diesel transition era and had about 10-15 locos on my wishlist. That was 8 years ago and now I buy anything I like, but still keep NYC as my primary road. I now have over 60 locos including about 10 articulated steam engines that NYC didn't have? Just wanted to have what I couldn't afford when I was younger (much younger!).
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
richhotrain mobilman44 "WHAT'S A HENWAY???" Somewhere between 2 and 4 pounds.
Somewhere between 2 and 4 pounds.
Next question: What's a Greek urn?
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
steemtrayn richhotrain mobilman44 "WHAT'S A HENWAY???" Somewhere between 2 and 4 pounds. Next question: What's a Greek urn?