After being in hobby for nearly 40 years everything is now coming together. I just bought whatever I thought looked cool and started running it on a pretty much undecorated layout. Well the other day I started doing an inventory of much stuff and noticed something. Almost everything I had with a few exceptions fit a period between 1970 and 1975 in the Cleburne TX area. 8 major railroads were located in that area during that time. At least that I know of and plenty of visitors. I came up with a plan that works well with all of that in a very compact space. I have my construction practices down to a science. So now I can work on scenery which is going well. So after wandering aimlessly about the hobby for 40 years somethings may have actually come together. Makes me wonder how many people out there are just like me.
Model railroading is a long and winding road that we walk down, never to arrive.
Welcome to the group of adepts!
RMax1 After being in hobby for nearly 40 years everything is now coming together. I just bought whatever I thought looked cool and started running it on a pretty much undecorated layout. Well the other day I started doing an inventory of much stuff and noticed something. Almost everything I had with a few exceptions fit a period between 1970 and 1975 in the Cleburne TX area. 8 major railroads were located in that area during that time. At least that I know of and plenty of visitors. I came up with a plan that works well with all of that in a very compact space. I have my construction practices down to a science. So now I can work on scenery which is going well. So after wandering aimlessly about the hobby for 40 years somethings may have actually come together. Makes me wonder how many people out there are just like me.
By the title you make it sound like a bad thing? Eh?
I've been in the hobby since I was a teen so yes, some 44 years approximately and while I can't say I was wandering aimlessly, I didn't have a space for a layout most of those years due to nomadic life, divorce and related fun and games. Within the last few years I finally have a smallish 10x18' space and have got a layout built and most of the track laid, subscenery is pretty much in (all the plaster cloth anyway) and last weekend I ran my first 18 car freight train all the way around the layout to track and electrical using a DC power pack. Woo!
Only one hitch before I could get the train around all the way, I had a Shinohara 3-way turnout in staging which refused to throw one of the points over all the way, so I had to cut a hole in the bench work above it, take it out and mess around with bronze wiper to get it to throw. Then train ran.
Yeah, at a pretty long time I finally am running some trains and am farther along on this layout than any previous "plywood pacifics".
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I am pretty good at discerning what about a pursuit is going to be exciting and fun for me. It happens that I like the looks of items of rolling stock, and the stories/romance about them, from quite a few different roads. So, I collect small amounts of models from each of them...starting of course with the head end power. Like our OP, though, it's still a learning process. I try not to force it. I would like it to be a surprising adventure.
Now, as I am nearing 64, I sure hope this process of discovery, and the fun that goes with it, goes on as it has for the OP...another 40 years.
MRRing actually drives me sane more than crazy...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Cleburne, TX...what a great place to model, especially during the CF7 era. I remember walking the facility and going in the shops with my dad. We saw a bunch of F units that were waiting to become CF7's and we saw some under construction. Good memories.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
40 YEARS >>>>> Geez Selector, that would make you 104 and me 115. I think our final turnout will be thrown long before that.
Johnboy out...................but not for long
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
More most of my life my work has been stressful and model railroading had been my way of relieving stress and relaxing. I was very surprised by the strip between Cleburne and Ft.Worth and just how much went and does go on there. The area gives a lot of flexibility. Maybe my choices were just dumb luck but things look good.
If you can, try to stretch your modeling into Cresson, which is pretty close to Cleburne. The SF had a little yard there with a wye between there and Godley.
I grew up close to the mainline going into Fort Worth. Warbonnets and CF7's were awesome to see.
Having a plan for going forward with most things is good. Organization is of course very subjective. Some like buying rolling stock for multiple reasons. Goodness knows how many times I past up pretty cars because they didn't relate to my era and location. Whatever works.
No, you're not crazy.
I'll be 48 soon and have been in the hobby for 43 years...have dabbled in many different railroads but for one reason or another (like not being able to acquire all the specific motive power or rolling stock I wanted) gave up on "modeling" a specific road in a specific time.
Crazy: Is that buying freight cars in one roadname and era for a couple months and then changing one's mind and selling that on Evilbay, only to replace it with other rolling stock from a different road and time?
I've done that too many times. Just sold or am trying to sell PRR stuff in favor of Tangent Great Northern bright red open hoppers, to run behind the BLI GN 4-8-4, and the rather "affordably priced" older GN brass that is out there to be had.
Others like Sheldon tend to keep everything they buy. I just change my mind a lot.
I just tried to sell a gorgeous brass Soo steam engine, and in more than 2 months nobody in the world bid on it. Perhaps that's because it's pro-weathered, and some collectors feel that lowers value...Now it's back, and I'm kinda glad, because it runs great and I'm just going to use it on the layout. I only had it out for sale because others are selling (and have sold multiples of) the same rare item for big money--more than twice what I paid for mine. It's the best engine I have on hand to run.
Keep in mind anything is only worth what a willing buyer is willing to pay today.
John
Thanks Chuck,
I am looking all up and down that area. I have been collecting photos and found all kinds of different power. The nice thing is as my space grows I can just build another 2x4 ft module and add it on.
It is interesting that your years of "buy anything" nonetheless had an era theme without you even focusing on it. After decades of being a Pennsy modeler in the circa 1950 transition era (but an aimless and undisciplined one with a GG1 and Broadway Limited cars but also a 2-10-2 that ran mostly in Ohio, and other such incongruities) I rather suddenly shifted to late 1960s C&NW when LifeLike P2K released the very EMD switcher that used to switch my hometown. Many of the freight cars I had acquired could be carried over to the new era of my layout, although they need much more weathering. Unfortunately some of the more interesting ones cannot. Sometimes I wish I knew less about freight cars than I do ...
Dave Nelson
I grew up during the '70's and always tend to prefer '70's freight cars.
My motive power interests do and have mostly varied...but not so much the freight cars.
So it wasn't years of just buying "anything" or else you'd have stuff all over the map in terms of road names and era's. If you were buying stuff that was oppropriate for that area of Texas in a particular time frame, that does not qualify as anything and everything.
I'd say I've been a lot more loose originally buying rolling stock that would work for 1965 all the way to 1995 for D&RGW and SP. I've since decided thats pretty insane and don't have the room or budget to have all of that. For about the last 5-8 years I have sold off pretty much everything later than 1990, and am wittling away at the late 1980's now and narrowing things down to caboose era - as in when all D&RGW trains had cabooses - which means 1985 and earlier. Even though I did nurse the idea of running more "modern" trains, trains without cabooses still just look "wrong" to me - I can't help it.
It sounds like the OP really was buying rolling stock within certain parameters but wasn't maybe organized about it.
Even though I was a train nut since I could walk, my primarly formative train watching years were the 1970's when I was a teen and can remember watching the SP and starting in the early 1980's got to see the D&RGW in person too when I made a number of trips east-west through Colorado.
I started out with Amtrak phase I cars and bought 3 proto 2000 E8's. I have pictures from the time frame in Cleburne. I had a bunch of undec Athearn F7's and one day I was in a bad mood and painted one Ferrari Rosso Gloss red. A few days later hit it with dulcoat and a black magic marker and boom instant MKT F's. They fit. I have a Southern E8 that I love the green color and it is the best running loco I have. Doesn't fit but gets use hauling the track cleaner. I have a pair of proto 1000 F3's that work and I took a D&RGW F B unit and did my mad paint trick to it for an AT&SF B. Have a few Santa Fe GP's. I have a few various BN things that float around. Even my UP E8's may make a trip. I have 2 SW1500 Switchers one RI and a MKT. So power I have and all kinds of built up rolling stock. The really funny thing is that my structures are really weird. I have a plasticville ranch house that I am working on. Gave a dollar for it at Kaybee toys on clearance. I'll post a picture. Turned a 40ft boxcar from Athearn into a MOW storage shed. From Ebay I bought a couple Tyco things that I had as a kid just for fun. Every once in a while something is way out of whack so I will claim it is just lost.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
RMax1So after wandering aimlessly about the hobby for 40 years somethings may have actually come together. Makes me wonder how many people out there are just like me.
For me it was the opposite. When I modeled the N&W every engine was correct for my era 1977/78 and was in either the black "Hamburger" scheme or the big NW on the side of the hood and on the noses.
Seems after I turn 50 I started modeling the Chessie(C&O) within 6 years I started buying a hodge podge engine collection and some where during that time I started my collection of IPD boxcars.
And now I have a nice collection of SCL,L&N,CRR,Family Lines and two Seaboard System GP38-2s locomotives. I also have my Summerset Ry,Slate Creek Rail,Huron River,CR,CSX,NS,IHB,7 shortline CF7s and BRC locomotives.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Rmax,
This is very close to the area I model. Being a fourth generation Texan and living on land that has been in my family for 125 years what else could I model. Being just north of Austin I have mostly MKT and Missouri Pacific, since I had Granddads that worked for them. I also have Santa Fe, Temple is 23 miles up the road, SP, big player in Austin and some CB&Q, Rock Island for the BRI that had trackage rights over the Katy through Waxahachie. But I also do two eras so I also have some UP, Burlington Northern, Frisco, Norfolk Southern and KCS. Yes I have more than I need. But I'll never get bored.
I run 9 passenger trains in two different eras. For the fifties I have a 11 car Hallmark Texas Special, a patched together Texas Eagle, A Katy Bluebonnet, a Sante Fe Texas Cheif, Santa Fe California Special and a Rock Island Twin Star Rocket.
For the modern era I run two Amtrack trains one with Amfleet like the seventies Lone Star and one with superliners like the current Eagle. I also have a UP excursion pulled with steam.
The important thing to remember is just have fun enjoy what you want who and don't get bogged down by what other people think.
SB
blabrideThe important thing to remember is just have fun enjoy what you want who and don't get bogged down by what other people think.
Truer words was never spoken.. That was my problem for years and still is to a certain degree but,I have engines I always wanted SCL and Seaboard System. My Seaboard System engines still look odd pulling a string of IPD boxcars but,I'm having fun and that's all that matters.. I'm the happiest watching two SCL engines (usually a Atlas GP7/RS11 or GP7/RS-3 consist) pulling a 18 car train of colorful IPD boxcars.
As of two days ago I can claim 79 years seniority as a model railroader. Got my first Lionel tinplate (real lithographed steel) set as a Christmas present at the ripe old age of five - months.
Once I got away from 0-27 non-scale (and discovered Model Railroader) I have always had some scheme that was central. It DID change, from generic New York to Pennsy, to NYC - and then I joined the Air Force and was sent to the far side of the Pacific. Price and availability (both of models and of access to the prototype) shifted me toward Japanese railroading. The deal was sealed in 1959 when my girlfriend gifted me with a kit that built up into a nice 'foobie' 2-6-4T. I was exploring the rails and coal mines around Fukuoka, and accumulating the few available models of the things I was seeing locally.
Five years later my family (self, wife and two toddlers) spent a wonderful month in Agematsu, in far up-country Japan. At the time Agematsu was the terminus of the Kiso Forest Railway, and I was in hog heaven.
So I took the JNR route through Agematsu (now renamed Haruyama) and grafted my coal-mining line to it, and have been consolidating and refining that master plan ever since. These days it lives in a double garage filled with steel stud benchwork and 'toppings.'
The 2-6-4T? Still going strong. So's the marriage.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964
The tendency in model railroading is just to keep accumulating stuff.
I mean no disrespect to those with large rosters of engines and cars, but for me, with two young boys at home, who must pay for their lessons (one wants to be a pro baseball player someday and is showing real ability as a pitcher), I looked at my "inventory" and saw money that in some cases could be put to better use.
Now I'm happier than ever in this hobby. I don't deny myself a particular engine if I want it, but I just have less of them (way less than most people--2 on hand now). I don't have many freight cars at all, but I want the ones I do have.
I don't know what steamer I'll buy next, but I know who I'm going to buy it from (he has a great inventory at reasonable prices).
Amazing stories! I got a large part of my stuff when I working in a mall in Dallas. The Michaels across the mall had dump bins with locos for 2 dollars. I would buy a few things every paycheck. I remember my first train set and it was powered by batteries that were loaded like a flash light into the engine. I think it was some sort of O gauge.
Hello all,
"It's the journey, not the destination!"
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Ever visit Bobbye Halls on Bryan street? Man I miss that place when in Dallas. I think what I miss more is someone in the hobby business that makes, Imports, equipment for us southwest and lower midwest modelers.
Bobbye Hall's is legend. To bad I never got to go there. For some reason I tried to stay away from Dallas. I frequented MAL for a long time and most of the time bought things at the FT. Worth show until I got a bad taste in my mouth from that show. I would almost rather go to OKC than anywhere else.
Bobbye was great!
I spoke to her on the phone one time about some brass related questions...that's my only memory of her.
I lived and worked in Houston Texas in 1984 and 1985 (Gearhart Industries - [Gearhart-Owens] "The GO Company) but never made it up to Dallas to Bobbye Halls. There were a couple of good shops in Houston I did go to and might still have one or two pieces of rolling stock I bought there, along with a Rio Grande Diesels book I bought there too - read many many times. Man, where does time go?!
PRR8259 The tendency in model railroading is just to keep accumulating stuff. I mean no disrespect to those with large rosters of engines and cars, but for me, with two young boys at home, who must pay for their lessons (one wants to be a pro baseball player someday and is showing real ability as a pitcher), I looked at my "inventory" and saw money that in some cases could be put to better use. John
I've definitely been guilty of collecting more and more trains, very possibly too many of them but for the past 12 or so years I have continually tried to cull my collection and sell items that are excess, don't fit my modeling needs or have been replaced by something else. It's partly a matter of trying to keep my collection from getting unnecessarily large but also the cash I raise from selling off unneed trains helps to pay for some of the very nice accurate items being produced in recent years.