One of the things I have done is to pick an area to model that is versatile.The area I model is between Ft.Worth and Cleburne Texas. There are tons of different railroads that can be found in the area which makes it easy to change several things. Era's and traffic are just a couple. I like the fact that I am not stuck with just one road and fixed industries. I try not to get too much out of place even though my green Southern E8 gets lost evey once in a while.
RMax1 One of the things I have done is to pick an area to model that is versatile.The area I model is between Ft.Worth and Cleburne Texas. There are tons of different railroads that can be found in the area which makes it easy to change several things. Era's and traffic are just a couple. I like the fact that I am not stuck with just one road and fixed industries. I try not to get too much out of place even though my green Southern E8 gets lost evey once in a while.
Well, I wish I could offer some constructive or supportive thought, but I have no knowledge of that area.
For me era has not been a question for about 40 years now. I decided a long time ago what era I liked most - still modeling it forty years later. It is however an era from before I was born - I model 1954, I was born in 1957.
As for location - the Mid Atlantic, the region I know best.
But rather than just one or two prototype roads, I chose to combine prototype modeling and freelance modeling with my ATLANTIC CENTRAL which interchanges with the B&O, C&O and WESTERN MARYLAND.
I do not however try to replcate specific real places, but rather simply capture the look and feel of this part of the country.
Still happy with my choices 40 years later.
Sheldon
RMax1I like the fact that I am not stuck with just one road and fixed industries.
Here's the beauty of a generic ISL like mine..I can use my SCL,Seaboard,Family Lines, Southern,IHB,BRC and my Chessie in 77/78 or by switching out cars I can use my NS,CR,OC,IHB,BRC or CSX engines in 94/95 plus my freelance Huron River,Summerset Ry,C&HV or my Slate Creek Rail fits either era. Yes,that's a hodgepodge of locomotives but,I always wanted those road names.
Thankfully a lot of industrial parks used box style buildings that is seen everywhere and my Walthers Bud's Trucking and Lauston shipping background buildings fills that need.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Being versatile isn't too difficult in this hobby. It's your RR and you can run what you like. And if anything, some periods and area's provide too much versatility to the point you could be overwhelmed with different trains, it it could get costly real fast.
I model the D&RGW which had a fairly modest all EMD roster and have more engines than I may ever run. Someone recently brought up the Joint Line - that would be a bunch more engines from ATSF and BN, and ... at some point you have to limit the bleeding! LOL
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
My sub-miniature (3 by 5 ft.) Swiss NG layout is versatility at its best. Without much effort, my layout can represent different eras, beginning in the 1920´s, when my prototype railroad, the Rhaetian Railway, begin to string overhead wires, all the way to today´s modern EMU´s. All I have to do is to exchange a few vehicles on the layout (and of course, put the correct locos and rolling stock on the tracks).
Being a lazy bloke, I hardly ever do this, though. My 1920 vintage stock is declared to be a railfan special, which is not far from what the prototype does.
I am modeling an area I know well (or thought I did - the more prototype research I do, the more I realize my memory of things past in the 1965 to 1970 time frame was apparently hijacked at some point) so in a sense versatility is not what I seek, but certainty and finality. I do reserve the right, when actual research and my recollections differ, to prefer the recollections, if the reality does not refresh and alter my recollections, since what I seek to capture is what I remember, and if I remember it wrong, so be it.
But there is an element of versatility even so. Photos indicate that the area I am modeling had remarkably few changes from the mid 1950s to 1970. Structures changed uses and owners, sometimes, but not appearance (much). One key gas station switched from Shell to Pure. One small factory switched from garden implements to formica-topped tables -- rail served throughout. Street lighting changed as did some road signs but I tend not to obsess about that (see earlier remark about being happy to model my recollections if I prefer them to reality). And both the personal autos and the business trucks tended NOT to be new, so with some care a plausible collection of vehicles could serve more than one era.
So I feel free to make use of documention and photos that are older than my era, combined as always with my recollections.
One could go even further back. For example, the concrete supports for the small water tank along the main line remain there even today, so it would not be a big task to plan a layout in such a way that it could be quickly backdated from the mid 1960s to the transition era. I suspect it is not easy to have more than a 20 year swing in era while keeping track, structures, and streets the same. And I think a 1950 to 1970 swing in era is more practical than a 1970 to 1990. Too many big changes in that 20 year period.
And this is NOT the same as saying "I model the 1950 to 1970 era" because as someone once said, what you are really saying is that you model 1970 but with less and less accuracy the more 1950 stuff you see. Rather I am saying that the same layout "bones" can, with planning for necessary changes, be made to readily switch eras. I am not likely to do so but knowing the choice is possible is interesting.
Dave Nelson
I have been looking at certain time frames and trying to keep groups organized. The good news is the area from FTW to San Antonio has been a busy rail traffic area for a long time and has seen a lot of different trains go up and down it. I have the fear of one of these days an FEC SD70M getting lost in central Texas for some reason or another than I liked it when I was on vacation in Florida.
I believe you are right, Dave. The 20 year "stretch" in eras is a bit too much, with regard to changes that would have taken place. In my modeling of "the 70's", I have a tendency to spill into the late 60's (plausable) and a little into the early 80's (still plausable, since they used to still run cabooses, for instance). I believe any more of a stretch than that make it unconvincing. I too model an area that I have not frequented in my past (northwest Ohio), but go by recollections and by what it was like south of there (southwest Ohio, where I lived for 22 years), which the two are not that different from each other, being of relatively flat terrain with agricultural and industrial communities dotting the countryside.
Dave,I agree that's why when I'm using my 77/78 equipment you'll not see a NS,OC or CSX locomotive. For my 94/95 era switch you'll not see a flock of IPD boxcars.I can use certain road names(NW,Sou,UP,SP,SSW, SF, C&NW etc) from 77/78 and still be on the mark.
Confession time..I have a Seaboard System GP38-2 that I use out of era from time to time simply because I thought SS had a snappy paint scheme.