Are you interested in the history of the line you model?

[Anonymous]

This could have been a poll, I guess. However, I would like you to be more explicit in your comments than a simple YES, or NO.

I model the Northern Pacific, in the early 1950s. I am a member of the Northern Pacific Railroad Historical Asso. and the Yahoo groups; NPModelers and NPTelltale. I have a few Northern Pacific books. When I am looking for books on my line I tend to buy them from the NPRHA, as this helps fund the various projects the NPRHS is involved in and generally the price the NPRHA has them listed for, is pretty good. I visit other websites such as the Great Northern and purchase other historical site's magazines occasionally such as the DMIR.

I find that my interest in the history of the Northern Pacific enhances my interest in model railroading, immensely! This interest in the NP causes me to be interested in other railroads, also. I seem to be regional, as my interest is in my local roads. I model western Montana (when I started, I could not imagine a layout without mountains) if I had to start over again, I think I would chose railroading in the Duluth, Minnesota/Superior Wisconsin area, as this would place me in Iron Ore Country with many other roads to model, including the N.P. Besides next to Box Cars, Ore Cars are my 2nd favorite.

Are you a member of a historical society? Is history an important part of your interest in Model Railroading? If not, you might want to think about joining one as the benefits are many and they truly increased my enjoyment!

[grayfox1119]

I am very interested in the lie/s that intend to model. In order to have the steam locos that they ran, I need to know WHAT they ran, therefore I need to know something of their history. I am in the middle of that now ,Mark. I am trying to find out all I can about the old Boston & Albany (later part of the NYC), and also, the B&M and MEC mountain division RR.

***

[rrinker]

Absolutely. I have been collecting various books as well as actual company paper for soem time now. Before I had room for a layout, it was the ONLY way I was able to keep active.
I haven't yet join a historical society, but there are at least three that cover my area of interest, and I can't jin all three. Well, I can, but I have this thing about just being a member of an organization as opposed to actually participating, so what it comes down to s there is no way I could actually PARTICIPATE in three different historical societies, not if I want to keep working on my model railroad as well.

--Randy

[cspmo]

I'm in the process in makeing a history of my locomotives ie when it was made, or what railroad they came from, when they retire them, what happen to them, or what railroad they went to. I have bought all the books I can fine on the railroad I model

[simon1966]

You bet, I am a member of the Burlington Route Historical Society. I find a great deal of pleasure in reading about the social history associated with American railroads and the industries served by them. My Wife's Grandfather was killed down a coal mine in the 30's. My wife and I have put quite a bit of effort into researching the mine and finding old photos and postcards to help me model the mine on the layout.

[j1love]

[#ditto]...I am in the same situation as rrinker. Right now I do not have a pike, but the history of my chosen RR (Pennsy) is rich and LONG!! It more than keeps my interest and motivation. I wi***o model the Ohio area around Cincinati so I can incorporate The NYC, The C&O, The L&N, and The NKP [tup] That way I can get a more realistic bang for my buck! (Not to mention that I will have a LARGE pool of possible modeling opportunities) Just my [2c]

[Anonymous]

I spent alot of time and bought books, blueprints and videos when I eas researching the DMIR. I had not ever been to Duluth when I decided I want to model the Missabe, I just liked ore cars. Through my research I found that all of my favorite railroads ran there in the early 90's so I can keep running my off-breed equip.

I have the MRHS application form printed on my desk but my wife didn't find it for Christmas and send so I get at least 1 more present.[;)]

I really enjoy researching and it makes railfanning trips so much more fun finding abandoned bldgs & lines while waiting for the next train. My only problem now is that I want to be too exact when modelling, I've already got 5 Ore dock kits mashed together now I need to work Proctor Hill ( Spirit Mountain) Proctor Yards some long mainline and Evtac into my too small basement, I can at least see long strings of orecars in my booksand videos.

One last place research pays off is remebering our favorite fallen flags so we can keep a bit off history alive.[:)]

[Fergmiester]

Though I Freelance I am basing my railway on companies that operated in the area, namely Canadian National, Intercolonial Railway and the Sydney & Louisburg. These railways make for excellent reading and form an excellent base for modelling with diversity. Namely Coal, Timber, Farm produce, fish, passenger, ore, gypsum and salt to name a few. There's also gold in them hills!

Gary Ness and Bill Linley have written books on local and regional systems of the Atlantic Provinces.

Fergie

[IRONROOSTER]

I enjoy reading the history of individual lines. Some of these have come to be my favorite modeling subjects. The Ma & Pa and the PRR for standard gauge, the WWF for 2 foot narrow gauge. Lately I have been reading a history of the B&O which is starting to appeal to me as a modeling subject.

I guess in my case modeling interest follows the history.
Enjoy
Paul

[jrbernier]

I model the Milwaukee Road and have a little bit of Northwestern as well. I belong to both Historical Groups and follow the Yahoo Groups. I seem to have all of the Milwaukee books that are available and have a lot of timetables as well. I find that all of this material makes it much easier to build correct models, and has helped me in the design and detail of my model railroad.
Now, I am not a 'foamer' still whinning about the demise the the good old Milwaukee or it's electrification, but I do enjoy reading articles and I really enjoy the track diagrams and arial views in the magazine.

Jim Bernier

[Anonymous]

I'm interested not only in the history of the local short line that I model, but also three other lines that operated in my region. I have belonged off and on to two of their historical societies. They are both OK, but most historical societies are the sort of thing that you really get back only what you can put in, and I felt that my professional life did not leave me sufficient spare time to make my memberships cost-effective.

[RMax1]

I model several different roads and I am interested in some aspects of their histories. I'm not a raving fanatic but find books, videos and other sources of historical information very useful. I would read railroad history even if there was no such thing as model railroading.

RMax

[orsonroy]

Most definitely! I'm modeling the NKP's line between Bloomington and Peoria, Illinois, circa 1945-1950, and am trying to replicate the line as closely as possible (given the constraints of model railroading).

In terms of research material, I have somewhere close to 20 linear FEET of material. I've got most of the books published about the NKP, along with 10 years or so of the NKPHTS magazine. I've got three 4" binders full of NKP photos, and well over eight MEG of NKP photos and data on my harddrive. I've got copies of Sanborn maps, aerial photos, and track charts for the line. I've got almost 2000 train orders for the line, as well as lots of official NKP paperwork, manuals and employee timetables. I've walked or driven down the entire line I'm modeling, taking dozens of rolls of photos of things to help me in my modeling. I'm also an active member of the NKPHTS, and am looking for a few more details before I start writing articles for the society. And in researching the line, I've also collected a lot of information on the different railroads that connected with the NKP line, especially the P&PU, TP&W, P&E, Alton/GM&O, IC, and C&IM.

Researcing the line greatly affected the way I designed my layout. To accurately capture the feel for a midwestern mainline, I felt I needed as much mainline as I could get between Peoria and Bloomington. Since both cities are large in their own right, they basically each needed a level all to themselves (I've only got a 13x32 room to play with, and share it witht he utilities). To get a sense of flatland railroading meant a third level of nothing but mainline and two small whistlestop towns. Engineering a three level wraparound layout was quite a challenge, but worth it to represent the line.

Researching the line has also changed my buying habits for engines and freight cars. When I was mostly freelancing, I bought basically anything I wanted. Now, I only buy a freight car if it can at least stand in for a real car that would likely have been seen on the line during my 1945-1950 period. I've sold off vbirtually all of my shake the box cars, replacing them with fewer well-detailed cars. I've also now got a stack of resin cars to build. In terms of engines, I like all steam, but only buy engines that would appear on my modeled lines during these years.

All in all I consider the researching of the line to be a seperate but complimentary hobby all by itself. I now spend almost as much time researching the line as I do modeling it!

[Jetrock]

Indeed! Researching the Sacramento Northern has led me to join BAERA, whose museum sits on SN's old mainline, doing plenty of research at various regional railroad and historical archives and libraries, buying books and company artifacts, and taking extensive photos of what remains of the line. Since Sacramento was so riddled with track I have also spent time researching CCT, WP, SP and the local PG&E trolley line. Online I have found significant resources, including SN and WP Yahoo-groups and assorted photo archives.

My research has even steered me back in the direction of history as a profession--I may make some of the research I have been doing into the basis of a master's thesis!

[Anonymous]

I guess one without the other is just not possible. It all starts with the wi***o model a certain prototype and where does that come from ? I don't think I have met somebody that favored the Santa Fe just for their paint job - even here in Germany. Sometimes research and interest in the prototype overweigh the interest for the scale stuff - and if only for a time, but time well spent !
Martin

[mikebonellisr]

I'm pretty much as DeSchane,Only with the NYC.I am also a member of the Danbury rail museum,I model a freelance version of a combination of NYC Harlem and Putnam divisions.

[tstage]

Deshane,

I'm delighted that you brought this topic up. I couldn't agree with you more. History DOES enhance my enjoyment of MRRing! That's the one aspect about it that caught me totally by surprise.

In the last fifteen years or so, I've become more intrigued with and come to really enjoy and appreciate history the older I get. (Maybe because there's more of it these days. [:)]) Blame it on the Ken Burn's PBS series Civil War. Stick me in front of a documentary on history, and I'm one happy camper!

Still really being very much a newbie to MRR, I've been learning some history about the NYC but more in relationship to railroading as a whole. I'm modeling the 30's and early 40's. So it's been fun to learn (learn?...I'm STILL learning!) about the various aspects (i.e. signaling, structures, switching, rolling stock, servicing terminals, etc.) used on the railroads during that era, so that I can reflect that on my layout in order to make it more historically accurate. Next to actually running trains, learning about railroading and the whys and hows of it ranks a very close 2nd in enjoyment in my book.

Good post, Mark! I'll strongly consider your admonition about joining the NYCHS - which, by the way, is actually based right here in Cleveland.

Tom

[Anonymous]

Yes I model Union Pacific I have books and videos and other paraphenilia that I use to model the UP. I also recently joined the UPHS so I can receive their publication and what not about UP. I am also a member of a handful of yahoo groups that are UP related.

[AggroJones]

Of course. I am in the Yahoo Southern Pacific group. The history of SP is what made me backdate from the 1990's. A fantastic source of Espee information is Charles Smiley's DVD "SP Vintage West" and Pentrex's video "Railfanning Southern California in the 1950s". The latter is a great DVD for anyone who wants to see color fotage of vintage freight cars.

[Paul3]

I am a member of the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association, and have been for the last 14 years (almost half my life). As such, I have been a volunteer for the NHRHTA for almost as long as a crew member on our show staff that goes to local train shows and "waves the NH flag", selling NH magazines, videos, books, models, trinkets and the like.

I have been a model railroad since before I was born (or so it seems). My father has been model railroading since the early 1950's with Lionel, and switched to HO when he went into the Air Force in 1958. I've been told I've been to Steamtown in a stroller, Wolfeboro as a youngun', and several other railfan places (but I don't remember them). My father's always had an HO layout, so it's natural that I too have become a model railroader.

I've been a NH fan since I found out that the tracks near my house used to be owned by a railroad that was so much better and classier than the Amtrak, Conrail and MBTA trains that I knew. When I went to a train show and saw the NHRHTA, I was hooked.

Ever since, I model the New Haven, therefore, the history of the New Haven, and by extension my region, is of critical importance to me.

Paul A. Cutler III
*****************
Weather Or No Go New Haven
*****************

[Anonymous]

Not only the history of the lines but locos, rolling stock, structures, proper colors of paint, logos, all of which are date and time sinsitive. I concentrate on the 1920's to early 1950's. The latest powered unit I have is an early R.D.C. (rail diesel coach). Steam locos and passenger cars date from the 1920 up to smooth sided streamliners and early fluted side stainless steel. Freight cars date only up to the 1940's and Diesel locos end with an E.M.D. E-7. Where possible I use blue prints for vintage buildings. If they aren't available, I rely on period photographs from any source possible. One such structure is a scratch built replica of Kansas City's (Mo.) Union Station (main building). Automobiles are limited to 1953 vintage and street cars end with an early P.C.C. (Bowser). A good reference is period local newspapers found in libraries and the newspaper's archives. There are also good sites on the internet for particular cities. My pike is a history lesson as well as a layout. It is a little trouble but that's called "going the extra mile." There is still room for some creative imagination but within the limitations of the period mentioned. For me, the "golden age" of railroads ended in the early fifties and has steadily digressed to the sterility of today's nondescript motive and rolling stock hybrids. If going to such lengths for historic accuracy seems a bit eccentric, i ask you: Is there any more of an oxymoron than seeing a loco with a ballon smoke stack running alongside a bullet train?

[twhite]

Though I'm not a member of any groups or clubs pertaining to the Denver and Rio
Grande, I have studied the history of the railroad rather carefully. Same thing on the Espee--in fact I had a double-major in college--Music and History. Though my focus in history was more in Ancient European, I still found the time to research the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. It's helped me quite a bit on exactly what to run on the railroad at the particular time period I'm modeling.
Tom

[johngraser]

I would like to know a lot more about the history of the lines I model.
Mainly intrested in SP,ATSF,WP and DRGW which their are some books on.
Also intrested in so local short lines but practily no information on since they be gone for 50 to 80 years. Would concider being a member but not sure if the infomation they provide is any more detailed then in books or the internet.

John

[Anonymous]

Johngraser, I would suggest visiting websites of the Historical Societies your interested in, to see what they offer. This is free. My membership to the Northern Pacific RR Hist. Asso. only costs $25.00 per year. I get a great Calendar and 4 issues of the Asso.'s magazine for this price. The magazine is 30-50 pages long and chock full of information I likely would not get elsewhere. many of the authors of N.P. Books are regular contributors to the magazine.

[CP5415]

Yes, I'm very interested in the history of the CPR, D&H & the MEC.
I have at one point belonged to the CPR, D&H & MEC yahoo groups.
I like to read about the history of railroads from the several books I have & from the WWW.

Gordon

[PennsyHoosier]

ABSOLUTELY! How can you model without knowing the history!?! (Course, I'm kind of biased, I'm a professional historian--but not a railroad historian.) I read widely in railroadiana. Pennsy first and foremost. Also, I'm a member of The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society (see the website at http://www.prrths.com/PRR_Default.html, which has links to all kinds of great stuff!). There is the PRR talklist at http://lists.dsop.com/prr/, which is affiliated with Jerry Britton's fine Keystone Crossings website http://kc.pennsyrr.com/. In addition to the Pennsy, I live the Pere Marquette (C&O) and the Nickel Plate. Both have fine historical socities. See http://www.pmhistsoc.org/ and http://www.nkphts.org/.

Jim (jlove1), I like your idea for the PRR around Cinncy. Lots of potential there!

[Pruitt]

Yeah.

My layout represents those parts of Wyoming where the Burlington and the C&NW ran, and where I lived as a kid, although set 15-30 years before I was born. The history of both the towns and the lines is important for me to get where I'm going with the layout.

My web site is where I document what I learn.

[Virginian]

Most definitely, especially since my family was part of it.

[Anonymous]

My layout setting is the Adirondack Mountains and is loosely based on the logging roads that snaked through the woods on the early 1900s. In addition, the NYC & the D&H served the area, so I expect there to be prototypical equipment from those roads appearing. But everything else is fairly freelanced though based on much reading, field trips along right-of-ways and discussions with another modeler interested in the Grasse River RR. (Hi, Silver.)

The great part of RR research up here in the mountains is hiking and mountain biking along the abandoned wilderness rows.

Logging and mining left a lot of the Adirondacks in rather desolate conditions. Clear-cutting for lumber and charcoal, as well as massive, often locomotive-ignited fires that burned many hundreds of thousands of acres left a somewhat barren landscape. I suspect that historically, the area my model represents would have been much less attractive than what I prefer to portray.

Wayne

[PASMITH]

I am interested in SP/CP late 1800's early 1900's. Car dimensions, colors, lettering, etc. In particular, the Shasta Division. I have had mixed sucess on all the web sites and do not have the time or money to invest in the historical societies or all the expensive books that will provide this info for this era. ( I do have Signor's books). I live in Memphis so it's hard to spend a lot of time at the California Museums. A recent issue of MR on old time modelling may be of some help. It is really frustrating when the manufactuers do not adequately identify the eras of their kits. Any other suggestions?

Peter Smith, Memphis