Why did you choose your era to model?

[SeeYou190]

I chose 1954 solely because of equipment options.

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I can have USRA steam locomotives and TOFC freight cars. These are two must-haves, and 1954 seemed like the best option. No nostalgia or any othe reason, I just need steam and trailers.

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What drove your decision?

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-Kevin

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[Pruitt]

1930-1945.

Because a train of a given length will have more cars than modern era railroading (cars were generally shorter), so it will look more realistic. Plus I like steam. Plus there were a lot more smaller industries with rail service than today, hence more local switching action.

[rogerhensley]

1970. My trips into Southern Indiana to a town of Westport and seeing the trains that had been brought there for display after the NYC was replaced by PC. Then both were gone and the new guys moved in for a while.
My model RR operates from Anderson in North Central Indiana down to Westport in the South. The NYC/PC and the ECI.

[mbinsewi]

I model what I see, ( or make an attempt) so I do "modern", stretching the term to include the early 90's, when I spent a lot of time watching the WC, WSOR, BN, SOO (with old MILW equipment) and the UP, and some Amtrak, like the Empire Builder and the Hiawatha service.

I was always interested in the different acquisitions and the different "patch outs" on the locomotives.

If I were to start over, it would probably be the same.

I wasn't ever around any steam, so I know very little, and don't have much interest.

Mike.

 

[BRAKIE]

Actually I like two era the late 70s (IPD boxcars) and my current era 94/95 because CR was still around,NS without the Nag head emblem and I like CSX Gray/blue/yellow scheme.

Thankfully my freelance C&HV,Summerset Ry,Slate Creek Rail and Huron River RR can fit either era. Come to think of it SCR and HR could fit the 50/60s as well.

[IRONROOSTER]

circa 1953.  The Maryland and Pennsylania still had steam, ran passenger trains with open platform cars, and still had some freight cars with truss rods.  It also had small diesel switchers. This era also provides a good selection of rolling stock in S scale.  Plus I grew up in the 50's.

Paul

[snjroy]

I always liked steam of all eras so my pike was built to span over 60 years. But over the last few years, my interest for diesel has grown, mostly because our club has a rather large layout. So I do mostly steam at home with my smallish layout, where small engines are king. I just love to watch the small moving parts of my steam engines (including some geared engines) on my small layout - while my diesels can "stretch their legs" at the club. I do run larger steam at the club as well.

Simon

[steve-in-kville]

Mine will be modern NS freight, but not afraid of a few older locos that run locally.

[RR_Mel]

SeeYou190

I chose 1954 solely because of equipment options.

.

I can have USRA steam locomotives and TOFC freight cars. These are two must-haves, and 1954 seemed like the best option. No nostalgia or any othe reason, I just need steam and trailers.

.

What drove your decision?

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-Kevin

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Kiven

I got into HO scale in 1951 at the ripe old age of 14.  I went grocery shopping with my Mother and found this book that she bought me.

 

 

Pages 28 – 32 was an article on John Allen’s Gorre & Daphetid, that did it for me.

 

 

 

Using my paper route money I went down to H&H Hobby on Pershing Drive in El Paso TX and bought my first HO locomotive, a MDC Roundhouse 0-6-0.

 

 

 

It still runs like new.

 

The SP north bound tracks were ¼ mile west of our house where the SP articulateds pulled at least 80 cars every morning up the 1½% grade to New Mexico.  They passed over the Altura Street under pass every morning on my way to high school.

 

 

I have been stuck in the early to mid 1950s ever since.

 

Aren’t you happy you ask?

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[Harrison]

1978. I like PA's, Amtrak cars, and TOFC, and that's the year that works for all of that.

[nealknows]

I like to model the diesel era from the time the Penn Central came in existence thru today. My structures fit from those early PC days thru today as well. I run the railroads I like as they can all run together. The PC, then Conrail, then CSX plus all of my other favorites. If you look at the way today's real railroads run, you see mixed roads on my trains. So why not mine? 

Neal

PS. It’s my railroad and I’ll run it my way. If you don’t like, please leave and don’t let the door hit you in the butt! 

[rrinker]

 1956, so I can still have a couple of steam locos, but mostly diesel. And my ORIGINAL layout plan was going to cover an area that had a grade re-alignment at this time, so it gave me choices to model that as under construction, or, as in the early days of the new track opening, both were used, depending on direction. Uphill, they took the new easier route which did not require helpers, downhill, they used the old route. Now I'm not modeling that area, but I've been gathering equipment based on that so I'm not changing.

                                          --Randy

[Doughless]

When I was a kid in the 1970s I modeled what was in much of the hobby magazines.  Transistion era with an abundance of steam.  Eventhough I lived in a busy RR town, understanding the modern UP seemed over whelming.  The magazines were a better source of knowledge.

As I picked up the hobby again about 1995, my job allowed me to travel throught the state of Indiana and I simply took an interest in railroad ROWs.  It allowed me to study why the tracks were located where; the merger history, patchouts, leased power, why towns sprang up or declined, what continues to keep a small town thriving.  It became an education in industries as well as current railroading.  Understanding that shortlines exist to serve a few customers, short trains and a small area, seems like it fits the hobby very well.

I don't travel now that I'm in GA, but there is enough railroading around me to keep me busy. 

The new layout will be based on some of the ROWs near me.  Industries on the layout will be local as well, although liberties will be taken as to their location.

Current railroading around me provides an instant and steady source of inspiration for modeling.  I've got good subjects to watch just by driving a few miles.

 

[Eilif]

My era is rather wide 80's to early 00's

I like "modern" and I want to model what I remember and what I see everyday.

80's-00's encompases my childhood years as well as much of what I see today.  Simultaneously, there's alot of affordable prouduct in that range so I can get the  feel and look I want without having to shell out top-dollar for the most-recent equipment.

[York1]

SeeYou190

What drove your decision? . -Kevin

 

My entire layout is modern day with one exception.  All the buildings and locomotives are modern except for a complete City of Los Angeles train with E9 A&B units.

Even though the City train doesn't fit the time, it was a train I rode halfway across the country when I was a boy.  It has such memories for me that I don't care whether it fits the time or not.

[CNCharlie]

My layout is set in 1955 and as CN had a lot of steam at that time, most of my locos are steam.

The reason for that era is that is time I grew up and remember many hours spent by the CN mainline in the late '50s watching trains which were about 50% steam even in the last year, 1959. The location was Winnipeg, Manitoba CN's last big centre for steam. 

CN Charlie

[SPSOT fan]

I try to model May of 1970.

Why? Because I like the BN predecessors (mostly SP&S/BN) and that era allows me to run equipment of the four predecessors together as if it was all one railroad! Plus out west you could also see WP pool power, SP leased Alcos, and perhaps a Union Pacific train exercising trackage rights! And a BN GP38 would also fit in (if I could find the right numbers...). The era in general gives you the transition between first and second generation power and the final days of private passenger!

[Tinplate Toddler]

SPSOT fan

I try to model May of 1970.

Without intending to be sarcastic, why do you also chose a month?

I have two projects slumbering in the pipeline. One is a micro layout of an island tramway connecting a lighthouse with a ferry jetty. This layout is planned to be set in the Edwardian era in Britain - around 1905.

The second layout is a Colorado-themed adaption of Pettycoat Junction, set in the early 1930s.

[doctorwayne]

I model the late '30s, a pause between the Depression and WWII.  Railroads were re-equipping with new locomotives and freight cars, yet there were still lots of older ones in service. 

Likewise for automobiles, many of them still surviving from the '20s or earlier, and new models becoming available and affordable.
 
Despite the clouds of war growing in Europe, I think that there was a sense of optimism in North America, so my version of the time is not a run-down and worn-out caricature, but rather the dawn of a vibrant and optimistic era.  Business is booming, and so are the railroads.

Wayne

[Graffen]

I model a time and place I've never seen IRL.

Colorado narrow gauge in the 30's.

I blame John Allen, Malcolm Furlow, John Olsen and the older articles in MR. 

I've tried to model other places and era's, but the Colorado narrow gauge bug is hard to beat.

 

[DRGWGJCO]

I chose the late 60's early 70's D&RGW in and around Grand Junction Colorado. As that was when both my grandfathers and several uncles and cousins all worked for the railroad. Good memories and there are folks around to ask If I have questions about things.

[MisterBeasley]

I switched from O scale to HO in the early 1960s, so that's what I modeled then and continue to model now.  Of course, back then my layout was Modern Era.

I lived on Long Island, NY, which had negligible freight traffic and mostly commuter rail, so I picked Milwaukee for the GP9 and freight.  I still run those, too.

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Tinplate Toddler

 

 

SPSOT fan

I try to model May of 1970.

 

 

Without intending to be sarcastic, why do you also chose a month?

I have two projects slumbering in the pipeline. One is a micro layout of an island tramway connecting a lighthouse with a ferry jetty. This layout is planned to be set in the Edwardian era in Britain - around 1905.

The second layout is a Colorado-themed adaption of Pettycoat Junction, set in the early 1930s.

 

Why choose a month? Because it provides context for scenery. Spring and summer are green, fall has fall colors, winter has bare trees and possibly snow.

And it provides context for other things. New model automobles for next model year come out in early fall, etc.

Sheldon

[SeeYou190]

Tinplate Toddler

Without intending to be sarcastic, why do you also chose a month?

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I also chose a date and time.

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The STRATTON AND GILLETTE only exists at 2:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, August 3rd, 1954.

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It is kind of like trying to find Platform 9 3/4.

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-Kevin

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[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Here on the ATLANTIC CENTRAL it is September 1954.

But I have a longer list of reasons then Kevin.

I like modern steam and first generation diesels, both were relatively new.

The railroads were in an optomistic rebuilding phase, lots of new equipment, bright paint schemes began to appear, etc.

Passenger service was still in full swing, and both modern lightweight and older heavy weight cars could still be seen daily.

Piggyback, like Kevin, I like trailers on flat cars and I am most interested in the early development of that equipment and service. By late '54, TOFC was in full swing on a pretty good list of roads, and the barriers to full TOFC interchange were coming down. And, most of it was still on 40' and 50' flat cars, with the first few 75' flats just going into service. I have nearly 100 early piggyback flat models. 

Freight cars were mostly still in the 40' to 50' range, which makes our selectively compressed layout able to be more believeable. I like long trains, 35 or 40 40' cars is more impressive than 15 or 20 long modern cars.

Shorter cars also look more realistic on my 38" radius curves......

And the 50's was likely the peak of the double track mainline era, a big time type of railroading I like, especially here in the east.

September 1954 allows my streets to have a few 1955 Fords and Chevy's and we cheat a little with some 1956 Checker A8 taxi's.

I like the architecture of the first half of the 20th century and the last quarter of the 19th century, lots of which was still in good condition in 1954.

This is the young adult era of my parents, I was born in 1957.

Starting on a new larger version of the ATLANTIC CENTRAL soon.......

Sheldon

 

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

SeeYou190

 

 

Tinplate Toddler

Without intending to be sarcastic, why do you also chose a month?

 

 

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I also chose a date and time.

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The STRATTON AND GILLETTE only exists at 2:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, August 3rd, 1954.

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It is kind of like trying to find Platform 9 3/4.

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-Kevin

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I will likely pick a day or week in September at some point, but I have an interest in night scenes so the time of day will have to float.......

Sheldon

[Motley]

I like to model what I see now, so I chose modern era. With a pretty long strech 1996-Present.

But I also really like steam, and steam passenger trains. There are lots of preserved steam locomotives out there right now. My favorite is the UP 844.

Also because I am aquiring all new equipment, I have decided I want some 50's, 60s trains. Duel era if you will, and I can swap out all the equipment at say for a week at a time. Don't worry I won't run 40 ft box cars behind an SD70ACe, lol.

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

doctorwayne

I model the late '30s, a pause between the Depression and WWII.  Railroads were re-equipping with new locomotives and freight cars, yet there were still lots of older ones in service. 

Likewise for automobiles, many of them still surviving from the '20s or earlier, and new models becoming available and affordable.
 
Despite the clouds of war growing in Europe, I think that there was a sense of optimism in North America, so my version of the time is not a run-down and worn-out caricature, but rather the dawn of a vibrant and optimistic era.  Business is booming, and so are the railroads.

Wayne

 

My study of history supports your view of the late 30's. After the peak unemployment of 1934 (yes it took 4 years for the depression to reach its worst), things started to pick up.

By 1937 Ford was producing a million cars a year again, and they still only cost $500 to $800, and were much improved.

The economy took a little hit is '38, but bounced right back.

People were generally optimistic in North America, just look at all the improvements in passenger trains and all the new streamlined art deco trains that were built - the depression was behind us......

Sheldon

[chatanuga]

I model the mid-70s to the mid-90s.  I was born in 1974 so that time frame is quite familiar to me, making it easy for research.

Kevin

[BRAKIE]

Tinplate Toddler

Without intending to be sarcastic, why do you also chose a month?

I always model summer time so,June,July or August and doesn't matter what month.