Kevin, I can feel for you being up all night not the spicy food issues. Hope you get some good sleep today.
I model 2015 after moving it from 2001. The reason I picked a year is that when I started researching for my layout in 2013 I realized so much of my rolling stock and engines turned out to be stuff I liked but not suitable to run together because of so many different eras. Narrowing down my modeling focus has been great. It is stuff I vividly remember, have many pictures and I enjoy researching it. Basically anything I have a picture of from 2015, either my own or Railroad picture sites that is shown in Wisconsin is allowed to run on my layout. Orginnally I was just trying for Junction City to Wausau, Wi., but that was too narrow. I don't model the exact car number or locomotive number but if I have a GP40's-2 picture dated 2015 I will allow the GP40's-2w on the layout, same with rolling stock. I worry about the class of rolling stock not the number.
Tom
I have two eras, the early 60s and then the 30s, so I can run diesels and Transition Era stuff, but then backtrack to steam and older equipment. I can also have the vehicles of the sixties, which are plentiful, and then pull them off for Jordan vehicles.
I've got a few buildings, not built yet, that will eventually take the place of later era structures.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
My range is between March 1970 and April 1971, which is there period in which Burlington Northern operated as on railroad and still ran their own passenger trains. But I’m really bad at keeping in that era! I have a GN doodlebug that would have been retired longs before that date, and a GN car that has a COTS stencil on it (which the real car did have, as I learned from a thread here a while back), plus some old wooden boxcars that were probably on their way out at BN time.
I like to model all the Hill lines but I actually currently lack any BN paintEd or patched engines (or cars...) I just say the guys in the roundhouse haven’t gotten around to adding patches.
You would think it would be easy to keep in an era when I have a “plywood pacific”, so lack those pesky things like automobiles and buildings! But I find I usually check out whether a car is in my era after I bring it home, and when I learn it’s out of my era I don’t part with (I do only have 20 or so cars, so they are all a bit special!) Plus almost all my fleet was given to me!
Someday I’ll probably make some redating changes to my cars, like put older cars in MOW service, add patches, and remove COTS stencils an such, but for now I just run them as they are. With the stuff I try to get though, I do get a reasonably go feeling of my date range, and that is enough for now!
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
I quite like the way things are handled in Europe, where ceetain eras of modelling were introduced already quite a few years ago.
Most of the layouts are set in era III or later.
I find shorter time spans a little to limiting, especially when it comes to vehicles and accessories for the layout.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Great job, Mel!
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
SeeYou190 I model ther most narrow date range possible. I decided to model Tuesday, August 3rd, 1954, at 2:00 in the afternoon. Give or take 30 seconds.
The only problem with that Kevin, is that nothing should move, once it becomes 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Your layout is a static display, nothing moving past that time.
My time peroid is modern, 90's to today. That's about the time period that my locos and rolling stock are. Nothing older.
It's a broad range, but it works for me.
Mike.
My You Tube
Luckily, the premise of my layout allows me a wide latitude. I model the mid-2000s on a fictional short line. The CGVRR (Clinton-Golden Valley RR) is a subsidiary of the Union Pacific, but the owner is a bit of an eccentric. He rode trains in his youth and fell in love with them. As such, he has acquired a variety of older motive power and rolling stock. He uses these trains for railfanning trips. The destination for most of these trains is the old western-themed town of Sandy Flats. One older train takes family members and freight up to the coal mine, as it is only accessible by train. There is a hotel for guests and a boarding house run by a family that serves as the housing for the miners. The railroad's primary sources of revenue are coal mining and a small logging operation. Most of the vehicles are of the era, but there are a few older cars that the residents own that they show in car shows.
Most of the buildings are older, which fits the theme of the railroad. There are an older style Pizza Hut restaurant and a 50s themed burger joint.
I have a freelance model railroad and for the most part it is centered arround the steam to disel transion period, with UP, SF, SP power.
Picking a specific date for a freelance railroad/layout is different than a specific date for a particular railroad/layout.
For a freelance you can include anything that was in existance on that date. So for a date in 1954, there are steam locomotives from a 4-4-0 on up plus a large number of early diesels. Same for rolling stock. Structures can be anything made up as long it is architecturally plausible for the date.
For a prototype, you include what was on the railroad on that day. Again looking at say a date in 1954, you include only the locomotives present on that day. You would only model the actual buildings that were present that day and their specific colors for that day. Same for rolling stock - only what was present on that day, home and foreign road cars. Carried into operations, you would only run trains for that day. You would include all the cars on the train that day and no others. And so on. The prime example is Jack Burgess and his Yosemite Valley - which has been covered a lot in the hobby press.
The issue I see with a date range is that you can get combinations that are not plausible if the range is great. Say you picked 1935 to 1955, well you could run freight cars from several roads with archbar trucks (outlawed in interchange in 1940) behind your F3.
Personally, I use a cutoff date which I leave vaguely as Fall 1953. Anything that was or could have been present is acceptable. Case in point for the Ma&Pa - their last 3 2-8-0's (#41, #42, #43) were essentially alike, but one (#42) was retired in 1952. Well, I have kits for all 3. So I will include #42, because it could have plausibily been used in 1953. Operationally, it's the same, I include rolling stock that was around in 1953 that could have appeared on the Ma&Pa. So trains will be different each time I run them.
What's not included with a cutoff date. Well, archbar trucks (for example) were outlawed for interchange by 1953 (in 1940) so no foreign road cars with archbar trucks. And any Ma&Pa cars with archbar trucks (and there were a few in 1953) don't get put on interchange tracks. And the Ma&Pa only had diesel switchers in 1953, so no F3's or GP7's.
And then of course you have the issue of things that didn't actually exist but still fit in. As an example for me, I have a 1937 aar boxcar decorated for the Gorre & Daphetid which I will include on my 1953 version of the Ma&Pa.
Paul
I am up way too late, and I cannot sleep. Spicy food is playing havoc on my internals tonight.
.
Reading through some old replies on these forums got me to thinking... I model ther most narrow date range possible. I decided to model Tuesday, August 3rd, 1954, at 2:00 in the afternoon. Give or take 30 seconds.
This is the only arrangement that will work for me. Maybe it comes from all the military dioramas I built in my 20s. These captured a moment in time, and maybe that is the only way I can think now.
My modeling is capturing a specific moment in time, in a place that never existed. It sounds really bizarre.
If you model a date range, how do you handle it? Why is your date range as long, or as short, as you have decided.
If you model the late 50s and early 60s, how many stars are on your flags? You will never convince me it is 1957 if there is a fifty star flag flying proudly in the park.
What about vehicles? If there is a 1963 Chevrolet parked somewhere... well... so much for the late 1950s.
I can let all kind of nonsense slip by me, but anchronism drives me crazy.
Please share your thoughts. I certainly do not want everyone to choose a specific day to model, that is crazy. I am not trying to bring anyone around to my way of thinking, I truly want to understand the different priorities we have as we build our miniature worlds.
-Kevin
Living the dream.