Are "pure" free lanced model railroads dead?

[Jetrock]

One thing to keep in mind is that advances in technology have also made things easier for freelancers. With an inkjet printer and some decal paper, anyone can make their own custom roadname decals at home in minimal time, in any color (although only a couple printers print with white ink.) Fonts and custom graphics are child's play to create, allowing freelancers to add unique roadname logos and signage to their rolling stock and stations.

This is leaps and bounds above earlier eras, when custom decals were very expensive and not something one did at home. When I was younger I did have a "freelance" line of sorts--my dad's layout was nominally Southern Pacific, but my part of it was a freelanced short line called IFTCO (Interstate Freight Transportation Company) serving fictional parts of the southern Sierra Nevada region into California, Nevada and Arizona. I hand-painted the logo and roadname onto cars (with the previous roadname painted over) and typed station signs on my dad's typewriter onto cardstock. Primitive, but adequate.

Those of us who model obscure short lines have the best (or worst) of both worlds: we can do research (as I mentioned, I find historical research to be fun in itself) and where the hobby world sells us short (there just isn't much SN stuff out there) we can create custom decals for our own lines and make use of off-the-shelf undecorated rolling stock that fits our needs--even if it isn't exact.

[Anonymous]

Not dead here. In my case, my Grand Valley Railroad is located in northwest Pennsylvania but is a railroad that absolutely never existed in the area. It is a railroad that I always imagined could have been after spending many years in the woods of the locale, deer hunting. It's like I have been there even though it never really existed.

[Dave Vollmer]

I’m a convert. I’m on my fourth layout, and this time I’m “proto-lancing.” I’m doing the PRR in 1956, although it’s a generic stretch of track and a nameless town northeast of Harrisburg. I started with a totally implausible freelanced railroad (I was also just a kid). The next two layouts I built as an adult, and although still freelanced, each one was based more and more on a specific prototype. I finally realized why that was the case and switched to modeling a real railroad. For me, the fun is in researching the prototype and attempting to reproduce it in miniature. One day when space and cash allow, I plan to model the PRR Middle Division from Harrisburg to Altoona as faithfully as possible.

I firmly believe you should do whatever it is in this hobby that makes you happy. If you really enjoy inventing a whole story and history behind your fictional yet plausible railroad, so it! That was my favorite part of freelancing. If you’d rather reproduce an entire subdivision of a Class I, have at it! Heck, even if you want to pull a string of Superliners with a wood-burning 4-4-0, then you should be able to do so without fear of criticism. The only caveat I have is that the more off-the-wall (and farther from mainstream) your layout or interests are, the less company you’re likely to find. The magazines and manufacturers are trying to make money, so will tend to appeal to the more mainstream (and therefore more numerous) modelers.

Have fun!

Dave

[Anonymous]

I'm a free lancer modeler... there's plenty of us out there.

I find it more fun to go free lance because then you don't have to be resricted to a specific quota track plan. I'm sure many will agree with me that it is more fun to have a free lanced layout than a real line.

[jpmorrison]

no free lance are not dead im working on my as we talk

[BRAKIE]

Guys,Regardless if you free lance your railroad name(NOT LAYOUT) it takes as much research has it does a real railroad if it is to be believable..
Guys if you say your railroad is say Kentucky Central and all I see on your layout is the L&N,then brother you are modeling the L&N.Period..Now if I look at your locomotives and see they are lettered for the KC then you are indeed free lancing a railroad.Now if you tell me you are modeling the KC division of the(say) L&N then I well agree with that..

I don't believe for one second that those that model a real railroad is any better then those that model a believable free lance railroad..I say again BOTH NEEDS TO BE RESEARCH IF THEY ARE TO BE BELIEVABLE PERIOD...Not shouting just trying to get the point across.[;)][:D]

Now for those of you that free lance your layout name in order to run every road name under the sun then that is ok to.But please don't tell me you have a free lance railroad..I won't believe it for one second unless I see engines or cars lettered for that road name.

[Hawks05]

valid points Brakie but what if you're like me and are just starting and don't want to repaint locomotives right away. what do you say to that. i plan on freelancing mine but i'm not going to start repainting the brand new CB&Q locomotive i got last weekend just so i can say that my layout is freelanced. to me freelancing is something you made up and isn't part of a real railroad. say i'm planning later down the road to have the West Central Wisconsin Railroad but i'm not repainting anything yet. i have more to worry about than proving to someone that my layout is freelanced. i still need to buy locomotives, rolling stock, make the benchwork, wire everything, lay track, do scenery, and many other things.

i'm not trying to sound rude or anything. i'm just saying new people like me have bigger things to worry about than proving our railroad is freelanced. i, like many others, have to learn other skills more important than painting stuff before we can actually make our own railroad.

thats just me though. i'm not trying to be rude either.

[BRAKIE]

Hawks,No problem..I just get so wrap up in discussing freelancing I sometimes forget about the new guys like you...Of course that also applies to layout designing as well as prototypical operation...Those that know me jokingly call me Tony Koester Jr. when it comes to freelancing,layout designing and prototypical operations..

[Anonymous]

As a rivet counter, I have to say it's my observation that the term "freelancing" means, in the overwheming majority of cases, "I'll run whatever I want in whatever setting I want with whatever track design I want." Precious little research goes into the majority of "freelance" layouts.

Now, if that's what you want to do, that's fine. It's America, after all. But you aren't really MODELLING a RAILROAD if your layout consists of a hodgepodge of locomotives and cars from different eras running in circles through random scenery.

It'd be better defined as "playing with trains."

[eastcoast]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BRAKIE

Guys,Regardless if you free lance your railroad name(NOT LAYOUT) it takes as much research has it does a real railroad if it is to be believable..
Guys if you say your railroad is say Kentucky Central and all I see on your layout is the L&N,then brother you are modeling the L&N.Period..Now if I look at your locomotives and see they are lettered for the KC then you are indeed free lancing a railroad.Now if you tell me you are modeling the KC division of the(say) L&N then I well agree with that..

I don't believe for one second that those that model a real railroad is any better then those that model a believable free lance railroad..I say again BOTH NEEDS TO BE RESEARCH IF THEY ARE TO BE BELIEVABLE PERIOD...Not shouting just trying to get the point across.[;)][:D]

Now for those of you that free lance your layout name in order to run every road name under the sun then that is ok to.But please don't tell me you have a free lance railroad..I won't believe it for one second unless I see engines or cars lettered for that road name.

[}:)]
You sell an interesting point here.
I do have a very broad freelanced area I model,the EASTERN COASTLINE,
but to overcome it from looking like an AMTRAK OR CSX ,ETC., I custom
made my own personal decals of my roadname to personalize all new
equipment I purchased. Now, freight lines haul ALL ROADNAMES from
everywhere and then send them back to origin. I do this too, it adds the
realism to the models. So, in direct quote to you, yes, research has to be
done to achieve the desired effect. But, It is still MY FREELANCE railroad.
[:p]
ken_ecr

[Anonymous]

[:0]Free-lanced model railroads are definitely not dead. I'm creating a totally fictitious railroad because, unlike modeling prototypes, you have the freedom of planning something unique and which suits your interests and tastes. I've nothing against modelers who strive to re-create prototypically-correct (or as correct as possible) layouts--but there will always been room for both. [:D]

[Hawks05]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ACL Fan

As a rivet counter, I have to say it's my observation that the term "freelancing" means, in the overwheming majority of cases, "I'll run whatever I want in whatever setting I want with whatever track design I want." Precious little research goes into the majority of "freelance" layouts.

Now, if that's what you want to do, that's fine. It's America, after all. But you aren't really MODELLING a RAILROAD if your layout consists of a hodgepodge of locomotives and cars from different eras running in circles through random scenery.

It'd be better defined as "playing with trains."

i'm kind of like that. i mean i'm going to try and stick to 3 different railroads (BN, CB&Q, and CNW) but if i see a locomotive i really like (like the Southern Pacific schemes) i'll maybe buy it and run. i'm going to come up with my own track plans then after i get going i'm going to come up with a back story for it and make it my own railroad down the road with my own railroad company and stuff.

[Anonymous]

The enjoyment for me is creating the town and the layout with the train within the town. And of course its functional use as if it were real. My trains have sat in a box for almost 20 years and now are out of box and getting ready to use again. I want to go the extra mile and this time I want to design and build some of my own buildings. My enjoment use to be creating realistic looking landscapes and now I'll expand on that too. Free lance modeling is the most open style of creativity and I am all for it. What we need to figure out is how to spread the movement and interest into the younger generation. Real trains are slowly becoming extinct and we can preserve the love of trains in model rairoading. Anyone showing off their whole layouts on the web?

[Jetrock]

Real trains are becoming extinct? Not from where I'm sitting...some of the historical stuff is dropping away, but rail traffic is actually on the rise--freight traffic is at an all-time high, Amtrak is carrying more people on intercity routes, and light-rail public transportation is expanding. Even short lines (including new ones) are carving out their own economic niche making use of older equipment in regions where major railroads have abandoned uneconomic branch lines.

Personally I have high hopes for the future of model railroading because trains are here to stay. Of course, today's kids will be misty-eyed about FREDs instead of cabooses and third-generation diesels instead of last-generation steam engines, but they'll still be building models and taking photos and grousing about the latest Athearn kits...

oh yeah, on playing with trains vs. model railroading: if you're just starting out and gaining basic skills, it's perfectly fine to play with trains for as long as you want. eventually, though, you may develop the urge to go farther with the hobby, which is where things like operation schemes, prototype research, freelancer backstory and custom paint jobs come into play...think of it as the next level of challenge for a model railroader. It's helpful to complete the first level first, though. Don't be in a rush, no matter what us old guys say.

[Anonymous]

I don't think Freelancing is dead, in fact I believe the opposite. People are getting tired of the prototypical rivit counting Purists. In the last month, I've come across dozens of people posting in several places that thay're creating such and such RR in someplace it never ran, or they're builing their own RR based ina certain time frame. And less and less people are spouting how thier RR is pure to the line.

In fact even found a group making their own RR's, then intertwining the lines in fictional routes. Person 1 has a line in say Arizona, person be has a line in texas, they dicide to hook up in some city in New Mexico, even going so far as to say what cities along the way that their line services.

Freelancing is on the rise, as it always should have been.

Jay.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BRAKIE

Guys,Regardless if you free lance your railroad name(NOT LAYOUT) it takes as much research has it does a real railroad if it is to be believable..
Guys if you say your railroad is say Kentucky Central and all I see on your layout is the L&N,then brother you are modeling the L&N.Period..Now if I look at your locomotives and see they are lettered for the KC then you are indeed free lancing a railroad.Now if you tell me you are modeling the KC division of the(say) L&N then I well agree with that..

I don't believe for one second that those that model a real railroad is any better then those that model a believable free lance railroad..I say again BOTH NEEDS TO BE RESEARCH IF THEY ARE TO BE BELIEVABLE PERIOD...Not shouting just trying to get the point across.[;)][:D]

Now for those of you that free lance your layout name in order to run every road name under the sun then that is ok to.But please don't tell me you have a free lance railroad..I won't believe it for one second unless I see engines or cars lettered for that road name.

As Ed McMahon would say to the Great Carnac.."YOU ARE CORRECT!!!"

Yes, even a freelanced layout SHOULD be researched and planned just like a prototype layout. Just because the freelanced layout never existed in reality doesnt mean it cant "look" real. It sould have a HISTORY and a PERIOD, Even one thats made up. History means a backstory that explains how your railroad ended up where it is today, and today is the Period you chose to model, 1920's, 1950's, or 2000's.

Period allows you to fine tune the feeling of your layout. Some go so far as to model an excact day (March 4, 1941) I wouldnt go so far as that, but having a layout with 1900 steam engines and a 2000 Ford Exploder on the layout just doesnt look right, unless say, your modeling a modern day tourist excursion line. Then you satisfy both history, running steam in modern day, and period, because the line got taken over for the tourist line. You could even run excursion freight trains with freshly renovated period freight cars, all shiny new like. Just a thought.

I am building a post WWII 1/2" scale narrow gauge mining layout using a variety of g guage items. Its a freelanced layout but I plan to use ideas from a variety of "real" places and trains. Detailing, structures, cars, all add to the believability of the layout and the more you use the same things you see happening to real items and add them to your trains, like the way soot and grime build up on a Cumbres & Toltec K-37, the more believable your layout looks. To me thats part of the challenge.

[bluepuma]

Sure hasn't been the style MR has been showing, more typically is based on some real name or interchanged with a name road. I'm not sure I even want to see that type of railroad, uncertain of what I could learn. Real places, parts of real places even tragically distorted are more interesting, something that looks like it could have come from a real place and time.

Parts of all these model RR's we see are unreal, a lot of places are very boring if you look at them a while. Becoming interested in modeling again helped me see the world in a different light, noticing details I would not have before. I rue the things I did NOT see, things I should have found, recorded on film, before moving 2000 miles away and nearly half a century.

I'd like to see more river crossings full scale, I know what the Missippi looks like in several places between Illinois and Iowa, and the Illinois River at Peoria and north, and the Mile Long Bridge between LaSalle and Oglesby to the concrete plant. I'd just like to have the space to model the LA River crossings of ATSF, and UP, the San Gabriel River ATSF crossing near Irwindale, I-10 or Valley Blvd SP, then UP.

Frustration in getting the key models makes me want to freelance a Los Angeles area that doesn't exist in one place and time just so I could use buildings that weren't there or were in other areas, like the Korea town or Japanese section, where I might put the Tomix and other Japanese buildings, some Kato trains. Maybe the Bullet Train to Las Vegas, San Diego, or coast line to SF.

The compromises in depicting even a realistic quarter mile of surburban area or 4 blocks of city edge put me in fantasyland.

I understand why Walt Disney built Disneyland as it was in '58 or so.

1:1 modeling with compression, different times, places.

[TRENT B]

NO! NEVER! Mine is 12ft x 9ft shaped like a U with a slide out "bridge" I saw in a recent MR article but the issue escapes me at the moment. I'm running a 4-6-4 "Blue Goose" Hudson with blue/yellow warbonnet Geeps. I fell in love with the blue/yellow SantaFes when I was a boy.
I like all trains but the blue/yellows are my favs.
I am totally freelance and I love "playing" & planning the Katieville yards and look. When I am further along I'll post some pics. "FREELANCE IS NOT DEAD!!!" was the battle cry heard round the world! Ha Ha!
Good luck !
Trent

[Anonymous]

Not dead. Mine (The Blue Water Line) is set in fictional villages in the Cattskil Mountains and connects with the now defunct O&W.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:

but how could any one think!!![:(!][:(!][:(!] that free lance was dead[:0][:(!][:0][:(!][:0][:(!][:(][:(].

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BRAKIE

Guys,Regardless if you free lance your railroad name(NOT LAYOUT) it takes as much research has it does a real railroad if it is to be believable..
Guys if you say your railroad is say Kentucky Central and all I see on your layout is the L&N,then brother you are modeling the L&N.Period..Now if I look at your locomotives and see they are lettered for the KC then you are indeed free lancing a railroad.Now if you tell me you are modeling the KC division of the(say) L&N then I well agree with that..

I don't believe for one second that those that model a real railroad is any better then those that model a believable free lance railroad..I say again BOTH NEEDS TO BE RESEARCH IF THEY ARE TO BE BELIEVABLE PERIOD...Not shouting just trying to get the point across.[;)][:D]

Now for those of you that free lance your layout name in order to run every road name under the sun then that is ok to.But please don't tell me you have a free lance railroad..I won't believe it for one second unless I see engines or cars lettered for that road name.

[}:)]


I'm not in full agreement here, as I'm modelling circa 1959 most engines are just arriving from other railroads and my paint shop gang have been on strike for the past 6 months so the "new arrivals are still sporting their original colours. But don't worrying, once the trade dispute has been resolved Uncle Pete's smiling face will be the first to be painted over[:D]

The imagination is not be put in a box!

[GDRMCo]

The great dividing range mining company operates in queensland, new south wales and victoria. i uses engines built in aus by clyde emd and operates coal zinc lead and gold trains from the mines to the docks to be exported to overseas markets.

[TheK4Kid]

I myself am working on a basically "freelanced layout", but it will carry a Pennsylvania RR theme, based on the 40's and early 50's, with mostly steam engine era, witha couple early diesels.
Mainly because my dad worked on the Pennsy when I was a kid.
I am also a private pilot and so, it will include an airport from the same era, but it will be based on a historic airport here locally.
The local RR 's here ran behind the airport main hangar, and during world war two, carried parts for and later the the dissassembled for transport TDR-1 drone, the FIRST cruise missile the military ever used. TDR-1's were used against Japanese ships in the Pacific.
Just a short distance from there, the first atomic bombs were partially assembled and transported by local rail transport.
This all took place in northeast Indiana, in the city of Ft Wayne.
By the way. Nickel Plate's famous 765 Berkshire is being restored not far from where I live, over just east of Ft Wayne, and only about 1/4 mile from where the first three atomic bombs were partially assembled in the very same building complex.

[Supermicha]

Also for me, freelance is not dead. I´m running Columbia & Southern Trains in the 1990 era on my "narrow village" layout. Having its own railroad is much more fun than running Uncle Pete or something else. i´m the boss and can run trains like i want.

micha

[Anonymous]

Not to me are they dead. I've been in the hobby fir over 50 years and have enjoyed visiting hundreds of pikes, allover the country. You can see quality work with both protptype modelers and free lancers. I'm a free lancer and happy at it, but I try my best to make my Intermountain Pacific RR as accurate as I can, just as if it really existed. However I do subscribe to Allan McClelland's 'good enough' philosophy. I don't detail what cannot be viewed, in most cases. My layout is in the Absoroka Mountains of Montana and runs from the real town of Red Lodge to Silver Gate Mt. but I have several made up towns inbetween, however they are generally based upon geographic factors. Towns like Rock Creek, Beartooth, Wyomont, Pipestone, and Helper are examples. My RR is set solidly in the summer of 1959. I totally resist the urge to vary this time slot. I'm really pleased that Atlas is releasing the low hood SD-24 soon, as this is about the only low hood that I can accomodate. My reason for holding to 1959 is that it is about the latest that I can justify running steam and I have several of United's Sierra 2-6-6-2's on the line, to which I have added Elesco feedwater tanks on the brow, plus the pumps and seven pipe runs to the heater. I can do it because it's my own freelanced line. I have a very convincing story behind my railroad and how it evolved. My line was created by the Treasure State Metals Ltd.,. in order to haul out the significant volume of copper ore which they discovered near Clark Folk. We have the mine plus a concentrator, an electrolytic refinery and a wire mill on the line. This can make for a lot of traffic on an out of the way mountain railroad. Sure we use diesels, many Atlas/Kato RS-1's, and RSD-5's, in a flashy bright red and gull grey scheme, with a yellow side sill stripe. The RR is in a 12 x 20 ft. room with 144 ft. of mainline and two terminals. No it hasn't been published. I submitted it to MRR but maybe there's truth in the statement that they prefer prototypes since they didn't accept it. My layout was open for the 1986 Boston National Convention as well as several NER Regionals. But I have a great deal of fun and relaxation in the hobby and that helps to contribute to a long life. Jack.

[easyaces]

Freelance model railroads are far from dead, including my own MR&L(Monticello,Richmond,&Lafayette RR)"Serving the Hoosier Triangle") which started out as a track and signal maintenance RR to hauling freight as a small regional, and has connections with both CSX and NS in between. They might push all the others in the magazines, but there are still those of us with some imagination and gumption to keep freelancing alive!

[Anonymous]

What is beautiful about this part of the forum is, we have people actually talking about model railroading and not just blarney to build up stars. Long live the Dalreada National Railways.

[Anonymous]

I was scanning your question and some of the others comments. It is very interesting to see that the freelance layouts are not dead. I also sort of freelance my layouts. I think this method should continue. In some ways a researched true to life layout that has been modeled after a certain RR or area is good, if that's what you really want to do. but in other ways it is not so good. A very good friend of mine has been going to build a layout modeling either the Kalispell, MT. or a portion of the GN RR for years now, and he has yet to ever get beyond the beginning stage. I have seen him start several layouts then suddenly tear them out and get rid of all the equipment ( to include all the pre-made benchwork he had ordered and assembled ) to just end up having to re-buy, all new quipment for the same thing all over again. (To me that is a waste of hard earned money, but that is his choice) I have built 3 freelance layouts in this time frame and have had all of them running. unfortunately, do to my occupation, I've had to tear them up as I've had to move from town to town or state to state.and because of limited cargo space when moving, i have had to leave the wooden portions of the layout's behind (but at least I didn't have to get rid of my equipment.) Well, at least wood is cheaper than model RR equipment.
My point is: that it's sometimes more fun to to just do a freelance and have the fun of running it, than to spend years doing research on a particular RR and building part of it and never even getting it running.BLOCKED SCRIPTinsertsmilie('[:)]')

[orsonroy]

Pure freelance layouts are still in the majority in this hobby. They always have been, and probably always will be. One of the big reasons we're seeing a lot more prototype-based layouts in print is because most of the best modelers in the country (that are willing to be published) are reality-based. I've seen a LOT of pure freelance layouts while on layout tours, and frankly, they suck. If a layout isn't pretty enough to get published, it won't be.

One other thing to think about. Model railroading is the only modeling hobby where the majority of people DON'T model reality. Model boats, cars, airplanes, tanks, etc., all lean heavily towards modelign a real slice of life, while most model railroaders don't. Frankly, most other model hobbies don't take us seriously because of this, calling us a bunch of crazy old men playing with toy trains in our basements. Proto modeling proves to the rest of the hobby that we can actually do betetr work than the rest of them, since all our stuff looks good AND functions!

[The Highlander R R]

I 100% agree with everyone else. I am a freelanced Model Rail Roader myself. I have created  my layout entirely from my imagination and researching for all my ideas, and feel my end results would have been no better if I had done proto type. I have several areas on my layout that have items from actual pieces of rail road history but everything else has been created to fit what was needed to make it happen. My R.R. can be seen at www.claytimeceramics.net  or www.rrlayout.com The Highlander. I created everything to scale and never tire of my enjoyment from working on my layout ; even after working on it since June of 2003, and still have so much more I still want to do. I say hats off to the guy who just wants to enjoy model Rail Roading and the Free Lancer. Even the real thing was about someones dream of bringing to life what the rails could do, so if you want to get technical all rails could be looked at as a free lance R.R. type in the begining.  The Highlander.