Everything about my Layout is free-lanced and fictional. I am even having some engines with UP markings that UP never owned. My layout will have a WWII battle with Germans and Americans having a battle over a Fuel Refinery. The fuel is the blood of any military with mechanized infantry and armor. So of course I will have German and American trains and rolling stock bringing in fresh war supplies to the battle. We all know this never happened but it sure is fun. Not to mention German engines are so different compared to the American engines. I like to line them up on the rails and compare them. I did not see the joy of re-creating what was already built in real life. I wanted to create my own world on my layout. Most might think it's strange but I am doing this for my personal enjoyment.
I am right there with ya! There was some serious rail mounted firepower deployed in WW2. They make for some great modeling.
Keith-Bportrail
Back in the 1970's and up to mid 80's I had a freelanced railroad called the Mojave Western. It included a second freelanced railroad, the Oklahoma Northern.
In 1988 I scrapped the freelance and began modeling the Santa Fe, Oklahoma lines, 1989. I stayed pretty close to the reality factor with it. I grew up on the Santa Fe as a child, worked for them after college for several years in Topeka KS designing computer systems, left for ministry.
Today, my three deck Santa Fe still runs, but I recently introduced some fiction into reality. In 1989 Santa Fe abandoned some trackage in Western Oklahoma coming into Cherokee OK. I unabandoned it, and re-introduced the Oklahoma Northern, which runs with a hodge podge of cast off diesels including high noses, lots of grain cars, second hand, etc. ON uses the same decals and paint job as the original ON, has trackage rights over Santa Fe to Oklahoma City and now I have the best of both worlds.
Life is good!!!
Bob
jpmorrison wrote:no free lance are not dead im working on my as we talk
- Luke
Modeling the Southern Pacific in the 1960's-1980's
Curious that this 4.5-year-old thread was resurrected this weekend.
This was the very first thread I ever replied to when I joined trains.com. In fact, I was sitting in an Iraqi-run internet cafe on Camp Muleskinner, Baghdad, when I did so. That camp is now gone.
Interesting. Equally interesting is that in 2003 I was drifting out of freelancing and into prototype modeling. Now I'm completely entrenched in prototype-only modeling.
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
ACL Fan wrote: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've got news for you...
We're ALL just playing with trains.
Our boxcars are empty, as are almost all of our other cars (if you don't count car weights). They don't really go anywhere. Many just go around in circles. Others just go from one storage area to another. Even the broadest of the average layouts cruves are closer to that of a trolley or interurban line than even a Class III road.
And short!
Even the longest of our model railroad "mainlines" come nowhere near to duplicating the real world. Most wouldn't even qualify as a piece of industrial trackage.
In short, we all compromise when it comes to building and operating our layouts. Just because a person chooses a different set "standards" to base his modeling on, doesn't mean he (or she) isn't a "Model Railroader".
Everybody models to their own interests, and abilities. As far as I'm concerned model railroading should be a big tent that covers everybody from a 3 year old playing with Brio trains to the likes of John Allen (who, BTW IMHO was the ultimate freelancer) and Tony Koester.
George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
BTW...
My Port Able and Pacific is totally freelanced, though inspired by the Seattle and North Coast. Also, you won't find any of my towns on any map, but the scenery is (will be) reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest.
And, if I have a mind to hide an oversized toy alligator in one of my lakes, I'll do so, as John Allen once said, "Not because I don't know any better, but because it amuses me."
-George
Nope, not dead.
Free lanced model railroads, defined as a ficticious road name, I think will always be with us. Some folks just want to roll their own, just like some get as close to a prototype as possible. Others are somewhere in between. I think freelancing was more popular years ago when just getting a layout built and running was a big challenge. Now there is more of a desire to model a prototype which I think is a result of better quality kits and RTR available today.
But even though I am following the Ma&Pa for my next layout, I have several free lance cars, including one for the G&D, that I will run on my layout. I also have some 2 ft gauge locomotives and cars that I will include. So I guess I am mixing the two.
EnjoyPaul
SOU Fan wrote:Nope, not dead.
Personally, I enjoy engineering and fleshing out a vision into a reality. Therefore, realistic free-lancing appeals to me. I am engineering what might have been had history been slightly different. The research of the prototype modelers is essential to this task. Their research into what practices various prototype railroads used, and why, lead me to implement suitable practices for my free-lance lines.
I've enjoyed poring over maps to figure out a realistic routing for my fictitious railways across Oregon. Sometimes, the names of real towns are used. Other times, I wanted a particular name that didn't exist along my intended route.
Lebanon is an example for my Port Orford & Elk River Railway & Navigation Company. The fictious logging railway was able to compete with its closer-to-market California competition by being able to offer famous Port Orford Cedar, and a little bit of Alaska yellow cedar and myrtle wood, in addition to the standard redwood. Lebanon, Oregon is actually in Northern Oregon. But for me, Lebanon is a fictious town in Southern Oregon where my standard and narrow gauge lines interchange.
Designing locomotive and car rosters that suit and would have been useful and profitable on these free-lance lines is another point of interest.
In other words, free-lancing opens up the ability to design my own world, while still being realistic and plausible.
my choice
Fred W
flee307 wrote:Now wp8thsub, I take some exception to what you wrote, first "Prototype modelers tend to adopt higher modeling standards. As a result, their models tend to be of higher average quality than those of hobbyists as a whole and are more presentable in photos. " So prototypers are better modelers that freelances? What an elitist attitude!!!
I could say that prototypers are dullards who are incapable of creativity and have to have some one else do all the planning for them, including their hobby. Does that sting, or is it true?
Kind of fascinating that this 5-year old thread is alive and well.
There is an in-between of "Freelance" and "Prototypical" and that's "Proto-lance", which as I understand (and practice) is adopting prototype locomotives and rolling stock to a 'freelance' setting. Hence my own Yuba River Sub. I happen to run Rio Grande big steam in the California Sierra Nevada mountains (Rio Grande never made it this far). Now I don't run generic steamers with Rio Grande decals slapped on, I run models of steam locomotives that are based on actual Rio Grande prototypes (which of course, these days, means brass). According to my 'history', the Rio Grande decided on their own entry-way into California after the Western Pacific became independent. SP had Donner Pass, WP had the Feather River Canyon, so the Rio Grande chose a mid-point between the two, the Yuba River watershed. And since I also like SP big steam, it was easy to get trackage rights for Cab-forwards to charge up Yuba Summit when their Donner Pass line was clogged with traffic, or one of the snowsheds had burned down.
It's fun. I get to run both my favorite railroads over trackage that represents the particular Middle and North Fork Yuba River Sierra Nevada country that I grew up in (and country that largely never saw a railroad, BTW). So, for me, it's the best of both worlds. I run prototypically researched models of favorite steam, and I model the Yuba River scenery as accurately as I can, given my particular talents. I have been chided a little about my propensity for Missabe Yellowstones, but I can even explain that--prototypically, the Rio Grande borrowed about 8 of them for use during the winters of WWII. I simply decided to have my 3 assume the never-was 3900 Rio Grande series. Rio Grande 2-8-8-4's? Nah! But they look nice, especially simmering in the Nevada City yards next to the actual Rio Grande L-131 2-8-8-2's and the handsome Baldwin L-105-4-6-6-4's (and what, do you ask, are fleet-footed Challengers doing in the heavy grades of the high Sierra, right?).
So, for everyone reading, I can always use the tired old excuse: Hey, it's MY railroad and I'll do whatever I want! But I try and do it as a modeler who likes to see satisfying results--if only for myself.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
secondratemodeler wrote:THIS THREAD IS FOUR YEARS OLD! If you have something to add to the comments, great! Please don't try to argue with someone about what they said FOUR YEARS AGO!
on30francisco wrote:I find prototype modeling too restrictive and anal FOR ME. Malcolm Furlow and John Allen are my heroes.
I'm with you here, I like "personality" in a layout, it draws my interest more. I can appreciate strict proto modeling and the work that goes into it, but, "believable freelanced" is more enjoyable to me.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Bob Berger, C.O.O. N-ovation & Northwestern R.R. My patio layout....SEE IT HERE
There's no place like ~/ ;)
secondhandmodeler wrote:THIS THREAD IS FOUR YEARS OLD! If you have something to add to the comments, great! Please don't try to argue with someone about what they said FOUR YEARS AGO!
Not only is he arguing with a 4 year post, he's dragging in stuff about Tyco and scratchbuilding that was never mentioned. Apparently those with a different point of view are Tyco modelers - the Ultimate Insult. And those who agree are all locomotive scratchbuilders par excellence - the Hallowed Ground.
Must be a full moon out tonight.
Enjoy
Paul
Actually I freelanced a LOT of my layout. The main city is freelanced, the islands it's on are freelanced, the mountain range west of the city is freelanced. Aparently in my world the Laurentians had a couple more offshoots, and there are about 12 million more people in Ontario.
The main railroads are also freelanced. The Selenian Lines Commission is a mass transit system based loosely on the MTA, and the Selene International Port Commission is a government owned belt line that is a mixture of the IHB, Brooklyn Terminal and is all Alco like the GBW.
Cheers!
~METRO
Not dead here, Half Moon Orion & Northern is free lanced. And by the way, I like the puns. They're funny.
(HO&N as an acronym tands for the two scales dad and I run)
-Morgan
IRONROOSTER wrote:Must be a full moon out tonight...
Must be a full moon out tonight...
marknewton wrote: secondratemodeler wrote:THIS THREAD IS FOUR YEARS OLD! If you have something to add to the comments, great! Please don't try to argue with someone about what they said FOUR YEARS AGO!When did you get appointed moderator?
secondhandmodeler wrote: marknewton wrote: secondratemodeler wrote:THIS THREAD IS FOUR YEARS OLD! If you have something to add to the comments, great! Please don't try to argue with someone about what they said FOUR YEARS AGO!When did you get appointed moderator?I don't think I've read a post by you yet that isn't arguing with somebody. I just couldn't stand to see you start an argument with a ghost.
Here we go, I predict a several paragraph long response with many,many quotes and witty retorts.
IRONROOSTER wrote: secondhandmodeler wrote:THIS THREAD IS FOUR YEARS OLD! If you have something to add to the comments, great! Please don't try to argue with someone about what they said FOUR YEARS AGO! Not only is he arguing with a 4 year post, he's dragging in stuff about Tyco and scratchbuilding that was never mentioned. Apparently those with a different point of view are Tyco modelers - the Ultimate Insult. And those who agree are all locomotive scratchbuilders par excellence - the Hallowed Ground.Must be a full moon out tonight. EnjoyPaul
Didn't you hear? The next RPM meeting is going to be held in the Bohemian Grove!
I disagree that "most" free-lance railroaders are doing roundy roundy with their SD80mac's and 4-6-6-4's side by side. Based on the responses to this thread, I think there's a lot of guys out there who have put a lot of thought into their home road, creating their fictional history, route maps and traffic sources.
I started out a million years ago with a free-lance road, the Laurel Valley, set in southwest Pennsylvania. I have built up quite a roster over the years, so when I started working on my Western Maryland-themed layout about 10 years ago, I decided to provide an interchange point for the LRV.
Now, Laurel Valley coal drags make regular appearances on the WM, and they provide some through freight via a connection with the east and westbound alpha jets.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Folks:
Nothing is dead which can in archives lie, and with strange eons even threads may be dug out and revived...
Even the jokey names aren't dead. I think a few well-publicized voices belong to modelers who outgrew their sense of humor but didn't grow back into it yet before they had built up a Publick Persona that they didn't dare go against (for fear of provoking poison pens), but if you look around the horrible jokes and worse puns are still out there. One of my favorites is "Tech Nickel Plate".
The important thing, I think, is to be careful with the joke-locations. "Gorre & Daphetid" was a problem because it was a railroad name, and the obvious joke wore a little thin. OTOH, "The G-D Line" is more subtle.
"Gasmeterszag" is as subtle as a club, but it's not a problem because you aren't using it all the time. Wear accumulation is therefore reduced to manageable levels.
My own railroad has a couple of silly jokes that might not be recognizable. The roadname, "Venango & Erie", is quite sober and even pretends to some dignity. It is shockingly free of puns. However, the towns of Wattsburg and Johnson Furnace, which seem just as dull and proper, just happen to be near the electrical-service panel and a Johnson forced-air heating unit.