Do You Model the Railroads You "Grew Up With"?

[potlatcher]

On another topic, someone mentioned a hobby myth that modelers typically build models of the railroads they were most exposed to when they were a youth, or at least when they first became interested in railroads.  I'm sure there are numerous examples of this, and it would seem to make sense:  for many railfans/model railroaders, railroads probably seemed more exciting when they were still new to them, so modeling that time and place gives them a chance to relive those "glory days".

For me, it's a little bit different.  Having "grown up" with Burlington Northern circa 1982-85, all I experienced was a steady stream of look-alike SD-40-2's.  Looking through magazines, I quickly realized that I had missed a lot of variety on the railroads by just a few years.  Plus, after more research, I found that if I had "grown up" during the steam-diesel transition period I could have witnessed even more variety and excitement.

As an adult, I know that "the grass is always greener" and nothing was ever as exciting as it seems when viewed through the lens of history.  However, that knowledge doesn't do much to  quench my emotions when they tell me that I missed all the really cool stuff, and that if I want to experience it, I'll have to do it in HO scale.

So, my question is which myth do you buy into - "The world was perfect when I was a kid" or "I missed all the cool stuff"?  Or does a different myth fuel your modeling urges?

Tom

[tangerine-jack]

In 30 years today will be the "golden era" to somebody.  I live the myth that the world was perfect when I was a kid, before I was a kid, and now that my kids are kids, I guess the world is perfect now.

It would have been cool to see the NW J series in their prime, but we can do the next best and model it.

[SpaceMouse]

I do, but 70 years before I was born.

[tstage]

Yes and no.  I grew up with my older cousin's hand-me-down American Flyer steamers and diesels, but I wasn't born during that era.

Tom 

[RedGrey62]

Short answer is no.  I grew up first along the Penn Central and then the Chessie in my teenage years.  I did initially model the PC but after I got stationed in Nebraska, I switched to the CB&Q even though they had longer since merged into BN.  A beautiful front cover of an RMC from the 70's of a Burlinton E unit was my inspiration for the change.

Rick

[loathar]

Nope. I'm too young for the few steam locos I have and the F units I remember growing up where black and white.(boring paint schemes) Don't recall what the road name was. Cleveland Oh area in the late 60's to the 70's.(Norfolk? Penn Central?) I didn't pay much attention to road names back then. I like more modern diesels and the CP Rail, CSX and UP paint schemes.

[MidlandPacific]

Nope - but I grew up in the 1970s, an era that I never wish to see again, the happy memories I have of family and friends aside.  Everything - literally, almost everything - improved in the 1980s: trains, cars, airplanes, cooking, clothes, music, personal habits, computers - you name it.  It all got better.

[MidlandPacific]

Nope - but I grew up in the 1970s, an era that I never wish to see again, the happy memories I have of family and friends aside.  Everything - literally, almost everything - improved in the 1980s: trains, cars, airplanes, cooking, clothes, music, personal habits, computers - you name it.  It all got better.  And it continues to do so.

[SOU Fan]

Nope, I wasn't even born when Southern went out of business.

[MidlandPacific]

One exception: I have a definite fondness for the "Model Railroader" of the period.  And a lot of the stuff it advertised and promoted.  But Sunset and West Side brass and Southern steam excursions apart, I'm glad the Seventies are over.

[Midnight Railroader]

No, I grew up with the Illinois Central and Rock Island. I built a RI-based layout back in the 80s, but now I'm working in On30.

Even before that, though, my plan was to model the ACL, which was never a part of my Chicago childhood.

[Don Gibson]

Yep. ... and rode on: SP Daylites, AT&SF El Cap, San Diegan, and Super. Also CMStP&P, and CNW - BUT I don't model those, (but I had a brass '36 'Hiawatha' ).

I still remember standing trackside as the 'Hiawatha' came barreling through Glenview at 90 MPH enroute to Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

[Jetrock]

The place, but not the time. I grew up with a deep infatuation for downtown Sacramento (I grew up in the suburbs) and that's what I model now. Admittedly I have clearer memories of Southern Pacific bloody-nose Geeps than the WP's Perlman Green and old Zephyr schemes, but I do recall them. Rather than model the Seventies, I model the era shortly before I was born, the fifties and sixties, but in many parts of downtown Sacramento things didn't change much from then until a few years ago when gentrification started to rear its ugly head.

[PASMITH]

I grew up in Harrington Park NJ in the forties along the double track West Shore division of the NYC at a time when it was all steam including the passing of an occasional O & W Camel Back. About the time it was dieselizing, I was taking the train to high school in Dumont. When I was 13, I traded in my Lionel's for HO and built a freelanced east coast steam RR called the Atlantic Coast & Western. The motive power was based on my east coast experiences and included a Bowser K-11 and a Bowser 4-8-2 ( With a cast brass boiler) which I converted to a 4-8-4 with "elephant ears". After high school, and while my family was growing up in Demarest NJ, I had little time for modeling, working and traveling as a fire protection engineer for International Paper Co. In 1975 while inspecting IP's Weed saw mill in California, I got hooked on Steam Logging and in 1982 started to build a narrow gauge freelanced logging RR ( HOn30) loosely based on the Weed Lumber Company in the early 1900's. When I move to Memphis in 1987, I continued with this theme but included the SP Klamath Falls branch of the SP and became hooked on SP and Weed Lumber Company historical research in that part of California. However, my interest in historical research has led me back to my roots in Northern NJ and frequent visits to my family in Harrington Park ( Now that I am retired) finds me visiting the Old And Weary Car Shop in nearby Tappan NY where I was astounded to learn that the NYC West Shore in the forties had a New York City commuter turn using a turntable at Tappan the ruins of which, were located in a cemetary which went back to the 1600's. On my last trip there, I picked up a book about the Northern Railroad of NJ and Piermont Branch entitled "The Next Station Will Be......" with photos of stations along the NRNJ in 1910 from Jersey City NJ to Nyack NY including Demarest where my kids grew up. I am now faced with a dilemma, since there is not enough time to change or model RR's that include both my interests ( Unless I had a lot more resources). This is a dilemma I wrote about several years ago and submitted to MR under their column " One Reader's Opinion entitled " Time Sharing" which was rejected (For good reason) as being too philosophical.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[Tracklayer]

When I was a kid, I thought Southern Pacific and Santa Fe were the only two railroads there were... As I got older and into serious model railroading, those were the roads I first started with. Since then I've added Western Pacific, Rio Grande and Norfolk & Western. Who knows what's yet to come...

Tracklayer

[WCfan]

Mine would have to be both. I grew up with Wisconsin Central and I model it. But I never grew up around BN and I really like that railroad(Cascade green is da bomb).  I took a likeing to WC because when I was a kid I though it wad the best railroad because I lived around it, but when I got older I realized that there where othering things to it. I don't know how I took a liking to BN but, I think it was flipping through the magizeans and seeing the cascade green, and the Orange nose jobs, and the locomotives.

[IRONROOSTER]

My Dad was in the Army so I moved around growing up in the 50's.  Some places there were no trains, in Germany we had an active rail line behind our house with steam engines, in D.C. the street cars were running one block over, in Hampton, Va. I rode on the C&O on my 6th grade field trip.  I am now modeling the Ma&Pa circa 1953 - a railroad I never saw growing up.  It allows me to have steam engines and diesels, steel boxcars and wooden boxcars with truss rods and archbar trucks. 

I guess for me the world was perfect when I was a kid.  Though come to think of it I did miss the Maine Two Footers.  But I do have a model of a WW&F Forney locomotive.

Enjoy

Paul 

[lvanhen]

I grew up in northern NJ, and as a kid in the '50's, had the Erie with camelbacks in commuter service, heavier steam in freight locals, and NY Central steam and F diesels on the west shore branch on opposite sides of my town.  I collect & model UP - go figure - prettier colors than black & gray?

[csmith9474]

Sort of. I grew up with the SP in central Texas. I was inspired by this to model the SP in some capacity, but my layout is based on an area in west Texas. I also am modeling the Sunset Limited as it would have appeared in San Antonio in the late '50s, although this was well before my time.

I would eventually like to model the SP in San Antonio, to include the Texas Transportation Company so I can have a little street running. That is a ways off when we are finally settled down somewhere and I have the room to do it.

[Virginian]

My great Grandfather helped build the Virginian, and I grew up spending many a Sunday afternoon on my Uncle's farm hard by the Norfolk and Western "racetrack" as it exited the Dismal Swamp on the Norfolk side.  The farm is a huge container facility now.  (sigh)

Love those steam engines.  You're right tangerine-jack, seeing a J in revenue service at 80 plus was something.  A Class A at speed with a mile of hoppers was't too shabby either.

 

[Zandoz]

I grew up a stones throw from the Wabash line through my town, and a few blocks from the B&O.  My dream for years was to go with a Wabash theme in HO...And I collected anything Wabash HO that I could get my hands on, for many years.  But recently I came to the realization that space wise, an HO layout that I'd be remotely happy with was not going to ever happen, and switched to N scale. Since I found Wabash N scale stuff to be almost non-existant, I jumped roads and went with what was always my favorite locomotive...Santa Fe F units.  I've never seen one in real life, but have been in love with their look since I was a kid.

[CMSTPP]

It was more of my father who got me onto the Milwaukee Road. I don't know why, but the railroad has always been of interest to me. That Black and orange bug bit me. So I have been hooked as long as I can remember. It surprises me every step of the way, and it's fun.

James

[jecorbett]

The short answer is no. My first layout was a fictionalized UP line which ran through the Colorado Rockies as an alternate main to their Wyoming route. That became somewhat prophetic when the UP acquired the D&RGW. I grew up in Omaha and even though that was the eastern terminus of the UP, it had little to do with my choice of the UP. I remember the MoPac running north-south through Omaha and the Burlington passenger trains but can't ever remember seeing any UP trains because we didn't live near their line. I'm not sure why it was I chose the UP for my first layout but it certainly had nothing to do with boyhood memories. Now I am modeling a freelanced eastern railroad. I certainly had no exposure to eastern prototypes when I was growing up. I just became interested in them after I got into modeling by looking at pictures of those railroads, especially from the trainsition era. The settings just seemed more interesting to me than the wide open vistas of western railroads.

[graphitehemi]

I model what I was exposed to. Some of you guys might think that running engines that all look alike may be boring, but I like the looks of the old WC engines. To mix it up a little I want to find as many 'special edition' engines I can find in WC paint. I just can't seem to get my hands on that elusive 'map' unit tho.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Now I am modeling mostly CB&Q because much of my childhood was in one of the Q's Chicago suburbs.  In the winter (no leaves in trees blocking view) I could see the trains from my bedroom window.  I recall when we move there, they still had a little steam and those locomotives would shake my bedroom door on its hinges.

Our family did a lot of train travel that included CB&Q, ATSF, SP, MILW, CNW, UP, PRR, CP, CN, NYC, B&O, SOU, ACL, IC, and ..........oh.......I don't recall all of them..........   Also, I traveled around Chicago on CA&E, CNS&M, and CSS&SB. 

My layout is a ficticious division of the Burlington and includes other railroads.

[GAPPLEG]

I grew up in El Paso Tx.  SP was the railroad .  Years later when I started model railroading I modeled the SP from my childhood. Although I no longer live out there I try my best to model it from a protolance perspective as if they still were around.

[WCfan]

graphitehemi, The site below sells the "map" edition decals.

http://www.scalerailgraphics.com/31001a.htm

[BRAKIE]

While I grew up in Columbus and saw PRR,NYC,B&O,C&O and N&W I prefer the late 70s,90s and 2004.

I do have C&O locomotives that can fit in the 60s or the 70s.

 

[tangerine-jack]

My great Grandfather helped build the Virginian, and I grew up spending many a Sunday afternoon on my Uncle's farm hard by the Norfolk and Western "racetrack" as it exited the Dismal Swamp on the Norfolk side.  The farm is a huge container facility now.  (sigh)

Love those steam engines.  You're right tangerine-jack, seeing a J in revenue service at 80 plus was something.  A Class A at speed with a mile of hoppers was't too shabby either.

 

 

I live just a few miles from where you are speaking of.   Much of the area is no longer farms but industry of some type.  This is growth and it's good in its own way.  I get to see many, many NS coal trains daily, and a lot of CSX freight hauling.  No shortage of railfanning around here!

 The Chrysler museum in Norfolk recently had a photo expo of the very last steam engine run ever; it was an N&S class A run from Baltimore to Roanoke (I believe).  The photographer was a genius and specialized in night photos, and he had the presence of mind to actually record the sounds of what he was shooting at the time.  It was displayed that way in the Chrysler, photos and sound.  Man, what a time machine that was! It made me nostalgic for a time I never lived in.  Brilliant work.

[alfadawg01]

Like several others in this thread I grew up in northern New Jersey and learned about trains by way of the New York Central, the Erie and their successors.  However, having lived in other parts of the Garden State and in St. Louis since 1979 and having travelled throughout the US, Canada, the UK, Europe and the Middle East, my influences and tastes are wide and varied so my modelling is, to put it mildly, unfocused.  Recent purchases have included CR, CP, CN, D&H & ATSF locomotives, 40' boxcars and double-stack container cars.  Probably the only focused projects are acquiring models of locomotives I've ridden on, modelling the first Amtrak train my son and I rode on together and modelling a Union Pacific/APL container train.  But even that covers a lot of geographical and temporal ground.  Of course, I could make a good case for having discovered the time machine......