Actually I try to avoid the "rivet-counter dementia" and run as I please as long as its believable.I would gag if I would run a BNSF or NS 40' boxcar with roof walk or outside brace boxcars being pulled by a SD90MAC..So,if its both believable and has some plausibility I will run it.
Come to the dark side... Actually it is easier for me to model from the prototype but someone threw a Tyco Rock Island RF-16 Baldwin Shark and it hit my head so.... Honestly though look at it like this, 95% of the people who willsee your layout or set up at a show aren't even going to know what the heck a SD7 or 9 is, much less freek out over the right railroad per unit. In all my years of doing the prototype thing I only had one old guy give me the business about a BNSF Geep 9 I did. I basically modeled a NP GP-9, complete with torpedo tubes and painted it in the then current H1 BNSF paint. This guy went crazy spouting off how a modern class 1 wouldn't even waste their time painting this relic up. While he was ranting I turned to the page of Trains magazine where I showed him the prototype photo I used to model the engine. He stormed off. Part of the reason I model weird stuff like this is to well, I'm bad this way, tick off the rivit counters. Thing is all my stuff can be backed up with documentation. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. So just run it, we won't tell:zip: In fact I rarely even bring my highly detailed engines to N-Trak events, I just run out of the box Atlas, Kato and Life Like, blissfully unaware that the engines may not be 100% correct.
