It's funny, I'm still trying to settle on what my roster should be like... and every year or so I decide that I have a new favorite type of rolling stock (rarely loco's since I'm pretty much set on which ones I do or don't like) which I'd like to incorporate into my lineup. Is this the same with you? Did you envision what your complete (i.e. 90% solution) roster should be like? I know TB user Hemi mentioned it was a proportional amount of rolling stock from certain years.
Mike Never really thought about this much, until now. I purchased a lot of Intermodal, so much that I will need to dispose of some. I am trying to obtain exactly what Hemi suggests, I am finding the early rolling stock tough to find, so most of my rolling stock save for passenger cars is fairly modern.
My D&H roster covers nearly every era when it comes to the engines. I hope when I get my layout designed and built someday that the oldest Steam era engine will look just as good as a PA Passenger train as it passes through the mountains and valleys. Just with today's Steam Era tourist trains passing a modern city as well as historic towns so will my D&H trains along side a few D&RGW.... :teeth: :teeth: :teeth: :teeth:
I started with BN in 1989-91, then completely changed focus to D&RGW, 1983-87. I try to model 10% of the D&RGW roster at that time. I also have F7's and PA-1's when I backdate to the 1950's. Doing 10% of a smaller line like D&RGW allows a decent fleet, yet keeps costs of ammassing a huge roster down. When I modeled BN, I stuck to 1%. That still meant 8 SD40-2's! Your mileage may wvary, based on the size of your chosen road's roster. N_S_L, being an ATSF fan, would likely do 1-5% of the Santa Fe, while someone modeling the Maine Central may model 10-15% or more, being a smaller line. Sure, having a huge roster is cool, but buying decoders for them will kill the platinum card, and you'd need a club-sized layout to utilize them all.:lightbulb:
Started off with CN olive and mustard and CP Maroon and Grey. Overtime a couple of wet noodles crept in, then a multimark. Now all of a sudden there's zebras around. But that's it no golden rats or maps allowed. My none core rooster started with a single PRR unit, then a NYC showed up at my doorstop and I had to take it in. Then some real pretty B&O sharks came my way due to a closeout on ER, then I couldn't help to pass up a couple of DCC canopeners for basically $30 ea. Then I realised that D&H is owned by CP so that was justification for one of my all time favourite schemes (lightning stripes) to appear. With a CNW zito yellow unit I realised that that's it, cold turkey, my engine yard is starting to look like a circus.
My existing N scale layout represent a Santa Fe secondary line in the piney woods of East Texas in 1957, plus my line runs TO the (not-modeled) Beaumont-Port Arthur petrochemical area and traffic from that locality crosses my railroad in through service. Existing layout it is part of a huge layout I imagine operating if I had a barn-sized train room, and I have been collecting equipment for that operation. I have roster that has some specific connection to the AREA, ie. forest products, petrochemical, etc. pulpwood racks to paper mills logging cars used by lumber company private railroad Staley Co. tank- "engineered" starch to paper mills to stiffen cardboard Seaboard boxcar, kaolin clay used in paper mill for coated paper Protex Dispersing tank- byproduct lignosulfitre from paper mills Koppers creosote tank car for wood preservation plant 2-bay ATSF hoppers in iron ore service as "honorary ore cars" Gulf tank cars (Port Arthur) Gulf-owned cars still lettered for Warren Petroleum Texaco tank cars (Port Arthur) Magnolia tank cars (1950s Texas affiiliate of Mobile)(Orange, Texas) Ethyl tank car for antiknock additive to refineries Anhydrous Ammonia car from Gulf to Spencer Chem, KCMO Doodlebug for low density passenger service When I switch to a layout representing the Island Seaport at the Gulf coast end of the Santa Fe's Texas mainline, there will be much east Texas equipment for which I will have no use. But I will need equipment for the special needs of the seaport... 2-3 trains worth of boxcars for heavy grain & cotton traffic Train of special sulphur gondolas Train of SFRD refrigerator cars for shipload of bananas every 10 days "Super insulated" 50 reefers for seafood Special boxcar for salt used in refrigerator cars Ice cars Dry-ice car Box tank for industrial gases used in shipyard Deluxe passenger train set, all streamlined Heavyweight passenger train set Meanwhile, I have a small portable layout which represents a Navy blimp base located on the Santa Fe some dozen miles inland from the Island Seaport. For that layout, I have some special dedicated equipment... U S Navy switch engine USN helium tankcars USN ordnance boxcar USN aviation gasoline tankcars So I am not changing roster to change era or railroad, but to change geographic location, and match the location's traffic.
Well, my era is pretty well set, 1957 - 1967; yet have been "known" to shave that by a few months into 1968. Try my darndest to buy 40' or shorter cars - but, how can you ignore those Kadee and Life Like 50 footers. Or worse yet, some of the TrailerTrain TOFC and early auto carriers? Then, being on a budget (admittedly flexible) and having three (?) favorite roads and a manufacturer comes out with multi-packs for two of your three favorite roads - but, of course, only as ready-to run? Then, there is the matter of FGEX reefers, got 15, could use another 10 or so. Pulwood racks - ditto. Then there are those plain barn red 40' box cars with obscure reporting marks ...?
I know all about what Krasny Strela speaks of. I call it run thru or pooled power! They are not included int he roster, but I have them,a nd can run them when the fancy strikes me. I have SSW (Cotton Belt), WP, nearly all the BN predecessors, and would like some Rock Island, C&NW, and maybe some Conrail.
The only approach that I have taken is to have a cut off date, i.e. 1953. Anything that year or before is fine with me.
The only problem with my 10% theory is that I now need 10% of 2795 Bethlehem steel car 100T quad hoppers... That's only 279 Trainworx Quads...
My freight car fleet numbers around 120+ cars. It is more than I could ever fit on my layout. I doubt I will purchase many more cars. I'm sort of going off of memories of 70's era trains of the midwest. A unit train of grain hoppers is in the mix. A coal train. Lots of box cars. 70's era tankers for those prototype chemical spill disasters. A little of everything to round things out. I used to see quite a few mixed freights on the ICG. It wasn't uncommon to see a open autorack in the mix along with all kinds of other cars, so I have just one of those for variety. To answer your question though. I go in phases af what kind of car strikes my fancy. A year ago it was grain hoppers, so I purchased around dozen of those over the year. Before that I was into tank cars, bought a dozen of those. To be honest, I often buy cars based on the pretty colors.
Grey and Grandure Managment Memo: As such I have too many roads to name but I'll try anyway: Passenger: 1 - soon to 3 bullet trains - no idea what "road names" they are SP Daylight PA 1 DRGW, ATSF, GN - 4-4-0 or 2-6-0 - for excursion NW - 4-8-4 Freight: Lots of GN and CP locos 2 CP unit trains:Bethgons and 40' box cars 1 GN unit train of 24' TOFC Growing collection of GT blue / white and CN red/white PS 1 "noodle script" center flow hoppers. I'm lookiing for a "noodle script" white / blue or red to go with them. About 6 Santa Fe ranging from SD24s to gas turnbines A 10 foot "Green Dream" BN mixed manifest with 3 BN locos (bought from someone changing eras). About 15 feet of undecorated including 2 F40s. Likely to become Pink Fox cars. As for eras or types - no - I don't go through phases. The one conssesion I'll make: I will try to keep cars with locos from the same era.
You know, Alot of what I've seen in my life is just that, red boxcars without big logos. You got me thinking now. I may need to find a bunch of those for my layout.
Full of Shift I bet most modelers go through this to some extent. I model a very specific prototype and timeframe to try and combat this which helps. But this has been influenced by certain cars and locomotives, no doubt! Some examples: -I got back into the hobby because of BN SD40-2's from Kato. -I REALLY got back when Atlas introduced their Coalveyors and Kato came through with the SD70MAC's -I like the BN B30-7AB's which vanished in early 1999, so that's always traditionally been my "drop dead" date on the upper end. -I initially wanted to avoid newer rolling stock like the AutoMax cars and other more modern intermodal equipment, all which began appearing in 99-00-01. -Besides the B30's, I wanted to keep as close to "merger day" as possible so that I had a more BN-centric roster. (I do like the Santa Fe as well, so this wasn't a biggie) -I like the BNSF H1 Scheme better than H2, but I did want a little H2 in the mix, so the closer to '97 I got the better. -I orginally settled on '97, but two things brought me into '98. A little ex-DRGW SW1200 switcher began duty at a "modeled" grain elevator in mid-'98, and the "modeled" Trinity plant began making Trinity 5161 BNSF hoppers in February '98. Since models of both of these were available or soon to be available that pushed me forward. -There are a few intermodal pieces I want that showed up in 1999, so I decided to push out to 1999 which also let me run the Heartland Flyer (Amtrak) and a few other minor changes. Brings the Automaxes in as well, but I figure I'll buy them if I can get 'em cheap or otherwise not a big deal either way. 1999 also lets me run the TXUX cars if anyone ever releases a model of the RD4's. -I picked up two ORER's, one 1994 and one 1999. So I use those as my official "drop dead" car qualifier. If a car didn't exist on or after 1994, or before/during 1999, then it doesn't make my roster. And, after all that, I now am modeling a slightly different prototype, although all the existing cars work and I only moved the date forward about three years. The only new stock is the commuter equipment needed for modeling the TRE line in the DFW area. (F59's, Bombardier cars, and RDC-1's) Eventually I intend to go back to my original plan though, so this is a very slight and somewhat temporary "shift".
My interest shifts every year. 4 or 5 years ago when I first got into N, I was all about steam, bought like 8 steam engines, only 3 ran so I dumped steam. The next year I was all modern mixed freight, bought bunches of boxcars, Tank Cars, covered hoppers, flats and gons. The year after that the unit train bug hit me and I bought up every UFIX coalvayer I could find. For the past two years now I’m all about passenger trains. THANKS KATO…. The first run of the Cal Zephyr got me hooked, since then I have picked up the Super Chief, AT&SF corrugated car sets A, B1, and B2, and the second run Cal Zephyr. I also picked up enough f units to pull 8 trains. I am thinking about the GN train, even though its not proto. I am also eagerly anticipating Kato’s next passenger train!!! Now with the PCM E-7 with sound, the DCC and sound bugs have bitten me, and I’m thinking of adding sound to more engines.
Geeky - It's not like I don't have a few r/w/b/ "State of Maine", B&M "black 'n blues", a NYNH&H orange (?) which appears to be based on a prototype!? It's also not like I don't have in excess of 120+ railcars from every manufacturer, except Trix. From 40 year old AHM (with scale wheels and Kadees) to the latest Kadee and Athearn R-T-R, have a bunch. And this, for a layout of less than 80 square feet. But, one of the things about the prototype was when railfanning one never knew what was coming on the new (next) train. To the extent possible, I am replicating those days when you had ~20 - 40 drab, dull, dirty cars - followed by one "!wow! - what was that?" I'll probably draw the operational cards for my layout and see if I can't talk the wife into fulling out the train in the staging yards so I'll be surprised.
My motive power fleet is predominately Frisco, reprenting the last 6 years of the road's existence. I do, however, have an E8A, RS1, GE 44-tonner, RS2M, and a 2-10-0 steamer on the roster for antiquities' sake. I'm also in the process of painting up an FP7A as it looked in the early 1960s, before the renumbering of the F-units. After 1974 I'd have to ditch the F9A and FP7A, after 1979 all the GP7s, and only from 1979 to 1980 could I have GP40-2s on the roster. I'm toying around with a narrower time frame of, say, 1975 to 1977, which would preclude the GP40s but would allow for GP15-1s and B30-7s. No F-units, sadly, and my lone SD40-2 would have to be set aside as well. I like the idea of 10% of the fleet, but for this I'd need 15 GP38AC/-2s, and so far I've only three GP38ACs and four GP38-2s. One more of the former, seven more of the latter.......... will also need to add 3 more SD45s, 1 more U25B, one more U30B, and a single B30-7. I also have runthru and competitors' power from Santa Fe, UP, MP and KCS. I'm looking to get a couple of MKT GP40s and a caboose to represent the Katy. Presently I have enough power, cars and cabooses to run 7 Frisco freights and two locals- just a little over the traffic levels of the Afton Sub, and about the same level of traffic for the Sherman Sub. I still keep looking for cars- presently got over an autorack buying spree, now getting 85-foot auto parts car to go with 'em. Alerady have 10 TOFC flats.
My N layout is supposed to be C&O specific, late 1940's to mid-1950's. I decided a little while back to do what a friend did years ago. He would buy two kits of the same building - for example an interlocking tower - he would build one version to be 1950 well maintained, and another version weathered with boarded-up windows to represent the same building in 1975. That way he could run his 1950's era B&O equipment and then swap out the structure and run his Chessie System stuff. He would also change a few items like vehicles around on the layout and it was a pretty cool way to go. I think I might even try doing this by using buildings with two-tone grey for C&O - then swap the structure for one painted brown and tan to represent the B&O.