What do you model?

The Pennsy rant thread got me thinking. Some claim there are more Western Modelers, some claim more Eastern. I want to know with an informal poll here.

Try to answer with your primary modeling era and region if you are a multi region modeler. There is an answer for those that don't have a specific region or time and just buy what catches their eye. I know there really is a central region but everybody always cites east vs. west. The Mississippi is generally considered the break point but use your best judgement if you are borderline. Area's like Chicago are a hard call because they served both sides of the country.

 

Oregon Cascades. Logging layout in 1931. Jim

 

Norteastern US. Pan-Am/ Guilford

 

If I had a decent space to build, I'd go Rio Grande in Colorado.
Very minimal steam. Primary is transition diesel to modern day diesel power.
Not the latest stuff though. I have EMD FT's to T-Motors to GP60's.
Could probably use to narrow it down even farther, but I also run what I want.
I guess I could fit into western steam/transition, western diesel, no specific time/place, run what I like.
Could be anyone's guess!! :question:

Thing is, I also have some other stuff, Eurostar, TGV, Japanese container train, a 4 unit Japanese bullet train and 2 Japanese trolleys! Try and figure that one out!

Way too much stuff, not enough wall space for display!!

 

in my fantasy world of railroading
the Pennsy is most definitely the #1 RR w/ its 4 track mainline and eastern pa theme
steam hauling freight and diesel for passenger service
(along with doodlebug and RDC/trolley transit for SEPTA and precursor to it)
but i do like to be able to set my own rules
which includes trains from other areas running on the same tracks, passenger mostly:
Reading (passenger deisel & freight--steam: lots of coal)
Lehigh Valley (passenger--diesel)
Erie Lackawanna (passenger--diesel)
Delaware and Hudson (passenger--diesel)
B&O (passenger--diesel and freight--steam)
C&O (freight--steam)
AT&SF (passenger--diesel)
D&RGW (passsenger--diesel)
UP (passenger--diesel)
Nickel Plate Road (passenger--steam)
Southern Pacific (Morning Daylight--diesel)
this is thanks to KATO and their runs of passenger collections
the only one i have not yet been able to purchase being the burlington northern
perhaps some day!
enjoy
Gary L Lake Dillensnyder

 

I put myself down for Santa Fe in Texas in the 50's (early diesel) era.

A better question might be "What would you model if you could buy the stuff you need to do it?"

I'd like to model a slightly earlier era with more ATSF steam but unless I do a lot of scratchbuilding/kitbashing or spend a fortune on brass, if I can find any and even with brass you still can't get a very good representation of smaller locos (Santa Fe wasn't all about 4-8-4's and 2-10-4's), that's out of the question. I model Japanese National Railways in the 60's for my steam era fix because I can get good RTR models of all the common classes on the roster in that era along with a few oddball types for good measure, there is no class one North American road for which you can currently do that.

 

I do not see an appropriate choice. What is you have a couple different layouts with different eras?

Big Layout - Western ATSF Circe 1944-1962 as my tagline says.

Medium Layout - Appalachian using mostly NS or its ancestors as far back a N&W and SRR with a errant CSX in there for something to change the color scheme

Small layout - Western roads pre-Borg assimilation

NTrak Layout - Anything goes!

 

Very specific 1920's NP and CNW. So, to do those in the badlands of SD to eastern MT requirews that I fantsized in a RR connection from the CNW colony line to the NP via the Powder river, or the Little Missouri.

But I will probably run any steam just cause it's FUN! Like the 1935 Fox Valley Hiawatha I have.........

 

Modern Day Midwestern. I consider it more West than East, if that makes sense.

 

Midwestern, specifically Illinois, early diesel. It ain't eastern. It ain't western. But it was where all the traffic was!

 

Approximately South Central, 1983

 

1st and 2nd generation diesel in a 3rd generation midwestern world.

 

Western Iowa, circa 1954. Fictional line called the Missouri Valley Western, but with plenty of Chicago & North Western and Union Pacific thrown in.

If I ever feel like switching eras, it will be to somewhere in the 1920s or '30s. Modern railroading does nothing for me.

Jim

 

Interesting responces so far. I know there are a lot of gray areas but the point of this is to simpify the answers. It would be impossible to list all the possibilities and make sense of it. Think of it as a multiple choice test: A,B,C,D,E and F. Pick the one that fits best. It may not be the perfect solution but it is the closest one. If you model multiple era's and places, which one would you pick in a perfect world.

As an example, I picked Eastern Steam which is probably pretty obvious by my Avatar. I also model current day Indiana and Ohio that runs on the same line as the B&O steam era I model. The tracks haven't changed that much and I have a pretty good representation of the motive power and rolling stock used on the line. I model modern as an excuse to be able to play with some of the new things that are coming out and because I have pretty much gotten all there is to get for my 1947-50 B&O layout. The only thing I need to get to flush out my B&O layout are new items that have not been released yet.

PS - Why is the editor not working? I can't edit the original topic.

 

What do I model? Take a wild guess...

 

I protolance a ficticous modern transcon. Most recently I've had a layout set on the west coast. Previously midwest. Ultimately both. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and moved west, so it makes sense.

 

I model Northwest Texas from 1997-2003, give or take. More specifically BNSF's ex-BN, ex-Fort Worth & Denver line between Fort Worth, Amarillo, and the Texas-New Mexico state line.