My Jamestown, Westfield and NorthWestern is set in 1962-63. The all Alco road has just taken delivery of two RS-36 road switchers. 27-28. This completes a four unit order that included RS-32's 25 and 26. I'll have to bump it up a year or two when the C-420's come out.
I'm limiting myself to modeling a specific, 43 mile long stretch of the NKP's Peoria Division between Peoria and Bloomington, Illinois, between mid June and mid July 1950. Choosing a specific location isn't all that unusual, but modeling a specific 30 day period is. I really didn't want to model 1950. I actually wanted to model 1944 or 1945. But I wanted to run an occasional NKP Berkshire, which didn't show up on the division until after mid-1949 when two key bridges were strengthened and more Berks were delivered to the railroads. I want to run NKP passenger trains, which means that I have to model before 7/1/51. Finally, there was a key interchange with the TP&W just east of Peoria that I needed to model, as the line received almost 1/5 of their eastbounds from the interchange (10,000+ cars a year). But in July 1950 the Corp of Engineers built a flyover where the diamond was and moved the interchange 10 miles west. June and July 1950 was the only time that both the interlocking and flyover were in place at the same time. During that transition, the TP&W and ATSF routed on the NKP line between Farmdale and East Peoria. Finally, to include some TP&W steam meant that I had to model before 10/50. Once you dig into a prototype that you want to model, and know what you specifically like about that prototype, a specific date to model sort of chooses itself...
I am also modeling a small time frame from 1950. My interest is the Boston and Maine around the Woodsville, NH area. I chose 1950 because of certain locomotives that the B&M and connecting railroads were using by then. I wanted to model it during the summer of that year due to some extra trains that only ran in the summer months. As my research provided more and more details, I was able to narrow it down to July of that year. Duane Goodman
Once I get my layout going... I would like to model 1980's-present... nothing is set in stone yet. Cheers,
I primarily model BNSF from 1997-2001. My focus is early/mid 1999, though, and most of my roster reflects the "snapshot" of BNSF at the time. Currently, though, I am building a small layout based on the Trinity Railway Express set in a slightly later timeframe, 2002-2003. Naturally most of the rolling stock still works for "a few years later" and the only new items introduced would be the TRE rolling stock.
I saw the announcement on the upcoming Atlas HO C420s- the Arkansas & Missouri fans are slobbering all themselves in joyous anticipation (they use mostly C420s for road power). Better get yours before the A&M fans snap 'em up........ BTW, my late Oklahoma & North Eastern had 4 RS3s, and RS1 and an S2 for motive power. Gotta love them Alcos.......
I'm modeling a fictitious, present-day, short-line that collects and uses old steamers and diesels for small industry and passenger excursions. Basically... it lets me run whatever I can get my hands on !
I subscribe to Andy Sperandeo's quote: "Mine is trues form of nostalgia: The fond memory of something never experienced." Therefore I model "between the wars" when steam (and trains for that matter) was king. Not many "infernal combustion" engines, except maybe a doodlebug or an "old" Model T Andrew
My last layout was 1963, but my new pike will be set in the fall of 1971. I was interested in moving up to second generation road power, the new yellow swoop ATSF logo, and I really like this time frame for the beat-up-big-time railroading era that it was.
I still take the entire post war era: 40's in Nevada (Rio Grande, HO), 50's/60's in Connecticut (New Haven, N) and 70's in the Midwest (Rock Island, N). After the 70's, the diesels are too big and the companies too few....
Taking great pains in the planning of my layout to have industries and situations that are appropriate for any time period so that switching from one to another is a simple matter of switching rolling stock and non-railroad vehicles on the layout.
My old HO layouts were both generic 1880s/1890s Colorado. The N scale was 1950s New Mexico (this one is about to have a come back ), the G scale was generic 1800s, and the current On30 is Colorado in the fall of 1899. John
Interesting discussion. It would be cool to have a poll on this. More interesting would be to compare a modellers age and scale of layout and see if there is any difference between the scales. I'd wager as a percentage of modellers in any particular scale, there would be more HO modellers doing steam era's than N scale. My layout is N scale mid 1960's to 70's. My HO scale switching layout is steam only for now. I will have to dig out a link for this so I may not have my numbers right. European modellers have a system for describing their era:I,II,III,IV,V. V being the modern era. Sometimes modellers describe themselves as between era's or combining two eras so Perhaps III/IV would be a sixties seventies layout. -------------------- Ok I found this on the web. I am not sure if it is correct. Era I 1870-1920 Era II 1920-45 Era III 1945-70 Era IV 1968-85 Era V 1985-? I'm not sure how they came up with their system. I suspect pre and post war industrialization has something to do with it. In the US we would have to have a different scheme, but I find it very useful when looking at models on ebay or even manufacturer sites because they tell you what the products time period is.
Time frame? Completely generic. Any RR, any time. Mainly modern diesels for freight and steam for passenger. Any name and type for freight cars, Overland and heavyweight for passenger. Small town, open country with low hills, a couple of general industries, a freight transfer warehouse and a small storage yard with a car rack unloading spur. Basically the TransCanada Railroad runs any equipment they can get their hands on, and I run whatever I feel like running at any particular time. Much more flexible and fun that way. Dual track everywhere except the yard. Two separate loops, one for passenger and one for freight. Dave. P.S. Nscale on two doors.
I am not sure either why some decisions have been made, but in Europe we measure everything in prewar and postwar: WWI marks the final end of (most) privately owned railroads and the start of national RR companies, and WWII marks the rebuilding of the heavily damaged railroad networks. I do not know why they drew a line in 1970 and 1985. It is very difficult to have a generic system for the whole of Europe, since government policies are different from country to country. Maybe the type of equipment was the reason for these lines?
I've always wanted to be able to incorporate my favorite railroads: Erie, Erie Lackawanna, Pennsy, Penn Central, Jersey Central, New York Central, and Conrail. So my layout would be between the 50's and the 90's. Scott
Time Frame The layout here is a shelf layout around all four walls of a room thirteen feet square. The shelf is sixteen inches deep and four feet off the floor. The layout is set in the 1970-80 time frame on a ficticious SP line. Previously it was the year 1957 with Tigre Striped switchers, Black Widow Road units and Daylight Passenger power all first generation.
