Your Timeframe: Specific Year, Decade?

tehachapifan Jul 9, 2007

  1. C. Giustra

    C. Giustra TrainBoard Member

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    I base mine on the paint schemes post-steam for my New England roads. For example, post-steam to pre-Guilford on my MEC, B&M and D&H. I am guessing that the time frame is 30-35 years, but it varies as I include connecting roads. For the CN everything is pre-North American scheme and for the CP nothing after the pac-man.
    This does two things for me. I get to run a few versions of paint schemes that would have overlapped as the roads repainted and it limits my spending on new locos and rolling stock.
     
  2. Chris333

    Chris333 TrainBoard Supporter

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    Anything before 1960!
     
  3. Chaya

    Chaya TrainBoard Supporter

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    By picking 1962 I suppose I could have limited my fun--but the story I chose allows me to run ATSF, GN, and NP motive power (and maybe some day even SP&S power), as well as model my favorite locations in both northern New Mexico and the Northwest. Ah, but how to fit in the occasional steam locomotive? I'll have the New Mexico Central, owners of the Chile Line, run the occasional steam engine & rebuilt passenger cars from Santa Fe to Gallina for tourists! After all, who doesn't want a little of the original experience? Even the boxcar station at Otero Bridge will be preserved...
    ;)
     
  4. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    I freelance a "geologically impossible shortline" set in 1963 in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks of Northern New York state.

    Feel free to have a look:
    http://www.irwinsjournal.com/wny

    Has this helped focus my accumulation of N Scale? Well... (where's the "I take the Fifth" emoticon?)
     
  5. Steve Brown

    Steve Brown Guest

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    Can't settle on a time frame so my layout has just almost like the real rails but anything that is still seviceable is found running on the rails. That is the beauty of this hobby.
    Steve
     
  6. John G. Adney

    John G. Adney Passed away May 19, 2010 In Memoriam

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    My layout period is 1960-75, though I allow a year or two each way to fit rolling stock or locos that don't fit the time frame completely but are close to it. That old modeler's license excuse. The original time frame was 1955-70.

    The benchwork is finished; I'm starting to lay track (been at it too long). My fictional railroad, the Iowa Midland, is a Midwest granger shortline, a subsidiary of the Milwaukee Road, which allows me to operate locos and cars of the railroad I grew up with. There are two towns on this small layout. I can't handle a train of more than eight cars because the caboose would be in one town, the engine in the other. There is a rural area for trains to run through but most of the operation involves switching. Both towns have industries. There'll be a lot of scenery opportunities. I'd like to have a larger layout, but not a huge one, but space problems persist. You know what I mean.

    The layout is going up in my home office. I need room for a desk, workbench, computer and printer (one day, a scanner), shelves, two filing cabinets, radio and a CD player. Fortunately, there's a large closet for storage.
     
  7. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    You said it! ;)
     
  8. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    On the surface, I'm officially locked in and incredibly disciplined and it is July, 1972, between Williams Jct. and Winslow, AZ. That's what the wall calendars say.

    The handy-dandy time machine has conveniently altered a few minor facts, like a couple CF7's that weren't done until 1980, the ocasional run of ATSF 4-8-4 3751 as a fantrip steamer, and RSD15's on the York Canyon unit coal train when they had just been phased out by the newly delivered SD39's, stuff like that. And a few other historic and scenic time warps that a true fan will spot.

    So its all a matter of degrees, me thinks. I may be more locked-in than most, but it's still not locked down THAT tight.
     
  9. Ottergoose

    Ottergoose TrainBoard Member

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    If it ran around the Twin Cities between 1990 and the present, I'm interested in it...

    I spent many hours watching trains with my dad in the early 90's along a BN line in Minneapolis, so I'm a sucker for cascade green EMD's... luckily there are still quite a few of those around.

    Once I've got the resources to put a layout together I suspect it will be based on Northfield, MN (where I grew up), at the junction of Soo Line, CNW and PGR (which would have actually happened if CNW had lasted about 10 more years). I'll also have to through BNSF in there for good measure... not sure how to justify that yet...

    How long before Kato or Atlas produces a PGR SD39 or SD38-2? There's a huge market for it ;-)
     
  10. Dave Vollmer

    Dave Vollmer TrainBoard Member

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    July 1956.
     
  11. Dave Hughes

    Dave Hughes TrainBoard Member

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    My last layout, and my new one as well was loosely set in the transition to modern era. I like to run lots of stuff so I try to keep my layout pretty generic. My Santa Fe Super Chief looks just as good on my layout as does my CSX and Conrail coal trains.
     
  12. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    The Super Chief looks good anywhere. :);)
     
  13. JKD

    JKD TrainBoard Member

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    I'm setting a 2005+ era as what I'm modeling for my Milwaukee Road in the 21st Century. In my world, the beloved Milwaukee (for which my grandfather and father both worked) never ceased to exist and is still going strong with new power (and some old favorites).

    My wife... well, she has a "food train". If the car has a food advertisement on the side, is made to carry food, or is related to food, it'll be pulled on her train. That one has no timeframe. 8)
     
  14. BnOEngrRick

    BnOEngrRick TrainBoard Member

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    Late 1970s/early 1980s. Chessie era before CSX and before the caboose disappeared. I bend the timeframe a little because there are a couple freight cars I like that are a little too modern for my era.

    When I was going to do an HO layout, it was going to be Western Maryland 1974, when they had 117 diesels, including all 42 F units still running.
     
  15. pdx1955

    pdx1955 TrainBoard Member

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    Over the years I have gone backwards as new products made it possible to do so plus I like doing the historical research. Fifteen years ago I was looking at the early 70's or so but what I wanted was tunnel motors, GP40-2's,etc to complete the rosters - I gave up and went into the late 60's. If I started today the outcome probably would have been different as I would be able to better model what I saw growing up. The current layout is set in 1955 based on all of the research that I have done to date although I do have enough equipment to run a session in the late 40's.

    Peter
     
  16. SteamDonkey74

    SteamDonkey74 TrainBoard Supporter

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    I am focusing more on a location than a specific timeframe. I keep changing my mind, but right now I think I am focused on the old SP&S line from Portland to Astoria with other chunks of the lines PNWR/WPRR currently operates. Most of their lines are former BN or SP lines.

    This ties in quite nicely to several of my interests:

    I like BN

    I miss the SP something terrible

    I can model timber related operations, etc., and have it be prototypical

    I love some of the quirky bridges and buildings you get with the SP&S line

    There's lots of opportunities for expansion - just add on more modules and more branchlines.

    I can run, while still being sort of prototypical, just about everything I would like to see. I love the PNWR locos, which are a mix of GWI-schemed repaints and also rattle-canned over ATSF locos and others. I can also run SP and BN and BNSF to my heart's content. I can sort of run Amtrak and be prototypically correct, and I love the F40PH's. Some day I will get a couple of undecorated RDC's and do them up like the Lewis and Clark Explorer Train. I can run the 4449 since it runs on tracks around Portland now and then. If I get real nuts, I can start modifying Shays into Willamette locomotives (which were basically Shay knockoffs) and run a first-half-of-the-20th-century logging operation somewhere on the layout.

    Lots of possibilities.

    These are always fun topics.

    Adam
     
  17. ATSFCLIFF

    ATSFCLIFF TrainBoard Member

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    My layout is freelanced and I love diesels. I run anything from the early diesel era to the present depending on my mood. Running the F3's and E8's can be fun too.
    Cheers,
     
  18. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    "If it Looks Good - Run It!"

    This image sorta says it all:
    [​IMG]
     
  19. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    Mid-1970s, with a stretch to late 1977 to justify my running B30-7s (which arrived on Frisco in that year). That way I can also run GP7s, U25Bs and GP38ACs together as well. This does limit the cars I can run, but it allows me to do my homework and stay as faithful to the time frame as possible. If I get something that may be a little newer, and looks close to what could exist, it runs.
     
  20. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Basically I model the mid-50s. But I'm not too strict about it. As long as it's not too far out of place, it works for me.
     

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