brubakes
Member
I've always been a fan of the Nickel Plate and B&O. Both in the area of Medina, OH where my fake road would exsist.
1930s - 1940s
- Thread starter brubakes
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I've always been a fan of the Nickel Plate and B&O. Both in the area of Medina, OH where my fake road would exsist.
In my opinion a good freelance is a lot harder than a prototype. For a prototype you don't have to be creative, just do research and selectively compress what is there. For a freelance if the research isn't good enough some really kooky things can materialize on your layout or in the rolling stock. For freelance always start with a plausible (not whimsical) history and fill in the gaps.
If you don't you can find yourself like me with enough equipment to stock multiple layouts of different road names and still defininte choice of which one to follow. The more equipment one accumulates the harder it is to eliminate it when the "other" road is chosen.
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I've always been a fan of the Nickel Plate and B&O. Both in the area of Medina, OH where my fake road would exsist.
SpaceMouse
Fun Lover
Both are good. The colors are pretty similar until you get to desiel. Look through some pictures and pick one. I'd focus on the prototype until you got some good operations running. Then add in your freelance railroad. Spend your time working to get your layout working and having fun. Then when you are already running trains and working out kinks, you can start the work of creating your own railroad.
IMHO, you're main thoughts for now should be era, geographic location, and "prototypical or freelance". Many choose to do a combination of both prototypical and freelance, while many choose to loosely model prototypical. This is all up to YOU!
Prototypical does restrict you to model detail of a specific road and its operation. With freelance, you can do as your imagination guides you with fictitious towns, industries, scenery, operations and etc. Even with freelance, I would stick with roadnames for that general area modeled, e.g. Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, West. There is nothing wrong to have your own railroad name as well. Many of us do, mine taking the layout name of "Blue Creek & Warrior" (BC&W).
In summary, just take your time. If there is one road name that is certain to you now, then go with it first.
Prototypical does restrict you to model detail of a specific road and its operation. With freelance, you can do as your imagination guides you with fictitious towns, industries, scenery, operations and etc. Even with freelance, I would stick with roadnames for that general area modeled, e.g. Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, West. There is nothing wrong to have your own railroad name as well. Many of us do, mine taking the layout name of "Blue Creek & Warrior" (BC&W).
In summary, just take your time. If there is one road name that is certain to you now, then go with it first.
GandyDancer
Member
I agree with RexHea. Choosing these things early on in a modeling "career" will save a great deal of time, headaches, and mostly MONEY. If you find yourself waffling then so will the money one month for Pennsy next month for Santa Fe. Yipes, adds up quick.
In my opinion a good freelance is a lot harder than a prototype. For a prototype you don't have to be creative, just do research and selectively compress what is there. For a freelance if the research isn't good enough some really kooky things can materialize on your layout or in the rolling stock. For freelance always start with a plausible (not whimsical) history and fill in the gaps.
If you don't you can find yourself like me with enough equipment to stock multiple layouts of different road names and still defininte choice of which one to follow. The more equipment one accumulates the harder it is to eliminate it when the "other" road is chosen.
brubakes
Member
I've been doing more research and I am going to move up into the mid to late 50s. Seems like I will have more options all around for locomotives and rolling stock. There was a layout in Model Railroad's "Great Model Railroads 2008" special issue that came out not long ago that I really like. It's a transition railraod and I really like how it looked and what it had to offer. It's on page 74 if you have the issiue.
Maxitrains
Member
Modeling eras between 40's and 60's gives U a wider range of locos to use, at least from the little I learnt so far in this forum. I'll be trying to model the same eras, hopefully.
I'm mostly confused about buildings though, mainly because of my restricted space. I haven't got a clue of the sizes of such buildings, and mostly they give you only the footprint. As for the time being I'm more looking locally for styrene sheets, if I manage to find those it will be less problem for me to make buildings myself. Maybe they won't be as detailed as the ones bought, but I think they will be ok too
I'm mostly confused about buildings though, mainly because of my restricted space. I haven't got a clue of the sizes of such buildings, and mostly they give you only the footprint. As for the time being I'm more looking locally for styrene sheets, if I manage to find those it will be less problem for me to make buildings myself. Maybe they won't be as detailed as the ones bought, but I think they will be ok too
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