Determining the era of your layout

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Necrosaro420

Member
When determining what type of layout you are going to do, do you determine the era, or determine the line? I googled model railroad eras, and it seems like there is only several, and one of them spanned like 50 years...so I assume you pick a line?
 
I am modelling the 70s and 80s simply because most of the engines I have I bought back in the early 80s. I intended on modelling CN and CP only but after doing some research and finding out how many US roads CN and CP own, my scope has expanded to include such roads as Soo and Ontario Norhtland. Oh yea, a few CSX SD40-2s and a Blueline N&W Class A 2-6-6-4 have sneaked into my roster as well. :D

So, model what you like. Even if things don't always seem to "fit" together.;)
 
Well, I first picked my railroad, the Frisco, then picked an era. I believe the most popular era for about any railroad is the "transition" era where lines were switching from steam to diesel. Modern day is also popular. For the Frisco another popular era is the 70's. I model the late 70's, or about 77-79. I have recently started having extra railroads via interchange.
 


I couldn't decide between diesels or steam.....so I chose transition era so I could do both. Then for my railroad I chose one that covered where I grew up, AND where I live now......The Milwaukee Road....here in south central Montana there are still a lot of "leftovers" from the Milwaukee....frieght depots,passenger stations, booster stations from the electric line, old roadbed. And I grew up just a few blocks fom the second largest maintenance shop in the Milwaukee system at Sioux City,IA. My earliest memories of trains are of the Milwaukee Road.
 
to me the first "transition" era way over done.

I'm kinda a hybrid modeler from the 70s-today depending on my mood. But once I build a new layout I'm going to model the second "transition" era ie the mid 70s-the mid 80s. Where railroad went from box cars and coal to intermodel and auto racks along with the end of cabooses on trains. Tons of cool power from all the builders, dogs breakfast lash ups from different roads the first round of mega mergers all in all a great time to model IMO
 
Do what seems most reasonable. For example, it doesn't have to be just one era...you can have removable structures and some lineside details so that you can run transition era stuff or modern 1999 stuff.

But, true, to keep a simple and focused look to a layout, it helps to identify first a railroad (or the terrain if the modelling challenges are just too much to resist), and then figure out what ran there and where and what the structures and other elements should be.

Looking over your shoulders never hurts, either. Build that nice layout and then find that the only engines you can get are brass ones, well-used, costing $400 and up. Oooooppppssss...! Maybe keep an eye on market availability of the typical rolling stock, model kits, and so on if you aren't much of a scratchbuilder of these things...or don't have the time to do them.

-Crandell
 
i model bn bnsf and sf because i grew up (still am) seeing every morning a bnsf coal drag rollin trough the springs on the wat to school but i like sd diesels rather than aces and the likes so i crossed what i kno and wat im used to
 
I remembered the last part of my earlier post that I will add. Although I model late 70's Frisco, I have a soft spot for steamers. I do have one, but it doesn't have tender pickup so it stops and starts a lot. Its made by Athearn Genesis, but I have an IHC I can rob parts off of. SO I am no were near prototypical, made up branch line, steamer in the late 70's, but I think it is fun because I'm not worrying weather every thing is specific to the last tiny detail, but I don't like stuff that looks horrible. Basically I don't care a whole lot about the super detailing but the major details can be important to me.
 
Amtrak

Well I choose from 1981 thru 2002 when the EMD F40's was still in there Hey-day. Also that way I can still run the UAT TurboTrain and also test the LRC train sets. Also I can run the GE Dash 8-32BWH and also a P40 here and there on the Autotrain.
 
I run the era I grew up in, in the town I grew up in. ICG and SOU, roughly 1980-1989. I do have some GM&O units that I will run, as well as Amtrak (F40PH on the Crescent). I don't remember seeing the NS painted units until after 1990, but since SOU is a predecessor railroad to the NS, I have NS equipment too. I have IC pre-CN days, and am roughly cutting off the absolute time to 1995 or so, when ditch lights weren't on all locomotives.

Most of my rolling stock are boxcars, covered hoppers, tank cars, piggyback flats, gons, and pulpwood/woodchip type cars, with the occasional well car or autorack. If I ever join a local club, I'll have some more recent stuff to run too.

I have some UP, SP, SSW, BN/BNSF/ATSF stuff too, because I was buying before planning, and it's always cool to have some newer stuff.
 


Frisco's_Iantha_Branch said:
Well, I first picked my railroad, the Frisco, then picked an era. I believe the most popular era for about any railroad is the "transition" era where lines were switching from steam to diesel. Modern day is also popular. For the Frisco another popular era is the 70's. I model the late 70's, or about 77-79. I have recently started having extra railroads via interchange.
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Thanks. Im not really looking for anything modern. More older style, but not so old that it looks like it sfrom the 30's or nothing. What years were considered the transition period?
 
I am literally starting over from nearly nothing (I had lumber, foam, and generic scenic materials like flock), so it was fairly easy.

I took my favorite locomotives I want to run, figured out what time frame it would have been that they all could have been seen together (which actually ended up being a nearly 20 year span), and let that dictate everything else (rolling stock choices, scenery, etc). This has actually really helped me focus my collecting and thus keep my spending in check and purchases limited to kits and things I will actually use on my layout vs giving into impulse buys.
 
I like D&RGW ... and I'm not a prototypical kind of guy. If it's a loco or car I like, it'll go on my layout. I just enjoy watching the trains go around, playing with the sounds, and having something to work on and play with.
 
Necrosaro420 said:
Thanks. Im not really looking for anything modern. More older style, but not so old that it looks like it sfrom the 30's or nothing. What years were considered the transition period?
Click to expand...

It varies by the railroad. Some lines started dieselizing from the late 40's like around 1948 and some started in the 50's.
But this known fact the last steamer to run in the u.s was the FRISCO line I belive early 50's was they last run. Santa Fe as well was fully dieselize within the early 50's. UNION PACIFIC was fully dieselize by 1949.
 
Frisco's_Iantha_Branch said:
I remembered the last part of my earlier post that I will add. Although I model late 70's Frisco, I have a soft spot for steamers. I do have one, but it doesn't have tender pickup so it stops and starts a lot. Its made by Athearn Genesis, but I have an IHC I can rob parts off of. SO I am no were near prototypical, made up branch line, steamer in the late 70's, but I think it is fun because I'm not worrying weather every thing is specific to the last tiny detail, but I don't like stuff that looks horrible. Basically I don't care a whole lot about the super detailing but the major details can be important to me.
Click to expand...

I have a couple of old steamers that I got running very well by adding tender pick up trucks I bought from Athearn, the ones they use for their 0-8-0 and adding wipers to the engines wheels. I think the trucks were around 15 bucks or so and were a perfect match.
Here's the Athearn.

trains018.jpg


Here's the MDC.
trains005-1.jpg

I also added wipers to an old Riverossi challenger which never ran on DCC and now it's so good, I'm adding a sound decoder to it.

Dick
 
LATX said:
But this known fact the last steamer to run in the u.s was the FRISCO line I belive early 50's was they last run.
Click to expand...

Well, the Frisco transition era started in 48 with the Baldwin VO660 and 1000, then the steam finally was in 52 with a 2-8-2 mike. I think Santa Fe had steam last longer than that.
 
Sorry fellows, but the Norfolk and Western was the last major railroad to convert...1960.

Another thing to consider: Diesels started coming into operation in the 1930's, mostly passenger and switching because of lower H-power. There is plenty of time span for combining steam with diesel on your layout. There was a steamer operating at our local coke plant until the 70's...only for switching the yard, of course, and probably for sentimental reasons ;).
 
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flyboy2610 said:
If my aging memory serves me correctly, UP ran revenue steam into 1959.
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Classic trains maginzine put UP first in diesealizing from 1949 and Santa Fe did end in the early 50's due to there last new class of 2-10-2's was regulated to helper service and then in 1952 or 3 not sure(when I go home from work I will look It up) was finally scrapped or sold off.( Sanata Fe info is used from Model Railroader Maginize series of "choosing the right locomotives" I do not I repeat do not use this information of my own thanks)
 
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