My problem....What's the best way to model the "Broadway Limited" a GS-4 pulled Daylight and Amtrak's "Empire Builder" on the same layout.
My area is 12' by 24' plenty of room for a nice size passenger station and..........
Any suggestions??
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As for your question...
Option 1) The simple approach. It's my model railroad, and I'll do whatever I want. If that means having the Broadway Limited take the siding for the Southern Pacific Daylight, so be it! You can play it off as them being historical excursions, or you can simply say "I don't care, I just want to enjoy my trains". Either way works. Hikers like to say "Hike your own hike" meaning you don't have to do what everyone else does. The same applies here.
Option 2) Create a "generic" scene with a few interchangeable elements. Put in some staging tracks and create a scene with some gently rolling hills. Could be Pennsylvania, could be west of Chicago, could be California. Granted, the mountains look different in those places, but rolling hills are rolling hills. Create a station scene for a moderate sized town. Use a generic depot. Smaller depots tend to be railroad specific, and easily recognizable. But you say you have some room for a nice sized station.
Walther's Union Depot would fit the bill perfectly. It could be in any small city. (I'm sure that's why they picked the design) and any era, right up to modern times.
Build that and a classic town and you have a generic stage to run you trains on. Run PRR one week and Southern Pacific the next.
Want to go "above and beyond" create some signs you can easily swap out for the station, and have a few structures that sit on pads you remove and replace. The classic filling station becomes a 7-11 and the old school drive up burger place becomes a McDonalds. Change out the cars and maybe a billboard or two, and you've established the era.
By thinking of the railroad as a stage set, and making it generic, you can do a wide variety of trains and eras.