Rolling Stock and Mixing Eras


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
A quick question for the forum..."Who mixes rolling stock eras?"

I found that over the years I purchased rolling stock because that I either liked the road name, color theme or some other compelling reason to spend money. Soon I found that I have rolling stock from the 60's to mid-80's. I try to keep trains and their rolling stock and motive power in the same or close era.

I have a collection of late steam early diesel KD cars still in their boxes, never used. I like their details and appearances.

Who else has this problem and how do you handle it?

Thanks.

Greg
 
Greg, I tried, and succeeded in keeping all of my freight equipment correct for the era I am modeling. As the tracks were starting to go down, I had purchased quite a number of undecorated blue box kits. They were custom painted and I made sure that all of the box car date was correct. (can't see the markings now without a magnifier). As time progressed, I was very careful that everything was period correct. I have added Intermountain, Walthers, ConCor, Kedee and other cars over the years and I still have NOTHING too modern.

Lately I have picked up a few Kadee cars on Amazon. I really do like the details on them. I had picked up a covered hopper a few years back at a swap meet while visiting friends in Missouri and was Impressed with the Kadee cars. I did notice that the trucks are no longer sprung like their earlier offerings, but the detail is excellent.

Now, DOES IT MATTER ? To me it does, but most people visiting my layout wouldn't have a clue as most of them aren't into railroad history. They just want to see the train run.

Run what you like when you are by yourself, but if you have an open house or other model railroaders visit, you can always hide them away in a box, out of sight.

It's your railroad and you make the rules.
 
Echoing what Chet said, do what matters to you.

With respect to my approach, i try to stick closely and accurately to specifics of the era/area/railroad i picked. In order though to add some rolling stock / locomotives i like and that did not specifically appear in that region/era i need to have some plausible deviations from historical accuracy. For example the ATSF did not use E8m locomotives on the surfline in the mid sixties (with one exception if i remember/read correctly), yet i plan to use one for a fictional but yet plausible local train or a short version of the San-Diegan. On the flipside i will have to find a solution on building non-RTR appropriate/correct passenger cars and not use RTR ones that are not accurate for the era. So to cut a long story short, i guess it really depends on what one is willing to accept or not with respect to accuracy and where to draw the line.

I hope this helps
Yannis
 
I do more of an odd approach. I only collect John Deere branded rolling stock (ok maybe a few oddities that I really really like), but they made anything from steam to modern bullet trains which I have almost all of the "sets". And I like to run them all.

So here is what I do. I start in the cities. Thats where the modern stuff is. The bullet trains, the streamliner passenger cars ect. Then as it works its way out of the city towards the country branch lines, I start to add steam engines. To conjoin my branch lines with the mainlines I use diesels, of all eras and large Northerns and hopefully one day a couple big boys steamers.

Do I run 1950s box cars with modern container cars? Yes. Do I care? No. To me freight is freight.

Here is how I justify it all. As John Deere Locomotive came to power in the '50s they were building so fast that they had to gobble up any locomotive power available. They need cheap power, and as every other road was upgrading, JDL grabbed whatever they could on the cheap. The yard I need to build has a gigantic refurbishing shop, where they stripped down, rebranded and modernized internals of locos and freight cars alike. JDL also doesnt believe in throwing anything out. JDL also continues to run steamers (including a couple from the early 1900s) as there is a place for every type of motive power, even if all they do is pick up and drop off the morning milk supplies or mail. Besides in my fictional world, coal, wood, diesel, and electricity is cheap and plentiful. Thats why there are two coal mines, several timber companies, and miles of diesel tankers.
 
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All excellent philosophies here. It is a hobby, and it is meant to 'fulfill' you in some way. It's your time and money, and it's meant to appeal to you intellectually and emotionally. You call the shots.

Also, it depends on your priorities. Although it wasn't anything on my radar when I first joined the hobby upon retirement in 2005, before long I found I enjoyed taking photos and entering them into local contests. I realized that one possible objection would be that I was running modern AMTRAK cars in my post-war heavyweight consists. So, I decided I had to be more careful and more faithful to the prototype.

Mixing rolling stock from various roads in one consist is never a problem because there is leasing and also pass-through and trackage rights. It was not uncommon to see a Cotton Belt 40' box car in a NYC consist. That AMTRAK problem...that dog don't fly.

Finally, and this is my personal preference in the hobby, I like the nostalgia and the sentimentality that goes with the steam era. I first became fascinated with steam locomotives when I was a toddler in northern Ontario at the nickel mines. We're playing with toys, and some of us like more realism, and are less tolerant of foobies, than others. I prefer the sound-equipped DCC locomotives for that reason...more realism, even if the sound is tinny. Having realistic scenes and rolling stock, the kind that gets positive reviews in my photos, is important to me. It's like being there, back in the early 50's. I am less tolerant to having 50' box cars or modern hoppers in my 1955 consists behind a big steamer.

Actually, one more comment, and this might not be popular: if you aren't 'growing' in the hobby, or maybe 'evolving' is a better word, you're probably not going to be here long. Stasis in any human pursuit is a signal that you don't have a future in that pursuit. Unless you figure out a path where you like the scenery, so-to-speak, and then move consistently down that path, or find yet another path and move down that one (which is totally allowed under our 'rules'), you'll be looking for greener pastures ere long.
 
I model the Northen Pacific in 1953, so my locos and rolling stock has to be from 1953 or earlier. I guess I find being era specific to be fun, also. However, Like Chet above, I agree, it is your railroad, so do what you want!
 
ERA? Equal rights amendment?

I run a mixture of what I like to see on the rails. No, it is not prototypical, but I enjoy it.
 
Fazby beat me to the wise-guy answer, but here it goes anyway:

There are different eras? ;)

I should post a video of my "long" freight train going by and see if people can pick out just how many eras I have fit into one consist. As the Whistlestop Railroad grows, I'm sure that it's "period correctness" will grow a bit as well. For now, though, I'm running what I can because it's what I've got. I run a "modern" period, though a 4-6-4 Hudson does rumble down the tracks with the passenger excursion train from time to time. As like the local real world RR, just abut anything goes.
 
I follow the three-foot rule, i.e., if it looks "correct" from a 3-foot viewing distance, I'll run it. If somebody needs a magnifying glass to point out a too-late build date, well thats their problem not mine!:p

One thing I make sure of is that, since I model the B&O from late 1969 thru 1972, there are no Chessie or Conrail cars/locos on the layout. Same with train types that obviously did not exist in 1972, such as SD50's, fully enclosed auto racks and center-spine flatcars. And I try to keep my vehicle fleet accurate for that period, at least if they will be clearly visible in a photo. [Sometimes I may park newer models far in the background, partially obscuring them by random objects.]

My goal is to eventually shoot photos that look as close to "real" as possible, where build dates won't be visible.
 
Greg@mnrr said:
A quick question for the forum..."Who mixes rolling stock eras?"

Who else has this problem and how do you handle it?
Click to expand...
I have this problem in spades. No I don't mix rolling stock eras. My solution is going to be off layout storage.

At the club we had theme nights were we would specify era. All equipment that didn't fit the theme for that operating session would be parked in hidden staging or taken of and put in boxes under the layout. Another option is to keep "trains" pure within the train. The later is what the museum does on theme nights. For example on Agricultural Weekend there could be an artistic Canadian grain train, next to an ice hatch reefer PFE type strawberry special, meeting a fantasy John Deere 4-8-4 pulling a mixed freight from the late 1930's, and a 1950's GP powered UP stock. On the other side of the line was that one time a volunteer brought down their train that consisted of Santa Fe red war bonnet SDP40Fs pulling a short train with airslide hoppers, 40' box cars with roof walks, an 86' high cube box car, a set of enclosed articulated autoracks, and I don't remember what else. Looked like something straight out of Dr. Suess. Soon thereafter the museum director came up with a rule for volunteer trains. I don't remember the wording exactly it is something like practically plausible, or believable in reality. The only way it impacts me is that I can't take down the Broadway Limited with GG1s on the point because we don't have any catenary.

This topic starts skating the line between having our trains be a model of something (hopefully a railroad) vs being a collection of toy trains running around. I've seen even worse than eras get mixed up in the G-scale world. Models of different scales get coupled together just because they fit on the same track, so a narrow gauge turn of the century 2-6-0 (1:22 scale) can end up pulling a standard gauge 1970s 60' long UTLX tank car (1:29 scale).

A bigger problem isn't the trains as they can easily be hidden or removed. It is a harder thing to do with with scenery. I've seen articles of people who make scenes of different time periods that they can lift out and replace with a different one. Seems a whole lot of work.
 
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AND ...

It depends on how you define an era.

If you're using rolling stock that only runs from the 60's to the 80's --- that's all the same era. Most modelers determine a "cutoff date", and base their trains on that date. Rolling stock was kept in service as long as possible; until it was no longer cost effective to maintain or until the government mandated changes, usually for "safety" reasons. I've seen hopper cars built in the late 40's, rebuilt in the early 70's, running on a local shortline. In the 1980's, the Navy was still using truss rod flat cars on base to haul machinery from the interchange track to the ships under repair.

Then again, there's nothing stopping you from running the occasional "ultra modern" train. Most buildings have been around for multiple eras, so not much will seem out of place.
 
Even though I run what you might call the Transition Era (That time when you would see both Diesel & Steam on the rails working) with a cut off of 1953, For me this is the era I like to see, really don't care for modern era equipment, it just doesn't appeal. If I want to see modern stuff I can still see the real thing. When I fist got started, I had a couple high cube cars and coil cars. When/if you decide to be more era specific, Ebay and train shows will be your way to turn the cars you don't want into money for the cars you do. It is possible this will never happen; so, relax and enjoy the hobby!
 
My model railroad friends that I visit in Missouri have extremely large home layouts and their club also has a large layout. When they have an open house at the club, they might have modern equipment running one day, and then transition era equipment the next. Most of the older building fit right in with the modern era, but a number of modern buildings are really out of place for the transition era so they have built a number of buildings that exactly fit the footprint of the modern buildings. They will also change out the vehicles, which are on very good way to set the time period, along with changing billboards and other items that are out of pace. One year when I was operating during an open house, I heard many people commenting on the changes as they were told the previous day that there would be a change and they also had signs noting this. Quite a few people returned the second day of the open house to see the difference. This went over very well having many repeat visitors.

My friends layouts are pretty well set for the time period that they like and is kept that way. They have a few locomotives that they picked up so they can run any era at the club. Their club has a lot of freight equipment for just about anytime period so rolling stock is no problem.

I like NP2626 make sure that all locomotives and freight equipment is period correct. I think a little consolidation pulling modern auto racks would be a bit comical. I personally chose the transition era, 1957 to be exact because I grew up with relatives working on the railroad at that time and this brings back many good memories of the railroad.

Again, It's your railroad, you make the rules and you can run whatever you want.
 
From what I see at train shows, quite a few people like to mix era's and run whatever they feel like. It's so common that when I see a train where the modeler put together an era correct, even regionally correct train, I really enjoy watching those run since they are the exception rather than the rule - a real pleasure.

Since I had no place to build a layout for many years, much of my enjoyment came from trying to find models that would fit my modeling time frame. I have found in the past 5 or 6 years that I no longer want to model the post caboose era so I have been going through my collection and selling off late 1980's or post 1990 rolling stock. Like many I occasionally impulse buy and end up with a foobie, but I try to keep it to a minimum and they are usually era correct for me at least.

As it is, it's difficult to afford the models which fit my focus, so impulse buying or buying what looks cool to me is limited by finances.
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Obligatory ecumenical tag: it's your RR yada yada and you can put a bar of soap on flanged wheels if that's your thing.
 
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Not much more can be said that hasn't been said so far. I started out with little knowledge of eras other than basic what is old and modern. As I learned more I found I like different times for reasons each their own. I can't say I'm modeling a day and time like other have. I'm jealous that I can't just pick a time. Those modelers don't find themselves buying equipment from all times and that is a savings for sure.
With a 4 year old in the house I want to be able to show him all the different eras so he can learn as well. Maybe he will get a direction we will follow and it will narrow the era we run on the layout. We will see. Should that happen I will always model different times as I enjoy the model building and painting to much that I can't model just one time. I find one of the best parts is what I can learn from researching models. Like I've learned so much about my hometown and steel mills that I will one day have a grand mill layout. That's in the future for now but because of the desire to model a mill I've learned so much about the industry and home.

Remember, it's a hobby! ENJOY yourself.
Dave
 
I'm building a 50s era transition layout so I can run both Diesel and Steam. I will do my best to keep things in the era however if it deviates a little here and there, so be it. It's just not that important. My layout, my rules lol.
 
Kevin made an astute observation about the boundaries of an 'era'. There are generally and widely accepted definitions and criteria for the eras surrounding railroading, but there is some variance. While some American roads were fully dieselized by about 53/54 or even earlier, some kept full stables of active steam until late that decade. The two Canadian Class One railroads dropped 99% of their mainline steam by 58/59, with a few stragglers kept for shop steam and for road maintenance or yard switching. So the Canadian "transition era" would have run from about 1936 all the way to 1949 when CP ordered its last steamer. Phasing out steam entirely took another decade. That's a pretty long spread over which one can run steam of any kind, but if you want to be faithful to history, you couldn't have a later E8-unit model until 1949.
 
Selector said:
That's a pretty long spread over which one can run steam of any kind, but if you want to be faithful to history, you couldn't have a later E8-unit model until 1949.
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That is how my railroad kept getting younger and younger. Oh the EMC FT units didn't come out until 1941, move up the layout era clock to 1942, Oh wait the Alco PA's didn't come out until 1946, move up the clock, Oh the GP7 was 1949, move up the clock, Oh the Zephyr dome cars weren't until 1949 and other roads in 1954, Oh this paint scheme was etc.

Eventually one hits things where the earlier things on the list start dropping off and choices have to be made.

I could get all the way up to 1964 when the NP and GN FT locomotives were working in Pueblo Colorado. But by then obviously all steam was gone.
 
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