What are you modeling, and why?

[mushroom2]

Ed,

Who made those Pennsy engines on that layout? They look really nice.

Those are Bachmann Spectrum K4's.

 

[CBCNSfan]

What am I Modeling? Really! I have no idea
Well I guess the CB&CNS locomotives that they started with and even then some of them will be my own idea. ( like the ones they bought for parts ( CN Livery) will be operational on my layout in CB&CNS Livery). The rest will be fictitious based on what might have been if the CB&CNS had existed in the 60's and 70's. Towns and places may be named after existing locations and some may not. For example, the yard at Little Harbour is fictitous, little Harbour is not. Thorburn was a coal mining community and is located on a hill elevated well above Little Harbour. I have no idea of what Thorburn looked like in those days, so that area will also be fictitous. No matter what I decide to call an area, operation will be the same. The mainline is Loop to Loop, inbound and outbound revenue cars will be shunted in the Little Harbour yard. The main basis for the RR Spurs, are the coal mine and the Power Plant Trains, ( Loads out, empties in ) and Freight service on the spur lines with set outs and pick ups along the way. So all in all, the main operating will be on the spur lines and interchanging with the mainline trains
Well now if I haven't made a mess of explaining my mess, then Hopefully that's the way it'll be Willis

 

[AmtrakFan]

I model any thing BN and Amtrak because I grew up with the BN when I 1st Started liking Trains and Amtrak is due to my Interestit in Passenger Rail I remember when Amtrak ran the CZ/Desert Wind and Pioneer or Eveywhere West all in 1 Train out of Chicago also with the BN I still have memories of the SD40-2 lugging 14K Ton Unit Coal Trains and pulling the Chicago to Seattle Stackers. I miss the BN

AmtrakFan

 

[galt904]

As my first post, I'll tell you what I'm going to model. I'm going to do Canadian Pacific in SW Ontario, specifically the Galt & St Thomas subs in the Woodstock area, since that's what I've seen and been interested in since moving to the Woodstock area several years ago. I have an upstairs room that's about 14' x 16', doing a ~24" wide shelf all around the room, and I have my wife's full approval and encouragement to boot! Oh, and as for time frame to model, it will be roughly current to CP's practices.

 

[CBCNSfan]

Hi galt904, welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a wonderful and understanding wife. I hope you will keep us posted on your progress with your layout.

a ~24" wide shelf all around the room

Do you plan a duckunder or a gate for entry to the center area?

Cheers Willis

 

[Dick H]

Keikyu?

...My plan is going to be a rough (very rough) general representation of a major metro area centered around a large station (possibly JR Shinjuku-Eki) in Tokyo...

How about Keikyu? I wish I had the time and space to model the area between Kanazawa Bunko and Kanazawa Hakkei. That's a varied and interesting spot with the Tokyu Car Co. and its dual-gauge trackage, the big Keikyu Shako and the Kanazawa Seaside Line guideway. All sorts of unusual things right in your own back yard.

 

[galt904]

Do you plan a duckunder or a gate for entry to the center area?

No duckunders. My wife didn't like them when we went on a model RR tour and she was 8 months pregnant. So I'll have a bridge by the door to the room that can be lifted up (or removed completely) when someone goes to enter the room, since this room will also be the guest room. Now I have to work on my track plan and get some feedback on it. My goal this winter is to build the benchwork and get the Galt sub mainline operational.

 

[texon30]

Texas On30 moduar layout

Hi, It all started with the BachMann On30 Shay .Being a member of the On30Conspiracy [a Yahoo e-mail group].Upon getting my Shay..I posted the question How many ppl in the Dallas/FtWorth area had the Shay,and the Texas OutLaws were born.We model narrow gauge set in Texas.btw Texas has a rich History of Narrow rails.We have no formal rules,no dues,no money...just fun with trains.The modules are memeber owned and built to normal 2'x4' size [length is not set in stone],track 6" from the "front edge",we do not have a background board.Trains run on DC.DCC and radio control.
We have set up[very little notice]at the FtWorth show last year and Plano show .We are planing on doing the same this year.Oh I must say that the modules are built out of 2" of blue foam.No plywood under the foam.Just as lightweight as possable.
Come visit us at ocmodsTexas@yahoogroups

Play with trains and have fun.

Craig
List owner DFW,Texas

 

[CBCNSfan]

Hi texon30, and welcome. Sounds like you have a fun group. Do you have any photos of the modules? It's easy to upload here if you have some and we like looking at photos.

Cheers Willis

 

[texon30]

pidture

Here are two Shays one DCC the other R/C at our mega meet this summer.You can find more photo's in Light Iron Digest this month.

Craig
DFW

 

[GrumpyGerman]

I have four layouts:

1) Jura-Simplon-Lines: Märklin H0, Swiss locos and rolling stock, alpine landscape. AC
power on track, DC on catenary. Time period: 1970/80's, size: 12 x 9 ft. Not
worked on or run since about 1999...

2) MainstreetUSA modules: H0 DC, set in the Midwest, time period: 1970/80's
(3 modules leftover from 33ft. long layout)

3) Black Forest & Pacific RR: H0 DC, freelance layout set in the Northwest, with
Milwaukee Road and early BN power, track 60% done, no scenery, no buildings,
along the walls layout in my former dining room. Size: approx. 13 x 8 ft. Not been
worked on for a long time also...

4) Arizona Central: H0 AC and DC on Märklin C track, specially wired for mixed AC/DC
operation, southwestern scenery, serving a copper (or whatever) mine and a
smelter, using a Rivarossi Heisler and a Atlas Alco S-2 with ore jennies and an old
combine. To get the visitors at trainshows all worked up, I can also run Marklin
trains on this little layout, size: 8 x 3 5/8 ft. Time period: Early sixties.
I still work on this layout and I've taken it to a number of trainshows, more to come.

Thats it.
Martin

 

[CBCNSfan]

Well texon30 , that wetted the appitite for a few more, I'm kind of taken by the riverboat, is it scratch built? Also do you have some larger photos of the Shays ( I believe?) one of them looks nicely weathered

Cheers Willis

 

[RCH]

Where in the D/FW area are you guys, Texon30? I'm NE of Fort Worth, but strictly an HO modeler...

Still, I'd love to see what you guys have going on.

 

[texon30]

where

Rich,

As luck would have it Sat.Sep 25th we are having our Monthly meeting.We will be at HobbyTownUSA Dallas[75[central expressway] and Walnut Hill].Who knows the On30 bug might bite you as well.

Craig

 

[texon30]

Well texon30 , that wetted the appitite for a few more, I'm kind of taken by the riverboat, is it scratch built? Also do you have some larger photos of the Shays ( I believe?) one of them looks nicely weathered

Cheers Willis

The river boat is a kit.........Not at this time but I figure after Sat.I will have.The weathered Shay is the R/C one.As of yet I have not had the heart to weather mine........

Craig
ps I will also get info on the river boat kit......

 

[CBCNSfan]

As of yet I have not had the heart to weather mine........

yah I know what you mean, but weathering looks nice, my problem is I'm afraid of making a mess of it.
Do you know the make of the riverboat kit?
I'll be looking forward to some more pics.
Cheere from

Willis

 

[SuperbirdVHble]

The layout is a joint effort between my dad and I. The railroad we model mostly is the Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad located in Western Pennsylvania, with operations in and around Greenville, PA. However he has a lot PRR and I have some CR stuff too. Why did I pick the B&LE? Very simple, I grew up and still live about 4 houses away from the tracks. Until very recently I had a problem finding any of the B&LE engines I was looking for (SD18s, SD38-2s, SD38ACs, and SD40T-3s), and since I am not a painter I was out of luck. However over the summer I found a guy in the Pittsburgh that happens to re-paints into the B&LE scheme. (Currently have B&LE SD38-2 873 awaiting some running mates that will be picked up this November)
The layout itself is about 12x9 and is around the walls. All the scenery, track, ballast, yards, shops, towns, etc is put up and taken down every year and the following year it is set up differently, sometimes based of something real and sometimes not. This year however, I found out I wasnt the only person in senior high that enjoys trains, this person's favorite railroad is also the B&LE so he is helping with this years layout too. We just got the benchwork up last weekend so I will have pics when we get farther along with it.

 

[CBCNSfan]

Hi SuperbirdVHble, strange, very strange but I've heard of the Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad, somewhere at sometime and why I have no idea. Must be a lot of work putting it up and taking it down, setting up a bit different is ok. Be looking forward to some photos of it, SOON I hope.
Cheers Willis

 

[Russian]

Hi SuperbirdVHble, strange, very strange but I've heard of the Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad, somewhere at sometime and why I have no idea. Must be a lot of work putting it up and taking it down, setting up a bit different is ok. Be looking forward to some photos of it, SOON I hope.
Cheers Willis

I've caught their unit running through Winnipeg twice on the CN mainline. Made a lot of railfans exited including me, since she's a beauty!
http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/showgallery.php?cat=all&si=SD40T-3
(first 3 pictures are mine)

As for I'm modeing, for now its a CN/CP town where the RR's interchange and serve a couple local industries.
With time the town should get a small VIA train as well.

Era? I would say 70's-now, no set era really. Modern rolling stock, but with cabooses and F units on trains.

As for why? I lived in Winnipeg for 8 years and liked the RR scene, so I'm modelling it. Strangely enough, exept for the rolling stock, I'll largely be modeling CN/CP/VIA, some of which was extinct before I was even born!

Stuff like cabooses, blue colored VIA cars, etc.

 

[SDP45]

I would like to model the Great Northern Mansfield Branch. I would have the main running along the Columbia River, with the branch taking off back above the main, climbing higher until turning back to follow Douglas Creek for the trip up the imposing Moses Coulee. The draw is the 2.2% grade as the line climbs out of the coulee onto the backside of the plateau behind Badger Mountain. There was a wooden tunnel on the line (since collapsed) that must be modelled, along with lots of trestles as the line kept recrossing the creek. Once level ground was reached, it would be wheatfields for the remainder of the line. Most of the traffic was wheat in 40 foot boxcars, as the track could not handle anything heavier. Near the beginning of the line, there was a large fruit shipper, so reefer traffic was heavy in season. Up until the 50s, there was passenger service, with the last passenger trains actually being mixed trains. Power in GN and early BN days was usually 2 dynamic brake equipped GP9s, though the last train on the branch in 1985 was with GP39-2s. There was another railroad that branched off at a station called Douglas. It was the 5 mile Waterville Railroad. It ran with borrowed rail for its entire existance, as the developer had a close relationship with Jim Hill when the Waterville was built. It ran with a former GN steamer. Its last day was around WWII (I think), when a lot of washouts closed the Waterville.

I had a chance to walk part of the branch, including through the tunnel, back in 1985, after abandonment and before the rail was lifted. I have never seen a train on the branch, but with the dramatic scenery, and the contrasts between wheat fields and Moses Coulee, I was hooked.

Someday...