Is your layout prototypical or free lance?

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davidone

Well-Known Member
I like and run the items I like. For instance I like military themed locomotives that have been built or celebration of their history like the UP, CSX, CP and others. The layout itself is generic and no particular place. Its a show off of my locomotive collection and freight cars. I admit my way of building a layout is not for everyone but it makes me happy and it reminds me of my career.
I love seeing the paint schemes that railroads chose to celebrate their past, Some have done very well like the UP, others not so much, CSX. Beings I spent time in the military they are very important to me. The CP did a outstanding job on the celebration of the military, well done. Some of the fantasy military schemes are also well done like the ones celebrating one part of the military, ie Air Force etc.

How do build your layout, prototypical, combination of proto, fantasy or something else? I am enjoying what I do how about you?

Dave
 
Totally freelanced n scale layout here in Sacramento. I too enjoy the layout planning, building and scenicing aspects of the hobby, but at the end of the day I like to run trains and watch them run. My layout generally represents northern Illinois in the Chicago area where I grew up, say 1977 to the present. For example, the Clark oil refinery that burned down in 1986 still makes gasoline, White Castle is now in the far, far western exburbs, almost to Rockford, and the 16th Street tower soldiers on. The layout has been known to be visited by, in no particular order, BNSF, BN, CSX, UP, old Santa Fe, Rock Island, Milwaukee Road, and even an Alaska 70MAC or 2. The UP Big Boy makes regular appearances.

I jumped back into this hobby 4 years ago after nothing for 40 years, and a Lionel in 1955. I joined NMRA, even went to the last national in Long Beach, but in almost every interaction I had with that organization I was told I needed to get involved in operations. And that's fine. But I'm 78 now, still active in the hobby and otherwise, and I should know what I like, right? So no longer an NMRA member. And at the end of the day, it is my model railroad, MY BS&T and $.

I have observed long trains of flats hauling military gear (tanks, tracked vehicles, etc) in Roseville, CA on numerous occasions. Not sure where they are headed, somewhere east of here.

Best of luck to you with your layout. Ron
 
Mine is totally freelance. I didnt even have a track plan on CAD or paper. I just started laying flex track where I thought it should go.

Some of my industries have no rhyme nor reason to be where they are, but I don't care. Its what I wanted to model. I do try to stay close with rolling stock and locomotives to the present day, but I have some stuff that would of been scrapped years ago.
 


Mine is HO scale with predominantly prototypical industries and track configuration, compressed to fit my available space. 95% of the locomotives and rolling stock are era specific, pre 1940. I noticed a couple 1941 reefers and box cars, but all the locos line up. One diesel, the S-1, came out in 1939, and that is when NP put it into service, however mine is painted for my private line. The main industries are the Sandstone Quarry, Feed mill, Crex grass rugs warehouses (in Wyoming MN and Grantsburg WI), Potato Warehouse, and Logging and Lumbering (fantasy sawmill design). I have room in one of the towns for something else, maybe two more things.

I am following photographs and track plans from the locations I am modelling, I find design much simpler when there is a photograph to go by.

The Northern Pacific track from Wyoming MN to Rutledge, MN, selecting a few of the towns and sites of interest, is featured.

I grew up and reside in this stretch of road and enjoy reading about and studying the local history. My Great Grandfather homesteaded here in 1854.

Dave LASM
 
I am "protolance" also. While all of my engines and freight cars fit into my specific era of 1978-1995, no towns or other layout aspects resemble anything real. All industries are made up by me. Some of the structures are modeled after the real thing. The Atlas kit "Middlesex Manufacturing" for example, is a real structure, but it is on my "flatlands USA" layout instead of in NJ.
 
Thanks guys, I neglected to mention my scale is ho but those with N scale is also welcome to respond. I also have been banned from a couple of groups because I don't do operations or not strict to one railroad. As the first guy said that being 78 he does what he wants and myself it was that exact thought when I joined the NMRA all those years ago and left almost immediately. I'm also 78 and I run my layouts like I always have.
After all running trains is supposed to be fun and fun I am having with how I do it.
There are a few guys who have larger layouts and once a month we get together to run trains. No rules, no exceptions on what you can run, just fun and eating and alot of talking.
 
It will be Fantasy.

Upper level will be Conrail based on a proto-freelance route. What if... Conrail had a diagonal from Fort Wayne IN to Elkhart that didn't run through Warsaw and make a right angle to get to Elkhart.

Lower level will be a free for all. You'll see dwarves and elves, American civil war soldiers, maybe a dragon or three. On either level.
 
The lower standard gauge main lines are freelanced DB tracks with ÖBB, SBB, and EBS track rights located in southern Bayern and Baden-Württemburg near the Swiss and Austrian borders.

The upper meter gauge line is a rough interpretation of part of the Arosa Bahn spur on the Rhätische Bahn network. Visually,the line starts before Langwies from Chur and ends after passing Litzirüti on its way to Arosa. The viisible portion of the track route is a scaled down version of this section of RhB.
 


Mine is definitely Proto-Freelance, since absolute Proto is impossible in the space available. I have about 6 proto miles compressed into 5/6 of a scale mile, which calls for a lot of creative license. The structures are compressed examples based on real real buildings, with what I have to work with, it's good enough, not exact. Operations are pretty much proto based. But even there, I use license and cross eras. Remember Rule #1 is have fun.
 
"Protolance", that's a new one on me. But I would wager except for a museum sized layout, most of us wouldn't have room to model prototype railroads. One of the towns with a yard I model, Galesburg, Illinois, had one of the bigger yards the Burlington ran. There is no way I could fit the passenger station in my space. Likewise, a 14' x 14' room could hardly fit the distance between Galesburg and Denver (on the other side of the room)! But my Denver Zephyr runs nicely between the two sides. But, the whole idea is to model what reminds me of my childhood, when I rode on the Pioneer and Mark Twain Zephyrs. Absolutely, Rule #1!
 
"Protolance" is new on me too, but I've been largely a proto-freelancer in concept since the mid-eighties. I put my proto and freelanced parts together then and have spent the last forty-odd years polishing and fine tuning, but the basic scheme hasn't changed much at all. Once I imagined my own parallel universe and decided it would be believable enough it took on a life of its own.

John Nehrich, he of NEB&W fame (the former RPI club), said years ago that once the club had committed itself to the idea of their NEB&W as a real railroad, a lot of things firmed up and they were able to push forward pretty decisively. In that case their road melded the Delaware and Hudson (which had the traffic) and the Rutland (which had the esthetics) together into a true freelance line, but leaning strongly toward the prototype and the area for inspiration and for decision making in the club setting. If it was there, model it as it was, and if it wasn't don't, etc.

I'm not nearly that committed to specific locations myself, and I freelance my terrain quite a bit, but I do like to follow my railroad prototypes and practices pretty closely. FWIW.
 
Freelanced. I’m not trying to duplicate any actual scenes. Instead, I’m trying to re-create the sense of a Lake Ontario shore-area short line that doesn’t actually exist. So I have a bay, interchange with CSX, and will eventually have Erie Canal traces also. I’m adding a little what-if too, that area doesn’t have a medium size city in it, so it wouldn’t have the need for a commuter railroad, but I absolutely want to have some passenger service. So I added a city.

I enjoyed creating a believable story, and paint schemes for freight service and the commuter service. And I can add interesting features, like industries, bridges and causeways, and scenery, that I think look cool. I’ve also added scenic items from my other hobbies, amateur radio and bicycling.

I truly believe that on your railroad, you should do what you want. I happen to be very interested in operations, and I’m trying to build a road that is operable. But if you aren’t, really, that’s great. Surround yourself with friends who have like interests, and have a ball.
 
I’m very fortunate that I live in an area of Wisconsin and Northern Illinoisthat within a 2 hour drive there are many excellent layouts to operate on. What I have seen from those is that there are many elements of the prototype but most overall are freelance even though they are following a prototype. Even the biggest layouts are just too small to accurately model the regions they are depicting. Specific scenes are done but not for the entire layout.

Personally my smaller switching layout started out trying to prototypically model the WC’s Valley Sub in Central Wisconsin October 2001 when the CN took over the WC. That lasted maybe 6 months trying to model from the Lake DuBay bridges to Rothschild or about 12 real miles. 1st casualty was the paper mill in Mosinee. A good friend and the Director of Operations gave me the drawings for the mill. When he showed up he literally screamed at me that that wasn’t his mill. Well it was but scaled down to fit and the compression pissed him off. I decided the next morning my layout would be Proto freelance and he and I have spoken 1 time since at a recent funeral.

The other reason I switched is while trying to match the real thing the railroad was boring, not enough switching action. Really though the only true prototypically correct segment of my layout is a 9’ long single track “tree tunnel” in real life north of the Mosinee paper mill. On my layout though I did reverse the direction, it’s south of that paper mill.

But, just have fun with whatever you decide. For me it’s freelance modeling railroading based on a real location
 
You make a great point there TLOC and it's particularly true of western RR's. There are times when things can be downright boring out there.

The prototype I borrow from is a case-in-point: Rio Grande runs through some gorgeous scenery in places, yet it's anything but a hotbed for switching, and never was. Dispatching, meets, passes, schedules, extras can be a lot of fun, but there might be more switching in Denver on a given day than on the entire rest of the system combined.
 


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