Rivet counting Vs Fun

[bigB]

Brad,

Yeah they are uptight, and have always been. I got severely criticized one time because I stated that I only build kits, and only by chance thru gifts, and other situations did I own any RTR. You'd think that I'd killed the Pope or something like that. I even explained that by building kits, esp resin kits that I got cars more accurate than most RTR. They were road specific, and after figuring in the paint, glue trucks couplers etc, that the actual costs of the kit came down to about $.75-$1.00 and hour for entertainment thru the time that kit took to build.

One guy even said that there was no way that I would ever have a fleet of cars to do any layout justice, and I was out of my mind for even thinking it. It kind of shut him up when I said, that while he was trying to come up with the money to get another 12 cars of some type, I would be at the club, running my 50-65 car coal train pulled by one of my brass 2-10-2's, while he was still waiting for something that may not occur for another year or so. They all really quieted down when I told them that at the time I already had over 400 cars built, and still had another 50-60 to go, and I'd been in this hobby since I was 8yo, and still had my first kit a Silver Streak Dbl Door auto box.

They seem to have one concept on model railroading, and if yours is different from that, you're obviously wrong. Needless to say, I don't post there anymore.

Carey,

Yeah I guess I'm just not wired as they are. This hobby is about enjoyment, not mine is better than yours. I would be a miserable s*b if I went thru life nitpicking every little thing in a vain effort to have it perfect. All the while being ignorant of what a model company has to do to bring a new model to market.

Brad

 

[Iron Horseman]

I've recently taken a left turn on passenger trains. For years I've filled in windows, cut new windows, added proper louvers and vents, reworked under floor equipment etc. I was making the right car to go into the right spot on a specific train. Also within the last 10 years Walther's has come out with soooo many good passenger cars it stretched my budget to the limit trying to keep up, and as such I missed the entire Broadway Limited train. I started picking them up here are there, and I found a lot on ebay that contained one of the Broadway sleepers I needed. Ended up that buying the whole lot was cheaper than I had been paying for the individual cars. In this lot were two other generic sleepers (6-6-4 and a 10-6 I believe) also painted Pennsy. The only difference I could find in the cars paint was that the Broadway Limited painted ones had a silver window lining.

That got me thinking. As long as the major features (like a dome car, and diner car) are placed properly in the train no one really knows/cares. The public who come to visit the museum just see a passenger train. At the operating sessions I go to, they care about the train being on schedule not whether a car has 4 windows on a hallway instead of five. Even the "experts" don't count windows fast enough as the train passes them by to know (or really care) that the 2-4-4 sleeper was a Pullman plan #464 instead of #1255.

Having this realization, I've been able to assemble some great looking trains that are reasonable representations of given prototypical trains even though they don't have all their "window ducks in a row" so to speak.

Having said that I am still miles away from the "do whatever I want" camp.

 

[photoman475]

I don't belong to the rivet counter school of thought. What I am aiming towards on my railroad is if the XY&Z railroad had a 40' box car numbered 12345, and it was painted box car red with an unpainted rusted roof and black ends, then that is what I want to model if I decide to. I'm not particular if its an AAR design or Pullman Standard design, or if the bottom side sill is straight or tapered. MILW's homemade box cars are an exception-the ribs do make them different, and I have enough of those. The size of my layout requires me to make compromises on passenger car size-the smaller, the better. I can live with that.

One thing I don't want to do is have something that does not fit the era on the layout; thus, the DeWitt Clinton will be on display at the museum I am contemplating for the layout. Locos are the same way; I'm not going to have one on the layout that the prototype didn't have or I don't have a source to prove it happened. So, an SP SD40 works, since I have a book with photos in it of one working on the LV coupled to N&W locos leaving Sayre for Buffalo. And since I'm modeling the anthracite roads, this works for me.

I've gotten this way because of the nitpickers in a model railroad club I left years ago.

Photoman475

 

[Cjcrescent]

IH,

That's why for my Crescent Limited, I'm perfectly happy with the IHC cars painted for it. Now there were 2 cars in the set that were never on the CL I'm "modeling" a coach and a duplex sleeper. To supplement the train with some more accurate cars, I'm slowly acquiring some of the older Walthers kits. As long as those cars are accurate as to Pullman type in regard to berths, roomettes and bedrooms, they will be added as time and money allows. The trick is to locate Central Valley trucks for them all. Every car has them except one.