frank-in-spokane
New Member
True enough if you only ever anticipate running one loco: "Yesterday it was the UP, today it's the Jersey Central, tomorrow it'll be the Milwaukee Road."
But even though mine's a small pike, I want to eventually run two locos, so I wanted them to a) be of either the same line or of two lines from the same geographical region; as well as b) show some interesting variety in the engines (models, paint schemes, etc.).
I'd originally intended to run two early GN diesels with slightly different paint schemes. But when this SP&S loco came up, I thought, "Perfect!" I don't know a LOT about prototype ops, but I figger it wouldn't have been unusual to see GN and SP&S motive power running on the same tracks. (Esp. since the SP&S was a child of the GN and NP RRs.)
Plus there's also the scenery. Had I been modeling the midwest, I'd have planned to plant more deciduous trees to conifers. But since I'm doing a Pacific NW layout, I'll plant a greater ratio of conifers to deciduous.
At one end of the MR-ing spectrum, some guys want to model a prototype as faithfully as possible. At the other end, guys couldn't care less about realism -- they'll happily run early 20th-cent. American steamers alongside their 21st-century European bullet trains.
While I'm no "rivet counter" (and seriously doubt I ever will be), I still want my imagineered layout to be grounded in some semblance of reality.
