Weekend Question 9 - 30 - 06

[N Gauger]

have you ever concidered changing the era you model?? Why???

 

[santafewillie]

Well I have changed my era. I used to model 50's and 60's Santa Fe but moved ahead to late 70's through early 90's Santa Fe. I had a couple of reasons. I was able to relate more to my new time frame...I don't have to rely on hazy memories of the 60's. Secondly, I just like the more massive motive power that I have seen in the last 20 years, things like SD40-2's, Dash9-44CW's, etc., especially units with the red/silver warbonnet schemes that came out in the late 80's. I also like the look of modern freightcars like autoracks, container wells, large covered grain hoppers, and longer boxcars. I did stop in 1995 and have no equipment from the Big New Santa Fe (BNSF). Now what to do with 150 roofwalk/solid bearing truck freightcars?

 

[ezdays]

Nope, since my era is "today", it is self-changing based on that.

 

[shaygetz]

What's an "era"?

If I look at my locomotive collection, I can see everything from a DeWitt Clinton to 2 C44-9Ws in CSX paint and pretty much everything in between. Same for my rolling stock.

 

[Ralph]

I received a book about the former Ulster and Delaware railroad in the Catskill Mountain area of NY. It made me wistfully consider scrapping my Penn Central 1970 era layout and launch into old time steam! Whoa there boy!
Ralph

 

[viperman]

I have, simply because modern cars are WAY too big to have a nice good looking layout in HO, especially since I only have 18" curves right now

 

[ezdays]

Ya know, this question struck a thought. Does a layout have to be consistant in one era? Can someone have several different eras on the same layout? The larger the layout, the easier this is accomplished, but I'm curious if anyone is doing this or is that considered sacrilegious for those that want to stay true to a specific era?

 

[viperman]

I just kinda model what I feel like. Not particuarly sticking to any era, so I consider it modern, since we have such a wide variety of options to model. Any excuse can be made for having a steamer pulling a freight with a Dodge Viper stuck at a crossing. Catch my drift?

 

[Catt]

Absolutely,why just this morning I changed from 9-29-06 to 9-30-06.

In other words NO!

 

[abutt]

Like many of us, I found the 50s convenient for a time era in that we can logically run both steam and diesel. Also, having a time set in one's mind makes detailing easier as far as decision making for paint schemes, types of building construction,etc. I always ran steam until I got tired of the side rods falling off the drivers, and bought my first deisel...and RS-1 Alco. Still one of my favortites

Since my layout is now sitting in five pieces in the basement waiting for movers, I'm considering not assembling it again as a continuous layout, but rather in three separate switching layouts ...not connected. So maybe there I'll consider haveing three separate time zones. This is all stuff running through my aging mind while I wait to see all the pieces in the new basement. God only knows what I'll do then!

 

[Chessie6459]

I thought about chaning era's. I model 1973-1979 of the Chessie System Railroad. The only reason I thought about changing was because I like those big SD80MAC's. But now i am getting more involved with model railroading I will not change now. sign1

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Change can be good.
Its just not happening on my layout......

 

[Clerk]

Nope. Since my era is whatever I feel like running at the time.

 

[Jim Krause]

Ezdays: Our club here in western Montana has a whole variety of rolling stock from several eras. Forty foot box cars get mingled with modern stuff on the trains powered by SD 40's and 1990's loco's. Occasionally a serious modelrailroader will make a comment when viewing the layout. Heck, we even have some older Bachmann and AHM toy HO trains on static display. I doubt if any of them will even move after all this time. I myself have only steam power now, mostly logging related.