Almost pulled the trigger


Part of the reassessment of land use is that certain improvements be made before they can be re-assessed. So, project 1 will need to be completed before any land use can be negotiated. Project 1 is almost complete. So, project 2 has been put on the table to allow land use review. Once project 2 is 75% complete, then the land use will be open for review. I am working on knocking the domino's down.

Buzz.
 
Armchair said:
Plans are all good and proper, BUT... I am not looking for a cohesive, date, location, prototype, planned layout. How could I run my UP Big Boy, CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr, PRR and all other red roofed locos, SP Daylight, SF War Bonnet PA"s. I like to run trains, not a switch-man, and I will NEVER say "I wish I could buy that, BUT it is NOT my Line, Era, Location!
Sorry about the rant, just the way I am.

Armchair
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Armchair,

I don't think anyone can sympathize with you more than me. I have a geographic interest that spans coast to cost with my interest primarily on Amtrak intercity service in addition to local commuter agencies that interface with it.

My layout is roughly 10X12 and is probably as generic as they come seeing as how I have equipment from many different railroads in all areas of the country. I will admit that I'm more strict about Era but I don't model specific geography so that I can model any part of the country at any given time.

Many modelers will suggest you model something specific but if you get enjoyment out of running your trains, that's what you focus on. That's what I do.

BTW, model railroading isn't limited by weather. If anything, in-climate weather encourages it.
 
Armchair said:
Plans are all good and proper, BUT... I am not looking for a cohesive, date, location, prototype, planned layout. How could I run my UP Big Boy, CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr, PRR and all other red roofed locos, SP Daylight, SF War Bonnet PA"s. I like to run trains, not a switch-man, and I will NEVER say "I wish I could buy that, BUT it is NOT my Line, Era, Location!
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Since this came back to the top, that is sort of what I am trying to tell you. I had exactly that philosophy. That is why I have mountains of stuff that on the whole I will never have the time to run properly. It is no longer satisfying as it was when I bought it (if it ever really was). I WISH I would have been able to tell myself that "I have no need to buy that because it is NOT my Line, Era, or Location." I never had that will power as related to trains. If I had to stuck to a plan I would have an awesome cohesive set of equipment and scenery supplies like Rod Stewarts.
 
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To each his/her own...

One could still have an outstanding generic layout without sticking to a particular geography. Similarly, one need not stick to a particular era but I'm not sure if both can be done. I would think one needs to be a constant while there's room for the other to be a variable.

My constant is era. If its not modern/present day, it takes an extreme back seat. These controls as others have suggested do have there benefits as it does help to keep expenses under control by limiting your area/period of interest.

My dream layout plans do call for generic themes and incorporate multiple layouts tied together, each representing a general area of interest including two areas of he northeast corridor a generic layout with mostly flat lands and a mountainous layout. Hopefully I'll have the resources tools that work someday.
 
Sometimes you can be surprised at what can "legitimately" be run on a particular geographic locale. For example, in the post-WWII era, in Colorado and Wyoming, especially Denver-Colorado Springs, you could see D&RGW, Santa Fe, Burlington/Colo & Sou, all operating on the Joint Line trackage. In Denver, you would also see the UP running East and West. On passenger trains you might occasionally see a NYC "through" sleeper on one of the Zephyrs. The Pioneer #9900 and some of the other shovel noses ran from Chicago to Denver. If you went from Chicago through Minneapolis and then to the West Coast, The Twin Cities Zephyrs, North Coast Limited and Empire Builder were often combined at least as far as the Twin Cities, with Burlington E's pulling the Ltd and the Builder, before the motive power changed to the respective roads' before heading west. The C&NW ran its 400's and the Milwaukee Road its Hiawatha's, although not on the same rails (except when the "Q"s rails got flooded one summer, and they had to go over the Milwaukee's track. You can go right up through 1970 before the stainless steel, orange & green/Big Sky Blue and two-tone green turned into that awful black, green with white stripes when the ICC finally allow the "Jim Hill" roads to combine their books to become the BN (followed by the BNSF...much better paint schemes, though the passenger trains are gone). Even Amtrak kept running the old equipment in the original livery for quite awhile.

Remember! It's your railroad. You can run anything you want! You can always maintain the fiction that a corporate merger/buyout/hostile takeover resulted in some strange combination of motive pools and "temporary" arrangements.

Green boards all the way!
 
mlrr said:
My constant is era. If its not modern/present day, it takes an extreme back seat.
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That is better than I was able to do. I've got everything from John Bull to SD70s, from tanks on flats to the 30K gallon at 75 psi tank, 4 wheel wooden bobbers to FRED.

Sigh...:eek:
 
I have been able to acquire a small ploy of land. It is not much but it is more then I had before. I have enough to build a small N scale layout or if I cross the border lines, I might be able to squeak in a 4x8 :) About 1/4 to 1/3 of what I am looking for but it is a start.

Soon, very very soon, I will start my empire and rule the world.


Buzz.
 
Gee! I feel right at home in this thread. Glad to see there are just ordinary people with a love of trains struggling with the same problems.

The way I solved this enigma is I joined a club, if you pick the right one you can usually be as generic as you like.
 
I've never knew there was a place like this on the net. Glad I joined
 
Is ok, moderators. I stop to drink now.

I ahppy also wth this new place where peoples can come give train to each other. In my country we say "train is never coming where never has train before in".
 
This thread is a good example of what I do call the "Magic" of model railroading! While many folks can and do run multiple eras, multiple roads, etc., I on the other hand limited myself to a specific era, 1940-1950, and to a specific prototype. This automatically removes me from buying things that would be wrong for me! But it also does allow me to get some things that the prototype never had, by getting these things and lettering them for my shortline. None of the methods discussed is "wrong" and what's more important, none is "correct" either.

I have always said that there is no one "correct" way to model railroad. All that matters is that each person have fun!
 
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