Favorite model railroading ERA -ERA's 1800's- ?


I prefer 1930s-early 1950s. East coast steam both freight and passenger. Lately though I've been wondering about switching over to modern freight with ES44ACs/DCs. I kept my layout fairly generic in case I wanted to add on in the future...or rather catch up to the present. I won't box up the depression era steamers though, just put them all on the same table if I make the room...throw authenticity out the window.
 
ACL-CSX said:
To avoid the problem of multiple layouts, I plan to make one continuous that covers all of the eras and iterations of the line(s) I plan to model. There may end up being some overlap, but I hope to maintain each era independently but also allow for flow from one region to the next, if that makes any sense.
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Sounds like an exhibit I proposed for a train museum once. I called it something like the "walk through time". I thought to start with a couple towns set like the original railroads in the US (Camden & Amboy - B&O). Run trains with locomotives like the Stourbridge Lion, Stephenson's Rocket, the John Bull, and Clint de Winton between them. Have the time progress to the next few towns with the early 4-4-0 types. With each couple towns down the line progress the time line a few decades adjusting the scenery and trains. Try to capture the progression of the history of railroads in the US. The problem at least with a museum situation is the necessary continuous running of trains. Can't just run a train through the entire layout, so that meant back and forth operation or some sort of multiple smaller loops.
 
Using the Iron Horsemen's classification my favorite would be Second generation diesels. My problem is I like them all, thank God my layout is not prototypical!
 
1969-1971. This allows me to make use of older NYC equipment, run in my own named equipment and operate a passenger special and grain business in a town 80 miles south of my main city. All of this has a basis in history.

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Iron Horseman said:
Sounds like an exhibit I proposed for a train museum once. I called it something like the "walk through time". I thought to start with a couple towns set like the original railroads in the US (Camden & Amboy - B&O). Run trains with locomotives like the Stourbridge Lion, Stephenson's Rocket, the John Bull, and Clint de Winton between them. Have the time progress to the next few towns with the early 4-4-0 types. With each couple towns down the line progress the time line a few decades adjusting the scenery and trains. Try to capture the progression of the history of railroads in the US. The problem at least with a museum situation is the necessary continuous running of trains. Can't just run a train through the entire layout, so that meant back and forth operation or some sort of multiple smaller loops.
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That sounds like it would have been an awesome layout. That's similar to what I want to do, but confine it to snippets of time during specific rail lines as my username implies. In an ideal world I'd have the space to set up looks for at least 2 trains in each "era" and one big loop that could be accessed from each smaller one. Alas, this is not that ideal world and I'm currently lacking in time, space, equipment, and money. But a guy can dream, righ

Jesse
 
Pretty much Southern Pacific during the 2nd Truman administration as located in the vale of Mt Diablo in California.
 
Modern for me. I have a great view of the UP mainline going into Rochelle. So I get to see dozens of stack trains, Auto Racks, tank cars, loaded bulkhead flats. It’s kind of neat to see the different locomotives, and cars and say I have that.
 
The CB&Q from about 1955 to 1965. The only steam will be a GN S2 4-8-4 for steam excursions. I know, the Q had several steam engines that they maintained for their own steam program but I got a great deal on the ConCor loco and have had sound added...........so I will just have a little revisionist history in this area.
 
Early 70's to the introduction of the Acela(if it had met its delivery schedule). Perhaps about 1988, when the D&H was operated by the NYS&W.
 
dave1905 said:
I would propose an alternative based more on technology levels:
Early Era - 1827 to 1860 : the formative years
Ante-Bellum - 1860 to 1875/1880 : standardization of gauges, train orders formative.
Turn of the Century - 1880 to 1910 : Transition to air brakes and knuckle couplers, cars jump to 36 and then 40 ft.
The Great War - 1910 to 1930 : Huge changes in car and locomotive designs, standard lettering, standard grab irons, steel underframes dominant, locomotives get trailing trucks, USRA operation, "modern rules", standardized waybills.
Depression era - 1930-1945 : Contraction and WW2
Transition Era - 1945 to 1960 Steam on its way out, dieselization, consolidation of rail systems.
Rust/Extinction Era - 1960 to 1980 : Class 1 railroads begin to die off, contraction, deferred maintenance, bankruptcies, larger mergers start.
Post Staggers era - 1980 to 2000 : Mega mergers start, railroads rebound financially, short lines proliferate, "traditional" rules replaced.
2nd Millenia era - 2000+ : Mega mergers stabilize, electronic technology proliferates, EOT, DPU, PTC, computerization widespread.
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In case anybody wants to pick nits, for my purposes, I generally agree with your periods, Dave. Having grown up in the 70's and early 80s, with the EL running directly behind my parents house, things went from deferred maintenance and bankruptcy, like the PC, in the 60's, and 70's, but started to turn around with Conrail, and really improved, except for there being fewer roads, in the 80's with the Staggers act.

My only other modifications, might be that the Second Generation began with the GP30, and the 3rd Generation started when Uboats became Bxx-7 and Cxx-7, or with the Qcab. With the exception of the Acelas, I ceased modeling/collecting 'modern power,' with about the SD70's, as anything larger than that, seemed to require larger radii curves in HO, than what I realistically had room to include. As a result, my freelanced line stuck to GP40's, GP50's, and eventually GP60 wide cabs, and my modeling to the 70's and 80's. Of course, having grown up in that period, a lot of emphasis at that time was the transition period, with the end of steam. At that point, I decided that big locomotives were my thing, but instead of steam, it was DD40's, and GTELs, like are now available from Scale Trains.
 
My preference is for Pre-Amtrak Diesel for passenger service. So thats late 50's up through about 1970 or 71.
 
I was going to model 1825 but I am having a problem getting a live 1/87 horse.

I originally modeled modern era in N scale. Now steam and trolleys in 1925 in HO.


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I have a collection of 3 rail Hornby Dublo, which means that my models are British outline and the date ranges from 1938 to 1964. I also have an interest in modelling the final days of the Caledonian Railway (Scotland, 1922) so I have some of that too. Obviously there have to be some compromises, although I wouldn't be running Caledonian stock at the same time as I'm running British Railways or post-war pre-nationalisation stock.
 
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