layout modeling


I am planning a freelance railroad. Not based on any one railroad, but is set in southwest Virginia
 
For my first actual scenic layout ever, the very tentative plan is to model some portion of the Boston & Maine, circa late fifties to early sixties.

I live right near the eastern end of the old Fitchburg line. We'll see how it plays out.
 
Semi-freelance Burlington Route, with connections to the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Rock Island from Illinois to Denver...all in a 14 x 14 room! Selective compression is really a practice! All this takes place in the late 1940's - late '50's, definitely before the merger, and mostly before Chinese red paint jobs on road switchers. I actually rode the Pioneer and Mark Twain Zephyrs as a kid in the midwest back in that time period. Steam and "Q" E-5's, E-7's, E-8/9's and lots of passenger traffic, as well as coal trains.
 
Me and a friend (who should be joining the forums some time too) are working on a cooperitive adventure to model our own RR loosely based on the mid eastern area were just more or less making it our way but are trying to keep some things semi realistic while making it fun for us :) so no one specific RR in mind for us...more home brew if you will
 
I'm modelling a NY up state short line, the South Buffalo Railway in HO scale. Well, I'm supposed to be anyway. I keep getting distracted buying stuff I don't need.:rolleyes:
 
UP Late Steam and "The Alton Railroad" 1920-ish.
Two different parts of the country. I'm having a hard time visualizing how to do that on one layout. :confused:
 
Tuna said:
UP Late Steam and "The Alton Railroad" 1920-ish.
Two different parts of the country. I'm having a hard time visualizing how to do that on one layout. :confused:
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There are a couple of possibilities here. Check how far west the Alton ran, and how far east the UP ran (this will depend on the date...the UP acquired and now owns what used to be the Milwaukee Road and the C&NW.) It is possible (even if you have to freelance a bit) that the UP ran some trains on the Alton, or there was interchange traffic. I do know the Alton ran some joint trains with the Burlington back in the '40's and '50's. There was even one of the Zephyrs that had Alton Burlington on the front of a passenger loco and rear of the observation car. The UP was pretty ubiquitous as well. Showing wide expanses of geography requires "selective compression" (sometimes a LOT of selective compression! ;) ) For example, my layout spans territory from Central Illinois to Denver...in a 14' x 14' room. There are a lot of scenic tricks you can use, such as vision blocks, bridges over rivers dividing the territories, ridges/mountain ranges, etc.

Remember, it's your railroad, you can do whatever rings your bell or whistles at your crossings! :)
 
Free Lance. 19400s to 50s. Name of the RR is he PDS&S. (Pieter, Denise Stegman and Sons). Warm climate. Small town to large city.
 
upfan3 said:
do you mean something like the scenic sub in washington?
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If you are asking what I meant about BN in the PNW, I'm not sure yet. The Scenic Sub would take a lot of trees for sure. I started out with MRL in college but have built far more BN stuff than MRL stuff since then. Maybe something based on the Funnel in N. Idaho or ??
 
Freelanced, but based loosely on our hometown in the PNW. We started out with UP but now its a hodgepodge of road names and a mix of freight and passenger. We have steam and diesel, but the steamers are supposed to be excursion trains run by the local museum. Or at least that's how it started out. The kids kinda run whatever they feel like running at the time............
 
I am modelling the 'Western Plains Corp.' which is a fictional Canadian railroad based in 2000 on the praries... It will be 12x33 when finished and their main revenue is intermodal and grain.
I have an idea of how to possibly make this become a "Real" railroad sometime over the next couple years...
 
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