While PM'ing with "locomcf" (Ron) it got me thinking of guilty pleasures out side of my preferred era of modeling. I would say my favorite period is Late-Transition era: Post War-to-Early 60's ATSF. Not a big fan of steam. But I love the early diesel-electrics and particularly the streamlined passenger service of the period. I have a large collection of freight as well with the ATSF Slogan/Map cars (Dry and reefer) probably being my favorites. However, I must admit to a weakness for old-time wood reefers even though they are a decade and more earlier than my period. But I line a bunch of those up behind a lash of FT's and I'm happy. And probably the oddest addition to my collection is a Kato TGV Sud Est (orange) bullet train just because my wife and I rode it in the early `90's. So what are your 'out-of-era' guilty pleasures that you have indulged in?
Too early: Billboard refrigerator cars. (I suspect I'm not alone.) Too late: Selected NS Heritage Diesels that reflect my heritage.
All kinds.... From owning a brass MILW Bipolar, to SD40-2's. My era is mid-1960's, in a very specific place on the MILW system. It cuts off at Spring of 1968, so motive power and rolling stock are known and locked in. But, if someone were to make an SDL39..... Well, I do have a batch of MILW 100 ton wood chip cars, (1969), so an SDL39 would fit just fine... And if someone did accurate MILW SD40-2, in the 3000 series original paint scheme..... I might sell the house and buy a few. Ha ha.
My main modeling period is from 1950 - 1958. (I tend to hover around 1955) Southern Pacific. However, I have SP models that are older and a whole bunch that are newer. I also have quite a bit of A.T.&S.F. , UP, WP, GN and Rock Island locomotives. Thanks, Wolf
I solved the problem by claiming the JACALAR is an excursion railroad, with era-based / restored areas. And the general scenery areas are era agnostic, so anything can come through on the mains.
No "guilty" pleasures here, because nothing is ever "out-of-era." If the "GM" likes it, then it gets run. Call it playing with trains rather than railroad modeling, but it suits me and has worked well for half a century. As I mentioned in another thread begun by Fifer, I've seen more than a few modelers switch eras, prototypes or even scales and ditch complete layouts because they eventually became bored as a result of their own self-imposed restrictions. In a recent Model Railroader op-ed piece, Tony Koester commented that he had a soft spot for EMD cab units. However, the time era chosen for his NKP layout restricted him to using only steam locos for road power. Then it was suggested to him that he could run detour trains led by F-units from the C&EI and/or Monon. So, he found a way to have his cake and eat it, too, and became a happier camper.
Having admitted that the South Haven art colony/tourist trap was developed by Hurricane Katrina refugee artists, y'all now know the my absolute rule of nothing later than June, 1953 is bent occasionally for the convenience of my imagination..... However, nothing other than pre-1953 power with B&M heraldry will ever appear at the engine terminal. Well, maybe the occasional Beebe River steamer being serviced after delivering interchange traffic from my brother's railroad....or whatever.
My 'era' is 1980 to present. I can fudge that up to 2000 to present and pretty much get away with it. Most of my buildings are of older architecture but easily fit into todays settings as well. I have an 'older'...(4 years ago)..NEW Bachmann 4-8-4 DC steamer. The danged thing has only one lap on a HCD layout. It was 'sparking' so bad off the pilot truck I knew it was destined to be a shelf queen or a museum piece because I didnt feel like messing with it !!!! So when I built my new layout...I included a railroad museum...just so that &*%&^*&*^$*$ thing was on the layout !! I can now honestly say I have a steam locomotive on my layout... One of these days...I am going to put that DC steamer on the main and run it off '00' on my digitrax controller...just to see if it still sparks and how far it goes before derailing !!!
Mine is the transition era from steam to diesel. I'll let you on a little secret. I have equipment in my collection that would eclipse the 70's and 80's but nothing after the Burlington and Santa Fe merged. Not on my layout. So that pretty much excludes Amtrash and other less then nostalgic pieces of equipment. I believe in having a variety and I find I never tire of operating my model railroad. Although lately the trains haven't been running and projects are sitting on my work bench. Certain health issues have required recovery and I've had my extended time of all of that. Now it's time to get back in the saddle and see what I can get done. Oh, by the way the George, B-man put out another Northern, under their standard label. I would approach purchasing one Red over Yellow. In other words stop, think and approach cautiously. Test Track, test track and test track it again. Do keep your sucker light off. The one thing they did right is the tender is numbered in the correct 2000 class. As far as any improvements.......I haven't heard of any.
Over the years I have stayed with the transition era as far as motive power has been concerned. Maybe I have fudged some with a few cars here and there. My only foray into more modern was when I considered modeling different eras on the same layout. A lot of time the power used by the roads and the equipment have changed but the structures are the same. Thus the thought of running early BN merger stuff.
Mine is a free-lance regional set in the late-1970s in the wake of Conrail, but I then stretched it into the early 80s so that I could run some NS equipment. Being a free-lance road allows me to run all generations of diesels and steam in many roadnames, sort of like the real Blue Mountain & Reading.
My entire N scale collection is a guilty pleasure. Not only can't I select an era, I can't select a favorite railroad. My little HCD layout not only changes prototypes but changes era's on a weekly bases The only thing I don't do is run my P&WV H16-44 with Conrail equipment or modern equipment with my Western Maryland 2-8-0
While it's true that I have a pretty strict adherence to era and locale, I do have a few pieces of rolling stock that push or pull the date a few years. I don't plan to run that stuff as a standard rule but I'll have sessions where they're fair game and generally everything else is still valid anyway. So for example I have some coal gons that are about 3 years forward of my cutoff date, plus a BNSF Swoosh loco shell that I can swap out on one of my C44-9W's. My problem of late hasn't been era, but rather *scale*. I'm sticking to N, but also slid over into some Z-scale as well. Building a Z layout as we speak. And, actually bought a 2-rail O-scale loco that will eventually be the cornerstone of a freelance shortline/regional I'm developing. That's way further down the line, but I've been searching for this loco for almost 10 years so I figured I better not chance ever finding another one.
This is the advantage of having more rolling stock than layout. If I get something that doesn't fit with the rest, I just start planning a different layout for it.
Have the TGV, Eurosstar and a Japanese container train in the collection. Only because I like them when I saw the, many years gone by!! Have only run the Eurostar, years ago. The others have never been run. Sitting on a shelf, on display these days.
The branch line of the B&O that ran across the street from my family's grocery store in central Illinois had only steam locomotives when I was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s except for gas electric passenger mail service. Only many years later before it was abandon were any diesels on the line. I have attempted to model the steam era for the 40 years I have been modeling in n-scale. However when I saw the first B&O E-units with dcc and sound, I allowed for a time warp on the layout. More recently, I opted for a few Kato SD70Ace in CSX livery. My heart is still in the steam era.
Also have the Kato Eurostar, but because my wife and I took it several times while on business trips in Europe and England. It is a nice reminder of those wonderful trips.
I model 92-94 BN. However I have been getting the American Freedom Train from Lowell Smith, along with AFT GS-4 4449, and the 3 BN Bicentennial units. Also working on building the 1947 Freedom Train, just need to decal that one.
