I have something of a dilemma on my hands. I live and work along the Mississippi River in WI and MN. Wisconsin side of the river is BNSF while the MN side is CP. My basic layout is an oval and I am thinking of making my cars and engines two faced. On one side I would have the CP and the other would be the BNSF. This way it would look like different trains depending on where you were looking. So am I crazy? I would have forced view areas to help pull off the illusion. I know a purist would never deface the cars or engine in this manner but I thought it might work. Give me your thoughts. Thanks
With the number of locomotives being "interchanged" between railroads these days it could be quite likely that BNSF power would show up on CP and vice versa. I see every thing under the rainbow on the BNSF and UP down here in Texas.
I think that would be way more work than it needs to be. Do you have enough room to run wo trains at once? If not alternate them as you see fit. Certain areas have multiple roads using the same trackage at different times of the day.
Common thing these days is trackage rights. Thus several years back I saw CP locomotives on Norfolk Southern track. And back when the RF&P was around just about everything showed up in Potomac Yard from CP to D&H, Conrail, N&W, and Southern. Trackage rights solves the problem for you.
I'll second that opinion. Its totally possible BNSF power would be hauling a CP grain train to reach a customer, or vice versa, or they both have trackage rights over your layout. Painting the cars two sided seems like alot of work when it'd be totally realistic to run any combo.
I kinda like the idea...hmmmmm. The work to pull it off would be interesting...as would the forced perspective. I think it's doable however. JMO
I'm not sure I would do it with loco's but with cars, it can be done pretty convincing. With a loco, you can still see the front of the loco and it would be hard to make the paint scheme of one side stop and the other begin without being able to see both. Cars, at least box cars, are a different story, as long as you kept similar paint color for both schemes. Tank cars would be OK if it was just different reporting marks. I've even done cabooses that way for a friend for just such an opperation, one side was clean and brand new, the other was tired and weathered with a different reporting mark. Because of the shadows caused by the roof overhang, it was easy to make the transition.
I've seen it done. But doing so takes a bit of work to have the layout with all viewing angles just right. As has been noted, CP stuff shows up on BNSF. That might be the better scenario.
Hey, it's your railroad! Where else to experiment with interesting ideas to see where they go? I think two-sided freight cars (nix on the locos) would be a fun project for you to tackle. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, Art Curren or Al Kalmbach wrote about doing that with some cars on their layout and it gave visitors a quick re-take. You might also pick up some painting or special techniques that you can use for other purposes. Sometimes I think the stuffy old "this is how its always been done" attitude that hangs over model railroading is its own worst enemy. So forget those guys!
It is your RR indeed. I suggest trying it on one locomotive. As mentioned above, the problem will be controlling the viewing angles. Your layout is 3-D not 2-D. I suspect that some day, either you or a visitor will capture an image of a locomotive or car that shows some of both sides and may not reveal your modeling as you want it to be seen.
Great feedback I am thrilled with the ideas coming out of this. I do see BNSF running coal trains back and forth on the CP rails. I am told by a retired trainmaster that it is actually leased equipment and CP crews. I don't have enough knowledge to prove him wrong so that's what I go with. My thoughts were not to run other roads on other rails. I figured if I could create the illusion of it actually being different trains then I don't have anyone saying that BNSF is running on a CP line. It would also create the illusion of more trains right? Anyway I am not artistic or handy so it probably would be nearly impossible to pull off with my skill set. I may try it on some less fortunate equipment and see what it gets me.
i somehow seem to remember an article in model railroader from quite a few years ago. someone reported how to double the roster by painting the cars different on the two sides.
Yes, and on a solid color car. Bixcar red is boxcar red is boxcar red. And from the font angle, you cannot see what's on one side and the other. In fact, Walthers released a 10 car set of Superliners for the NMRA in 2002. They only sold five cars though, because one side was 200201, and the other was 200206. The problem here lies in that if i take a photo of a two-faced CP BNSF engine, the fireman's side is gonna be fire engine red and the engineer's side of the same nose isgoing to be pumpkin orange eith the divider going down the headlights. Personally, i think if INDINA RAILROAD engines can wander up to Minnesota and get "borrowed" byCP, then i find it hard to believe that BNSF engines can't go a half mileoff their homeroad tracks. But if you really want to get the technicalities right, the proposed merger in the 90s was with BNSF and CN, not CP...
