Roadname mania

=>My question =>is, how do you guys limit yourself to one road/era?

Er, ah, um, well, hrrmph.

I started out with good intentions - 1960 would be the year, Late September/early October to pbe precise --I like fall colours. Then, er, well, I wanted sone 2nd gen. diesels, so I expanded the era to "sometime in the

60s." Now I'm creeping up on the 70s....

Did you say limit yourself to one railroad and era?

Um, I don't think I can. I tried, I really did. You wouldn't believe how hard I tried. Sweat broke out on my brow, my breath came in short gasps, my heart raced, my blood pressure went up, I lost my appetite,. there was ringing in my ears ----

I feel fine now.

;-)

Well at least I'm not the only one! I was in the LHS today, and found myself eyeballing the lastest Atlas GP38s...Vermont Railway, Green Mountain, and B&P. Like they really fit into my current scheme of things. I did manage to walk out without purchasing any...

Steve, Same problem... Started Fall 1955, then 1965 and finally 1975... sort of a "time machine" concept. Signs, autos, boxcars, etc for each time frame. Swap them in and out as desired. Ooops here come the "Ten Years After" jokes..Ear plugs in.... Created NY&W, but just increased the interchange possibilities!

Steve Lynch

I believe it takes tons of discipline that I don't have. If you can figure this out, open a practice and earn enough money that you don't have to worry about it!

GN, NP, Santa Fe, D&RGW, MoPac, C&S, Rock Island 1949-1960 Actually if I stick to 1964 or so I can do all this modeling Pueblo Colorado as old GN & NP stuff was on lease to the C&S. Don't know what to do with the SP&S stuff.

But I sure do like those GE U-33Cs, and I bought a kodachrome SD40-2, and even a war bonnet SD70m. So the new stuff is creeping in.

I keep saying if I had to do it all over again I would choose one and one time and stick to it. Would certainly be a lot cheaper. I would probably go with a lesser modeled interesting railroad like the Minneapolis & St. Louis, or Central of Georgia.

I solved the problem by following your second suggestion and coming up with my own railroad. I'm with an advertisng agency called Bottom Line Marketing so my railroad is the BL&M serving the cities of Botum, Lyne and Marqueting.

Other possible names include Downe & Durty, Sadder-Budweiser, Tattured & Torne, and Gottum, Bydee, Balls & Holden

Carter

superdetailing

Hi, Steve!

Well, I don't know about Andy, but I had some of the same problem. I yielded to temptation (and because it's fun to play God) and went free-lance. I don't have a big era problem, since big hood unit diesels don't do much for me, but since I am a steam nut, and old enough to remember them running in service, I went the way most people in the hobby go, for my era - the time when I was growing up. As to equipment, free-lancing is the only way I can justify USRA locomotives next to 1945-model "modern" steam and covered wagon diesels. Era? Oh, yeah - transition! Cut-off date is 1953. I'm still trying to figure out, though, how a Pennsy I1s Decapod can make it out to the Western Great Plains... (Gotta love those Hippos!)

Thanks to all for the support, I'm really leaning towards the idea of freelancing. I've kept the layout generic enough that it could represent pretty much anywhere in the northeast US. I'm also thinking about simply keeping sets of rolling stock in "sets"...If I'm in a Maine mood run the BAR stuff, then switch to D&H, etc. And of course if I do my own road I can justify having anything I want on the layout as run through power...

Steve W

And I wanted to do the Ontario Northland (1980s), but that means paying premium for custom paint jobs, and I found a stock Atlas GP7 painted for ACR, and a CPR SD40-2, and I got a whole string of Atlas

70-ton hoppers lettered for Thunder Bay Mining that I'm sure were scrapped by 1980, but look great as a unit train, and my wife thinks Shays are way cool ever since we saw the one at the museum....I guess it'll be the Generic Northern Ontario Railway by the time I get it built, and please don't examine the data on the freight cars too closely (one advantage of N-scale is it's too small to read ;-).

I've solved part of the problem: the plan is to model a junction between a class 1 (CPR or CNR) and a regional/short line, with a good stretch of both mains. I may still have to arrange a merger between the ONR and ACR.....

-- Steve

Sure, it's easy. :-) I model the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co., and all it's subsidiaries and predecessors, and in all eras. But absolutely before 1/1/69 (when the NH was forced into PC). I have done a"what-if" engine or two (a NH B40-8, for example), but my "master" plan is to have one of everything the NH had in every paint scheme variation. That should keep me busy for decades (if you know the NH, you know they had different paint schemes). I admit to owning a few foriegn-road engines, but these all date to the time before I decided to model the New Haven before all others in 1990. So when I see people nashing their teeth about the lastest SD-whatever or Dash-whatever, I just sit back and relax, because I know it's nothing I'm interested in. Lately, I've had my hands full just trying to keep up with all the NH engines coming out: RDC-1's, 2's, & 3's, DL-109's, RS-2's, RS-1's, RS-11's, H16-44's, etc. And you think I need to model other RR's? Pah! ;-)

Paul A. Cutler III

************** Weather Or No Go New Haven **************

My all-time favorite name for a freelanced model railway in this part of the country is "Atlantic & New England" It just has a nice "ring" to my ear. and it could run anywhere from New York City to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or (shudder) Quebec. A line from Halifax to Boston, New Haven and/or NYC would be an interesting concept.

..............F>

Yes, they do...you just need a jeweler's loupe to see it! (One of the several reasons I switched to HO).

Steve W

"M> >> On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:56:52 -0400, Steve Woodward wrote: "M> >>

"M> >> =>My question "M> >> =>is, how do you guys limit yourself to one road/era? "M> >>

"M> >It is not easy. "M> "M> "M> "M> Sure, it's easy. :-) I model the New York, New Haven & Hartford "M> Railroad Co., and all it's subsidiaries and predecessors, and in all eras. "M> But absolutely before 1/1/69 (when the NH was forced into PC). I have done "M> a"what-if" engine or two (a NH B40-8, for example), but my "master" plan is "M> to have one of everything the NH had in every paint scheme variation. That "M> should keep me busy for decades (if you know the NH, you know they had "M> different paint schemes). "M> I admit to owning a few foriegn-road engines, but these all date to the "M> time before I decided to model the New Haven before all others in 1990. "M> So when I see people nashing their teeth about the lastest SD-whatever "M> or Dash-whatever, I just sit back and relax, because I know it's nothing I'm "M> interested in. "M> Lately, I've had my hands full just trying to keep up with all the NH "M> engines coming out: RDC-1's, 2's, & 3's, DL-109's, RS-2's, RS-1's, RS-11's, "M> H16-44's, etc. And you think I need to model other RR's? Pah! ;-)

No FL9s? After all, ALL of the *original* FL9s were NH -- they were the

*only* railroad to buy them from EMD.

"M> "M> Paul A. Cutler III "M> ************** "M> Weather Or No Go New Haven "M> ************** "M> "M> "M> "M> "M> "M> "M>

I just don't think I could ever be happy limiting myself to just one road's equipment. My tastes are way to eclectic and all over the map. Hence, my future pike - the Lake Erie & Oregon, LEO - will run somewhere through the Sierra Rocky Cascade mountains somewhere west of the Mississippi. It'll be set somewhere around 1937 so I can still run archbar trucks and will be connected to just about every other western railroad. In addition to home road locos, you can expect to see an occasional cab forward, SF 2-10-10-2, the Burlington Zephyr, GN 2-6-8-0 and 2-8-8-0, and whatever else strikes my fancy if I can afford it. There will also be the mining branch and the logging branch with all geared locos and a Vulcan Duplex present. I can also switch out engines and rolling stock and run some circa

1963 stuff for variety. In that case you'll see a UP veranda turbine, C-855 and GP-9 working the line along with an SF passenger train pulled by a PA1-PB1-PB1-PA1 loco set. I don't know yet what sort of diesels my home road might use in that time frame.

Well. we're on the same page regarding "Multiple Decade Disorder" and the modern era...Once the mega-mergers started happening I put a freeze on the date like you, mid-90s. And now if anything I'm working my way back in time. Completely off topic, but I hate the way everybody's merging, it's affecting many industries. My company provides software to trucking companies. Smaller outfits are being run out of business or snatched up at an alarming rate. We're going to be left with a handful of big carriers (Swift, JB Hunt, Schneider, etc), which will pretty much eliminate the need for our software. And god only knows what other ramifications there will be. Ok, off the soap box! Last night I took an undec Kato SD45 out of it's box and disassembled it. Then I sat there thinking "Ok, now what? What road ya gonna do?" I thought about D&H, could do the L shaped enineer's side window. Then I thought NYS&W, but my last project was NYS&W, I feel like painting something other than black and yellow. Then Reading popped into my head, I could do that extended cab front...so what did I decide? Nothing, I walked away from the workbench and decided to sleep on it. Well, it's the following morning, still no decision. *Sigh*

Steve W