I’m thinking of having my layout be 1968, 1975, or the present and I came up with an idea for swapping eras using your staging yard. Let’s say I’m going to switch the layout from 1968 to 2006. I’d gather up all the old 1960s cars and drop them off on an empty staging track. Then on another track I’d have all my modern cars and after I drop off the old cars I can pick up the modern ones and take them to the yard, sort them and then it’s 2006[:D] (after I swap motive power).
dingoix
Ah, so you too have discovered the trick. It’s what i do too.[:)]
Dang, I thought my idea was so original. But it will work very well.
Another way is to operate the 2006 cars and have the older cars sitting about on fan trips.Older engines can be pulling them. Works for passenger and freight as several of the fan operations run “old freight” for photographers.
You can also swap vehicles like Jack Kenefic does on the California& Southwestern featured in the June `96 MR. His era stretches between 1975 to 1990. I plan to do the same to model 1990-1999.
That’s what I do. In fact, I took it one step farther…
Since I wanted to do my own freelanced railroad and wante dto paint my own engines, I couldnt afford buying engines for different eras so…
I got a SW7 and a SD7. When its 1956 they are brand new… or close to it. When I do the big switch to modern day, they stay on and become the 'ole workhorses of the Kiva Valley and just switch up their roles alittle in operations.
2 birds with one stone. As far paint and weathering goes… Ha ha. Either shiney new since they are in 1956, or when it is present day 2006, I just pretend that they were repainted in 2000 in the KVR engine and car shops.[:D]
Ahhh, you guys have thought of everything except ONE thing…the buildings. Industrial buildings have changed since 1968, the houses have changed. I suppose you could swap those out, but that is too much work on medium to large layouts. Otherwise, a good idea, I will be doing it too.
Actually many 60s and older building are intact. I can think of houses 100 years old that are still lived in and they’re in good shape.
canazar, That would work well.
Another “nothing new under the sun” topic. Our club layout has an operating session for swiching eras. Through the course of the session all the stuff from one era gets pulled into the hidden yard and the other era is moved out onto the layout.
Make the structures on a rotating base. Flip the appropirate building to the top. A very clever person could fit three buildings on the same “drum”. There was also an article about doing this in a 199x MR.
sorry for that. But this was a brainstorm for me if I decide to have a sliding era on my layout.
That wasn’t intended as a slam, more the nature of the universe comment. It is just the nature of human learning and why two people can hold the same copyright. We always learn something someone else has already thought of. I once spent weeks developing an algorithm, had a brain storm and break through. I was writing it up to publish when I discovered it had been “discovered” about 20 years earlier… sigh…[sigh]
Can you please tell me a little more about how Jack does it?
One of the most interesting ideas I know of is the one Joe Fugate uses. If I’m not totally wrong it’s 1986 on his layout right now.
I’m planning to use a similar idea on my layout but with some modifications. The years that are ‘ticking’ can be the length that you want it to be. One day, one week, 2 weeks, just use your imagination and switch the trains in and out of staging as needed.
I will use this idea to be able to have the California Zephyr on my layout, then when that era is finished the Rio Grande Zephyr takes over. And when that is done (1984) the Amtrak Zephyr is running for a couple of years. Then I start all over with the California Zephyr again and park Rio Grande Zephyr and Amtrak Zephyr in hidden staging, waiting for the right year.
Because we plan to switch our layout from 1890’s steam to 1970’s diesel to 2006 military, all the buildings are planned to rest on “stone” foundations, with interior lighting affixed to the layout, not the structure.
Each building will have a base that fits into the foundation, and a hole to allow the surface mounted lighting to reach up inside the building. The plan is to have two full sets of buildings, 1890’s and 1970’s, with additional structures as needed for the military operations.
The 1890’s bridges have been inspected and structurally modified as needed to retain integrity under far heavier loads than the original design called for, for a reason. The short version of the story line is that the Sherman Act was never repealed, leaving the US on dual monetary standard, both gold and silver, the 1893 silver crash never happend, Otto Mears, instead of signing the RGS into recievership instead used the profits to challenge Santa Fe, beating them into various markets in Arizona and New Mexico, hurting ATSF profits to the point that Santa Fe was forced into an LBO of the SRR, RGS, SGNRR, SNRR, and the Durango-Silverton branch of the DRG, all of which Santa Fe now operates as an operational museum, still hauling silver and gold down out of the San Juans, sometimes with period equipment, other times with modern equipment.
Naturally they keep the bridges as near as possible to the original design for the sake of museum quality.