I’m planning on modeling a railroad set in that era, and I am wonderring if anyone else has a railroad set in that era?
What kind of Rolling Stock do you guys use and what kind of engines are ony our layout?
DavidH66,
I’m assuming You mean the 1880’s to early 1900’s. If that being the case, I don’t, but some interesting pic’s and info for you to view:
Frank
Well, it depends on the century. If you mean the 1890s, then this is the rise of the steam engines pulling relatively short trains, but if it is about the 1990s then this is the modern era with diesel and electric locos and the long trains. See more about the eras here: http://modeltrains.about.com/od/modelrailroadtrains/ss/Popular-Modeling-Eras.htm
Mixy
I believe he meant to said the 1980-2000.
I model those eras as well. I do Conrail in 1987-89, with GP38-2, SD50, GP35, and GP15 locomotives. Freight cars are boxcars, covered hoppers, hoppers, flatcars, tankers, and gondolas.
Union Pacific and BNSF in 1998-2007 with modern GE and EMD diesels and era appropriate freight cars like containers for maxi well cars.
Modeling the late 19th Century is a lot of fun.
I deliberately chose 1900 as the year I am modeling for the following reasons:
- tail end of working sail. Part of my dream is to model a Northern Pacific Coast dog hole harbor with the accompanying dog hole lumber schooner.
- knuckle couplers were pretty much standard by then - my free-lance railroads used them.
- prosperity was starting to return after the melt downs and recessions - the biggie in my era being the government-induced silver crash of 1893.
- historical research is a lot of fun. But there are plenty of information gaps for me to ponder what was likely practice at the time
- not a lot of model equipment in HO (or any scale) to spend my meager budget on buying more than I need.
- doesn’t take a large layout or large radius curves to model short lines of the era effectively
- narrow gauge was just starting to decline in popularity, as standard gauge interchange procedures were becoming the norm
Fred W
…modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it’s always 1900 (in HO and HOn3)…
Basedon his other posts he is talking about the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s. This thread has a Y2K thing going on.
Sounds backwoodsy with a doghole harbor, etc. You’ll certainly be scratch building a bit but you are probably looking for a consolidation or a diminutive praire or 0-6-0. You could modify to suit a number of Blackstone engines in H0n3 or buy some cool old brass and re-motor and re-gear. Sounds like a two or three engine road.
Your expense can be fairly minimal on such a small road, but do spend wisely on your motive power. A little extra spent there is probably the best investment in your road that you will make.
I also model the NS - CSX takeover which allows me to model Conrail also, It’s great to model all the differant trains and borrowed power. I have alot of differant rolling stock as well as a large assortment of power to run. Jim.
Algoma Central Railway in 1985 for me.
So did DavidH66, drop off of the edge of the earth?[:(!]
yes, yes I did…
Of Course I also meant the 1980s,1990,s and 2000s you smartalec’s 
Our N scale club layout is modeling the 1990’s. We are using SD70’s and other modern locos. The main roads are CSX, NS, and Conrail. Because the layout is set in the midwest, we allow all roads equipment like BNSF, UP, Rail America, and others. This time frame also allows for the older diesels lettered for the Chessie System, Pen Central, and the other roads that were absorbed into the larger systems like Con Rail, UP, BNSF, CSX, and NS. During that time frame, these older locos in their orginal colors were used as motive power usually behind the major road loco.
As for cars, we would like to run 50 footers and some longer cars, but what we have right now is alot of 40 foot stuff to make do with.
I would add TOFC’s to the frieght car list, of all types, from 90’ flats with 2 trailers, spine car sets, and Front Runner’s. Also, in the 80’s and 90’s, especially with smaller regional lines, you would see a lot of COFC’s, mixed with the TOFC’s. I remember when the WC started up, and just getting into the intermodal shipping, you would see a lot of mixed trains like this, with containers on just about anything that would hold them.
Mike.
In the U.S., locomotives did not have ditch lights prior to 1996. After then, they were required if the loco was running greater than 25mph I believe. If that level of accuracy means anything to you, keep that in mind.
Most, if not all, second generation and newer diesels had ditch lights added to them if they were manufactured before 1996. All of the model producers virually ignore this fact. Its as if they feel everybody is modeling a GP38-2 in the year they were brand new. I’ll bet most GP38-2’s have run more years with ditch lights installed to them by the railroads than without, but the model producers don’t get it.
I run MP15’s, GP38’s and dash 2’s, and Gensets mainly. Some Alco S2’s and S4’s were still around in those decades too.
Are 40’ Hi-Cube Box Cars still in regular use today? Where I live in S.W. Idaho the U.P. Trains consist of really long boxcars of various purposes, lumber carriers, well cars for containers of 40’ to 53’, big auto carriers, large hopper cars, both long and short funnel flow tank cars and occasional long flat car or gondola.
A lot of railroads were retrofitting ditch lights to their existing fleet before 1996(especially the Canadian roads). They did become mandatory as you mentioned. GP38-2’s built/operated before ditch light totals 14-24 years depending on when they were built, and only 18 years since the 1996 date,
Model manufacturers usually make a model based on drawings when the prototype came out. Those GP38-2’s were produced from 1972 though 1986. Adding working ditch lights can be done. The Kato ‘mid production’ SD40-2 and Atlas Gensets, & some GE’s have ditch lights factory installed IIRC.
I have 2 Gensets, and 3 SD40-2’s with ditch lights - Love them. I also have 7 GP38/GP38-2/GP39-2 models without them(and trying to figure how to add them).
Jim
Thanks for the info Jim.
I have some of the gensets and love them too. It seems like enough years have passed since 1996 that there would be a pretty strong demand for models of second and third generation diesels with retrofitted ditch lights. A few runs of a few road names would probably sell well.
I generally don’t mind adding details myself, but ditch lights and their wiring is more tedious work than I really want to tackle at this point.
In addition to the locos you mentioned, I think Intermountain is planning some later ditch light retrofit roadnames to their new GP10/GP16 models. That will be a welcomed 4 axle diesel for somebody modeling post-1996, U.S.