My Nscale Maclau River is largely inspired by the N&W, in the steam age.
Steam Mallets were the king on this system, like the Maclau River.
In the beginning, all the steam rooster was nearly only Rivarossi/Atlas steam and a very few brass imports.
This roster has dissappear now; by 2003-2005 the new generation of steam models come on the market, better runner, excellent details and DCC ready for the most.
I have replaced all the Ri./Atlas steam by the new generation of N scale steam, made by Kato, Bachmann, Model power and Life Like.
Some of these company offer mallet in their catalog which can fit a place on my roster.
Only the few brass remains from the old roster, all of them (4) are Key imports second hand and only the 4-6-6-2 model run quiet well looking at the new plastic steam generation.
The car rooster is mostly 55 tons hopper and boxcar from the 30’s/40’s including flat, tankcar and all the car which were running at this time, most are MTL whith Atlas and Intermountain and a few Fox valleys models, my car rooster is nearly 500 cars and it’s a all time growing rooster,whith two or three car each week.
Only MTL couplers are used on the system.
And I must agree I can’t resist when I see a model which can be used on my layout.
And don’t use staging on your layout, because…you need much more car and locomotives (lol)