If it doesn’t have a caboose, it’s not a train. Passenger trains excepted of course. [:D]
My main current layout era theme is the Union Pacific and BNSF 1998-2007.
My main focus on my train set in set in 1990s, I never really realized why I wanted to model it. But back in 1995-1997 or whatever year it was I can’t remember. I planned to model the Cotton Belt, never really seen the Southern Pacific, but plenty of the name cars.
Although I can change railroads just in case (ATSF, BN, CSX, NS, SP) I get bored.
Since my favorite color was blue I saw Conrail in books and later bought a CR train set. I decided to also model Conrail in 1987 and again in 1998. So I have a landscape in each region.
I also made a UP and NYC in the late 1950s early 1960s.
I think there is a natural curiosity that goes with this hobby that, for me anyway, keeps me always looking at what I like about other railroads, other locales, and other eras. I love the prototype and era I model now–BNSF in North Texas and Colorado in 2003–but it is not what I started with. I grew up in the heart of MoPac territory along its first mainline–the Sedalia sub in west-central Missouri. Naturally I desired to model what I knew and my first layout was a ficticious town on the MoPac in 1980. All three layouts I have built have been N scale, and I love N scale. I do, however, have future dreams/plans that are very different. I hope in retirement (20 years or so down the road) to build a 1870’s or 1880’s era HO narrow-guage layout set in the Rockies with logging service and livestock traffic along with passenger service being the focus. It doesn’t mean I regret what I am doing now. It is just a different area of interest I have developed over time and would like to explore. Will I? Who knows? I hope so. These are the things that keep this hobby so interestingn to me.
Ron
Well, I have changed scales twice - HO to O to S. And prototype twice - PRR to freelance to Maryland & Pennsylvania. Along the way I acquired some Sn2 stuff that will eventually be a small separate layout. But for about the last 20 years or so it’s been the Ma&Pa in S as the primary.
Enjoy
Paul
My era has been tight from the mid to late 70’s right from the get-go. I did manage to eek into 1981 when the D&H acquired some C424s, but that was as far from the 70s that I ventured. 
Mark.
For the most part, I’ve been a diehard Pennsy guy/SPF, though I’ve always felt a serious draw to N&W as I grew up in Virginia in the 80s through early 2000s. I also loved O. Winston Link’s photography, so again, another draw towards the N&W. I did some N&W modelling for a short time, and think about it here and there.
I went from HO to N-scale in 2003. I went back to HO later on. I like the space saving factor, and I love seeing how far along N-scale has gotten since I tried it out 13-years ago.
I’ve considered O-scale but for various reasons doubt I’ll take up O-scale, though Proto48 looks amazing. As are the details, and the sound output.
The variety of models, details, scale components in HO is hard to beat, so I stick with HO, plus the size works well for me.
Now, I have gone back to the PRR and I’m only buying passenger cars, and milk cars. When I build a layout it’ll be set up to be the early 50s. I’ve not settled on a prototype and likely never will as I’m more interested in creating a freelance Pennsylvania countryside and city scales for the trains to run through. Not that many Pennsy environs do not interest me, many do, but not enough so that I may want to create in miniature what a particular locale looked like 65-years ago. A building, a small scene, absolutely. I’m more concerned with believable over super correct. I’m also more interested in 2-track operation, rather then the 4-track mainline. My interests may change and I may have different notions over what may be the more fun and interesting way to model railroad, especially if I get new space and resources to work in. Right now, I’m building and collecting models as I’ve no room for a layout.
Alvie
For the past 24 years I have always been modeling the PRR’s Buffalo Line. An addition to the building where the railroad is located in 1998 increased the mainline run and some branches operated BUT it was still the Buffalo line. My issue or problem ( as the crew would say ) is my era switching that seems to take place about every 5-7 years. When first built it was the late PRR 1962-1968 it then slowly changed into the late PRR /PC a 1965-1975 era. From there it became a Conrail era 1976-1982. Then back to the late PRR/PC and 5 years ago to the 1956-57 era PRR. I sold off the Conrail equipment when I got out of that era so it won’t come back BUT the late PRR/PC era will return sometime in 2017. I intend to sell off the 1956-57 era equipment to reduce the amount of equipment here . Also being in my late 60’s has made me realize that any additional era changes will happen in my mid 70’s and I may not want to take on that task at that time. The Railroad and operation stays basically the same . I do swap out vehicles but not buildings. Biggest change is loco’s , rolling stock and cabin cars. The later era is much more colorfull than the mid 50’s era. The era changes also gives me new things to do ,buy and try. Keeps things fresh. Railroad is too large to be tearing it down for a new one. Helps keep me young !! — Ken
Well, nearly 30 years ago I moved from a late 60’s era, to the early 50’s. About 20 years ago I developed the current freelance “ATLANTIC CENTRAL” in that era.
The ATLANTIC CENTRAL interchanges with the C&O, B&O, and WESTERN MARYLAND, so prototye modling of those roads is intergrated into my freelancing.
Very happy, not changing. In addition to actually still being very interested in this era, I don’t have the temperament, time or energy for the selling off and repurchasing thing.
I’ll just be happy to complete most of what I have started now…
Sheldon
In 13 years of preparing to build my layout (which will be started soon!) I have never changed my focus. I want to run Canadian Pacific in the maroon and grey livery, with a few closely related roads like the Algoma Central and Dominion Atlantic, plus the Algoma Eastern which will fictitiously live on long after its actual demise. That gives me lots of different locomotives and cars to choose from, and a reasonably broad time frame to work within. Anything earlier than that will be run as a museum piece. I personally won’t run anything newer on my track, but if somebody visits and wants run their own more modern engine that will be fine by me.
Dave
Great comments, thanks guys. Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, just got home from Scouts.
I grew up in Upstate SC in a small textile mill town. Right in the middle of SR, Clinchfield, SCL, and P&N country. In fact my best friend’s dad was a conductor for the SR. There was a culture and way of life to those towns that was rather unique and I keep being drawn back to modeling that “culture” rather than an exact prototype. But from a railroading perspective, it was pretty much just work-a-day railroading. A local crawling into a sleepy town lost between Mayberry and Hooterville. Or a drag freight on it’s way from somewhere to somewhere temporarily disrupting Saturday morning shopping in Mt Pilot.
Then for 20 years the AF sends me to places like Colorado where the joint line is more than something to read about, and traces of Colorado Midland still dot the landscape. And California, where our first day in the state took us over Tehachapi. And the Northeast, and … Well, there is so much to love railroading wise all around the country and my room is so small…
[quote user=“tomikawaTT”]
Some people hunt around, play the field and never seem to hook up, with the right prototype/era or the right woman.
Other, luckier, people slide down an ever-narrowing funnel and finally score a clean hit in the center of the bullseye.
My spiral went from NYC to N&W to ‘generic Japanese’ to a very specific time and place, where it dropped anchor 52 years ago and hasn’t raised a sail or turned a screw since. The other spiral zeroed sooner - I’ve been married (to the Imperial subject who crystallized the ‘generic Japanese’ phase by giving me my first brass locomotive) for 56 years.
I can understand those who keep hunting, but am happy not to join them.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - since September, 1964)
When I started my layout, I decided to free lance. I can make the rules, have my own infrastructure, and change anything at any time. I model the mid to late 50s. The area is set in the mountains west of Harrisburg Pa. This area gives my fictitious South Penn a chance to interact with the PRR, EBT, Tuscarora, and the fictitious Blacklog.
To really mix things up, the Great Northern passes through on occasion.
I’m having fun, and that’s all that counts.
I’d suggest it’s not simply having fun, although that’s always a good sign. Rather, are you finding satisfaction in your modeling? That could include fun, in and of itself, but also includes other factors. Your budget, your space for a layout, the support in the market for your interests, and the availability of information needed to put what you want together in a satisfying way are all important.
Because you could be thrilled by the UP, build a model that reflects that and then figure out your budget isn’t UP-size, you’ve got 8’x14’ to build in, you really like small UP steam from circa 1920, and no one has written anything about the obscure UP branch line you really want to model because your uncle worked there. There are ways around all that, but if your interest is dragging, nothing’s getting built and everything seems too expensive, then maybe it’s time for a change.
The place where this gets painful and difficult is when the budget is already sunk into gear for something you’re not so fond of anymore or at least don’t feel the pull of a longtime commitment. Give it six months if you’re not sure, but ebay, etc make changing prototype or era relatively less painful than it used to be. Not saying painless, but there are now ways to cash out expended capital so that if you chose wisely in the first place, the transition can be practical in the sense of bringing in some financial assistance in making a switch, as well as finding deals to make a new start.
In doing so, you’ll be wise to apply the lessons you learned the first time or two around the block. Getting out a clean sheet of paper is sometimes the solution if you don’t change anything except decide your trackplan because it really blows chunks. It’s when you start feeling enthusiastic about figuring things out to suit your givens and druthers about the hobby that you’ll know it was the right thing to do, but taking the “track planning” approach to your h
I suspect settling down on to a RR and a specific time frame is difficult for many because they see this and see that and like it all and buy this and buy that. Just go to a train show and see what people run - mostly a mishmash.
That said, when a person does have the “whatever” to get into something specific, the outcome can be magical. Even at train shows I’ve seem some run trains very faithful to UP or some other RR and they look really nice; even if I am not into that era or RR, I really have a great appreciation for someone who can run a faithful train!
I have a mishmash collection but,I separate the eras-you won’t see a CSX boxcar in my 77/78 era nor will you see IPD era boxcars in my 95/96 era.
I think I became a collector more then a era specific modeler since I can model 77/78,84/85 and 95/96…I can model 60/61 due to my collection of Kadee boxcars that’s been in a tote since around 2003. I had plans on selling them but,some where along the line I decided to keep them and forgot about them since that tote was on the bottom of the pile and seldom bothered…
Some are more mishmash than others. I have fallen victim to being somewhat of a collector too over the past 30 years, but it was limited to mostly buying rolling stock good for my favorite RR between 1965 and 1991, which is a pretty darn wide time frame. Too wide really. I have decided to narrow things down to focus on about a 10 year period which is a big change from a 26 year period, tightening things to about 1975-1985.
I have systematically sold off most of my late 1980’s thru early 1990’s rolling stock until I am down to only a few items, mostly some well cars that would be difficult to replace so I can occasionally a double stack train. I also still have a full California Zephyr and an F3ABBA set which was retired by Jan 1966. Any new purchases are being limited to what fits in the 1975-1985 window these days, which allows me to run a lot of freight cars built in the 1950’s and 1960’s still on the rails in some cases thru part of the 1980’s.
Selling off rolling stock that falls out side of my narrowed time frame helps fund purchases of rolling stock that fits better.
I love PRR rolling stock - K4s, L1s, H10, E6, M1/M1a, etc… and they’re virtually all available in HO (if you don’t mind spending $300+ that is) Problem is, the locales I’m actually interested in modeling eventually are (er, were) Reading and B&O country (SE PA and W. MD) Fans of those railroads will shudder I’m sure, but I’ve decided I’m just going to do my thing, and protolance the PRR into where I want it.
You will see whatever I want you to see in my relatively new 2000 ish layout The SIW never throws anything out as long as it’s diesel and it has a northeastern road name CSX Conrail Chessie and of course SIW. But none of it is super modern GP - 38s and GE 70 are my go to locomotives.
I have no interest in steam except for an ocassional excursion train.
I like all eras although I model the modern CN/CP for practical reasons: lots of prototype models available on the market, and studying the prototype is as easy as standing at trackside not far from my house. No regrets about the era I’ve chosen… I’m not an accomplished master model builder so something like 2 ft. gauge shay steam in MI in 1924 would be beyond my capabilites anyway.
I’m set in my circa-1910-anthracite-region theme, and happily so! And I’ve been on this trail long enough that my current layout and equipment roster are coming together nicely. Color me committed.
Now, if the house burnt down and I had to start over completely, I might (… might! [^o)]) take a look at On30 in a somewhat similar theme.
Jim
I hear ya there. I’d eventually want to mix in some parts of the Shenandoah Valley, and even New England into a future layout. Purist may not care for such notions, but pleasing them is not my concern.
Alvie