Hi all.
For about six months now I’ve been stuck in the 1950s with my railroading, and have gotten to where my favorite locos and roads are the Southern Pacific F-7 Black Widow, the Nickel Plate Road Berkshire and the Union Pacific Challenger.
Anyone else out there a 50s modeller ?.
Tracklayer
I have a Southern Pacific F-7 Black Widow too and am using 45-50’s era. I do not run a conventional setup cause I like to run different locos cause its too much fun. I will have Union Pacific too but waiting for a UP Mike from BLI next year. I have a SP mike also which is my favorite. I am not really choosing a road though. I will have a alternate universe setup. I am not to conventional on my layout.
I am modeling the Great Northern Railway between 1947 and 1967, though my emphasis is on the mid to late 50s. I simply have this unresolvable liking for GN steam as well as first generation diesel power. Plus, my earliest (1963) train memories are of the Empire Builder on it’s run along Puget Sound to Seattle, so I’m a huge fan of that color scheme. So, for my steam power, I have acquired various brass locos, while my diesel fleet consists of locos from many manufacurers.
I am gearing up to model the late end of the transition era from the late PRR days, through Penn Central into Conrail in the early to mid 70’s. Most of my engines so far are some RS-2’s a couple of GP 7’s or 9’s and 38’s, a C-430 a PRR RS-11 and a CR SW-7. I’m looking for some SD’s for my Penn Central days, but just haven’t gotten that far yet.
As far as the layout, it will more then likely be mostly coal industry freight and maybe a small amout of oil and of course the good old reliable boxcar freight and I might throw a small lumber yard in there too.
Ah Rocky Rick, I too am a GN fan but have no steam…yet! I model GN in the Cascades, circa ‘47-‘50 with a four unit FT, 2 GP7’s, 2 NW2’s to divide up my over 70 36’-40’ freight cars, not including my MOWset of bunkhouse, tool, and kitchen cars, and my 14 car Empire Builder is pulled by a pair of BLI E-7’s. I love the effect that having sound makes me want to operate prototypically. I don’t have space or resources for a layout because I love big curves and turnouts, so I do Free-mo modules and occasionally get to play on some really big setups. Happy railroading one and all, jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
Anyone who has to ask me hasn’t been paying attention. OTOH, they may not be aware that in 1964 the Japan National Railway Company was a government-owned monopoly…
Chuhck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
MR just announced a new book today on “Modeling the 50’s”. Look in the “our stores” section from the MR homepage, then click modeling reference. This will probably be a great item for those of us who model the 50’s.
Ma & Pa in the early in the early 50’s. The surveys I have seen show that the 1947-1960 time period is the most popular. The transition period has a lot to offer - every variety of steam, lots of diesels, passenger trains with open platform cars, celestory roof heavyweights, and streamlined, all wood freight cars, all steel freight cars, wood and steel freight cars, even a few truss rod cars. It was still the era of loose car railroading and before the merger era so freight trains tended to have lots of variety. New paint schemes were being introduced as well. All in all a most interesting era to model.
Enjoy
Paul
I model 1955 on my freelance Piedmont Southern. The PS runs northwesterly from Richmond, VA to Connellsville, PA and connects along the way with my favorite railroads: Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, Southern, C & O, N & W, and Western Maryland.
Dale Latham
Hi,
I have always enjoyed modeling the '50s (the time of my childhood and first exposure to trains) and my current layout was originally set in 1957. I originally kept cars/locos strictly to that timeframe, but soon found that a lot of great stuff appeared in 1958-59, so I changed my format to be no later than 1959.
Growing up in Chicago I lived close to the C&NW and the Milwaukee Road, but my first real love of a particular railroad was the Illinois Central. I spent much time in Anna, Illinois at my Grandmothers, and her house was a very close to the IC main line. There were two mains, one passing siding, and one industry siding in clear view from her porch. I was fortunate to witness steam locos grinding by with long freights and coal hauls, and the local switcher was an 0-8-0 which was a monster to this 12 year old kid. But the best of all was the chocolate and orange streamliners, some of which blasted thru at tremendous speeds, blaring their horns at the many crossings. Wow, the sights, sounds and smells are still with me!!!
But, my layout and major interest today is the Santa Fe, with an interchange with the IC. Like many kids starting out with trains in the '50s in Chicagoland, the Santa Fe was the line of choice, probably because of the colors, the aura, and those everpresent Lionel F3s.
Whatever your layout’s road, time frame, scale, or purpose, my advice to you is ENJOY !!!
Mobilman44
I grew up watching the Southern Pacific blast very long trains through Lancaster Ca., and as a teenager lived accross the freeway from the Colton yard. Therefore I model the '70’s and '80’s but since I did see an occasional tiger stripe I included a couple of those scemes. Also on AB F3 black widow as an SP layout would not be complette without.
I would joyfully do the transition era but I do not like N-scale steam, so I stick to diesels. Actually I do have a GS4 with daylighter cars to match. Someday I will transition to HO or O and have steam.
Era: 1950s to the present
Roads: PRR, Seattle and North Coast, Milwaukee Road, Utah Railway
Locales: NEC, Pacific NW, Rocky Mountains, Southern California (Tehacapi)
My current layout is based on my fictional interpertation of the Seattle and North Coast with car float a connection to Seattle. And it will all be “under wire”.
George
About 1975, plus / minus 5 years. But there’re a few museum pieces. [:)]
Wolfgang
My layout is set in the 50’s…I grew up then, and I also love 1950’s cars. My trains, however, are PRR 1938-48 because I love K4’s, GG1’s, and “Fleet of Modernism” passenger cars. As a “O” gauger, I can do whatever I want[:D]. Joe
Absolutely we are out here. My favorite era is from 1949 to 1956 or so. I visited the NKP mainline to St. Louis at Neoga Illinois many weekends and watched the early ALCO NKP Berkshire do their thing with the freight trains. The good thing about the diamond at Neoga was the Illinois Central was all steam on freights until late 1956 also.
Cheers
NKP through Cleveland in about 1953. It was one of the few roads that still had steam hauling fast freights on the double track main through Lakewood and diesels doing passenger work and drag freights. I had no idea when I was young that the Bershires would disappear as soon as they did. Also, I think the NKP was the only class 1 railroad never to own an F unit, which makes it pretty distinctive. Then came 1964, merger with the N&W, and everything went down the tubes after that. [sigh]
Wait… did the N&W ever have any F units? E units, maybe, big maybe, but F’s? I mean, they built steam way into the early 50’s. I’ve wondered for a while now…
Brad
Technically, the N&W, while it was a separate railroad, never owned an F unit. It picked up a bunch of them from the merger with Wabash and they were painted in N&W colors. So I should revise my statement that the NKP was the ony class 1 railroad that never owned an F unit or had one painted in its road’s colors. Come to think of it, I don’t think they ever owned an E unit either. Their ony pure passenger power were the PA-1’s.
I was just out in the garage, and cleaned up the outer track of our helix (the helix is the main complete portion, so if I want to test something it is pretty much up and down the helix…)for the first time in months. But my new Black Widow F3A/B set on and ran it up and down…
I don’t know that SP is necessarily my favorite line, but we (my sons and I) chose to model what we can see (though not when we can see it!), and since the SP was the line through here, that’s the one! Of course, one of my sons couldn’t resist the Super Chief set, and is getting a Big Boy, and one of the others got a BNSF AC4400, so there might be a bit of foreign power on the line at times.
As far as era, it had to be transition. To me the old diesels have so much character, and a little steam here and there never hurt anyone! And we can run passenger trains. Also, the cars are shorter, so we can run more, if we could just afford them!
I grew up along the New Haven from Rye, NY to New London, CT and points in between, especialy New Haven.
I model the New Haven Railroad in the transition era, because that is what was happening where I lived then. A big plus, is that was the golden era of prototype railroads which went into decline with the advent of the Interstate Highway system, affordable and frequent air travel, and the Post Office’s cancellation of the Railway Mail contracts. Also, in New England, the flight of industry to the South in the ever lasting quest for cheap labor (its all in China now) spelled the doom for freight traffic. It is long gone, but it was very exciting and interesting to observe.
I can model the change of engines on trains from NYC from electric to steam and/or diesel at New Haven and the reverse for the return trips from Boston and Springfield. There were Heavy weight Pullman and Parlor cars, the “American Flyer” coaches, the new Stainless Steel fluted streamliners, and famous name trains like the Merchant’s Limited, The Yankee Clipper, The Montrealler, and of course the many Pennsy trains from Washington including the Federal with its fancy Budd cars.
Sad to say the “Fallen Flags” have fallen and railroading will never be the same again.