freelance/prototype modeling

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have heard this term tossed around for years…probably first from Tony Koester. What is the exact meaning? I’m now fairly sure that I fit into this catagory, and that is fine. I began as a Southern Pacific die hard as I once worked on the SP for a short period in 1958. Then as a religious PRR modeler as I had an uncle who ran a K-4 in south Jersey, then Erie as another uncle ran K-1 from Suffern, NY to Jersey City… then Western Maryland after faling in love with the region, Each time I had acquired or built almost everything that was available for these roads and attempted to model exact areas of operation, Although this was quite challenging, it was just as frustrating and I was not getting the enjoyment I thought I would from the hobby. (I almost forgot…I also modeled the New York Central as I grew up near the 4 track West Shore mainline in Teaneck, NJ.)

My present layout now is mythical, but sort of accurate for the locale and time period. My layout, the Piermont Division leases steam and no longer needed 1st generation diesels from just about every railroad on the North American continent and then some. All my years spent trying to be accurate came to a screeching halt when I admitted that I have not yet met a locomotive, railroad, piece of rolling stock or whatever that I did not like and relaxed my standards. I had considered re-lettering all of my new equipment for the Piermont Railroad, but then I remembered that the Pennsy once leaed a bunch of ATSF 5000 class 2-10-4’s in 1956 and left the Sante Fe lettering on the locos.

Many visitors have commented on my lack of mission or operating scenario, and that is also fine as it is my railroad and I have found tremendous pleasure in doing just this type of modeling, During the late 80’s and at my height of trying to capture the Western Maryland in detail as it was during the early 50’s, I decided to put a Dynatrol receiver in a Tenshodo Big Boy and haul the string of Sunshine R70-2 , R40, and R39 reefers I had been buildi

2

For the record, I’ve never been a prototype modeler.

When I was in 3 rail O, I wanted certain passenger sets - but I wasn’t limited to a particular prototype. The colors were more important thena the prototype - with the streamlined PRR Congressional being hauled by a green GG-1 being the set I wanted most (never got one).

In the scale world, I have always had a region (Oregon) and an era in mind (currently 1900), but the line itself was fictional. My concerns have been to make the route (modeled and real) plausible. The same is true for the roster - trying to come up with a plausible roster of locomotives and rolling stock. But now that I live in Colorado, and with the preponderance of HOn3 model equipment being Colorado prototype, I find it very difficult to prevent Colorado influence from creeping into my Oregon narrow gauge line.

my thoughts, your choices

Fred W

3

My basement layout is set in New Hampshire and the prototype road is the Boston & Maine. However I have some favorite locomotives from roads far removed from New England, an ABBA set of Alco FA’s painted for Missouri Pacific, a superdetailed GP9 painted for Southern Pacific, and others. I run them. I rationalize this by telling myself that the layout is actually in the mid west or far west for this operating session, or it’s a run thru power agreement, or they are leased, or whatever. I enjoy it, no rivet counters are around to be offended, and why not?

4

Fred,

Why not? Years back there was a well known and published group called the Hartford (CT) workshop. One of the members…I think Earl Smallshaw combined rather succesfully Rocky Mountain scenery with New England scenes. This was/is a top notch model railroad with lots of imagination. The hobby is about …at least for me…unlimited imagination. Sellios, also I suppose would fit into this class.

HZ

5

One of the causes that drove me to make my railroad freelance was to avoid the drop dead seriousness of the whole prototype scene. My favorite era of model railroading was the '70’s and '80’s, plus or minus. I like the E.L. Moore type buildings, complete with the stories (as long as the effects aren’t carried to extreme). I’m building my own freight cars and cabooses, mostly out of the “Dollar Car” series in Kalmbachs book. I want an element of realism, but I’ll settle for representations that are evocative rather than exact, as a rule.

I remember reading about Lynn Moedingers layout in RMC a few years back. He had the East Broad Top meeting the (I think) Rio Grande Southern. In his world, Maine bordered the Rockies. He liked both railroads, so fie with reality. I’m with him. The microcosms of the world we create are there to satisfy inner desires in each of us. Freelancing, even goofy freelancing, has it’s place and is no less “serious” than the most carefully realistic layout (ever unless said layout is used to train employees of the real railroad or some such).

Lou

6

Hi Howard,

I was an “avid” Southern Pacific / Santa Fe modeler until the first time I made the trip from the Timonium weekend show to your house to see your layout, this was about 8-9 years ago. Just hasn’t worked out for me to make it back there again.

Anyhow, after seeing your layout and listening to your explainations of “why” you had a Santa Fe engine running on the same track as a Western Maryland 2-8-0 I decided you had the right idea as I have the same problem as you, never met a railroad or locomotive I didn’t like.

So, you see my friend, you have affected people’s point of view without even knowing it and it has been positive experience for me as I can now explain to myself why I have collected all of this equipment.

And I have to agree with you on the scenery in the Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia area, it is ready made for modeling as well as being “beautiful country”.

( I can even run some Pennsy now in honor of my old buddy/partner Bill Lessor.)

Mark

NMRC

7

“freelance/prototype modeling.”

In my best Yoda voice.You can do one but,not both you can not…

In prototype modeling one models a specific railroad while modeling a freelance railroad you are modeling a fictitious railroad based on prototypical knowledge or a whimsical setting where everything under the sun is ran from a 4-4-0 to a SD90MAC under the guise of “its my railroad” which is ok if that floats your boat.

Now,after the smoke clears I fully believe the majority chooses what they like regardless of era and in that light who are we to judge the way another enjoys the hobby? I certainly won’t.

8

Perhaps I could introduce a term?

Eclecticism - taking from two or more fields, pursuits philosophies, or art forms, what one deems to be the best of each of them and combining them into another whole that has more meaning, or that is in some way more desirable than each of the former parts.

One can have eclectic tastes.

I think a lot of us like more than what any one rairoad had/has to offer in the way of modeling. It is why we have the “collector”, such as I, who has no two of any one locomotive, and only a select few that were run on any one railroad. And as mentioned, I like the prairies…for a bit…but I grew up in the Andes in S. America, and have been strongly associated with the Rockies,Monashees, Selkirks, and Coast Ranges ever since. And now the Beaufort Range on Vancouver Island. I wish for my rail world to incorporate mountains, but also the foothills and the colours of the regions in Nevada and AZ, for example…and the southern interior of British Columbia that is very close to being a desert…searing heat in the summer, tumbleweed, sage brush…big ripe red tomatoes in July.

And in that southern interior, running on either littoral of the South Thompson River, and then the mighty Fraser when the two combine not far from Hell’s Gate, are Canada’s two Class 1’s. I never heard a steamer on them, despite my experience with steam in my youth…it was anything from an F-Unit up to modern AC4400’s and SD90MAC’s. That is the reach of my experience.

It want it all.

Crandell

9

Howard

I do use Colorado rolling stock as stand-ins for the “someday” model building effort. But at the bottom line, my desire is to make the whole layout - small as it is - tie together as a model of a what-might-have-been slice of life and railroading in coastal Oregon. I personally would prefer not to have another sort-of model of Colorado narrow gauge - even though chances of anybody else seeing it are rather slim. In my favor is that almost all the HOn3 narrow gauge equipment produced is too modern for my chosen era, regardless of prototype. So my stand-ins have 2 strikes against them - Colorado prototype and too modern.

These are just my preferences and choices.

Fred W

…modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it’s always 1900…

10

Do most respectfully beg to differ!

On my ‘work in progress’ empire, the Japan National Railway line is as honest to prototype as my meager abilities allow. Rolling stock bears numbers I recorded off 1:1 scale equipment during the month I model, and the published 1:1 scale September, 1964, timetable is Holy Writ.

OTOH, the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo, my coal-hauling short line:

  • Hauls coal out of a valley that never had a working coal mine.
  • Rosters a 2-6-6-2T - the BIGGEST Japanese prototype steam loco was a 2-10-4T, and the few articulateds were x-4-4-x.
  • Runs bogie hopper-brakes and 7-axle articulated hoppers of no acknowledged ancestry.
  • Is, in all other ways, a freelance, `what if,’ operation - prototype-inspired, but not prototype based.

Maybe you can’t have both on a single railroad, but I have both on a single set of benchwork support legs.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - sort of)

11

I may have a different view of the term Freelance/prototype modeling.

I am also a freelance modeler, but at the same time I also try and follow the practices of real railroads unless it stops being “fun”.

I also don’t do a lot of prototype research unless I am going to model a specific piece of equipment. But I am not a rivet counter either. The “sense” of things should be correct, and that is what I try to model. By that I mean as an example, I have engines and cabeese that are decorated for my fictional railroad, the C&A. Plus I have other “trains” from the WM and B&O, but when running them through the layout, the loco and caboose on a given train will be from the same road. I don’t mix a WM caboose with a B&O or C&A loco. However, I also have a NYC RS-1 that my RR has leased, and it will run with a C&A caboose, but it also has a decal on it that says “Leased Locomotive”. I’m not sure if that is how it was done or not, but I think it is plausible.

As for the freelancing part, the scenes / scenery I build, and the layout itself, does not depict specific areas even though they may have some town names that are real.

So I sort of feel that the term Freelance/prototype can mean different things to different modelers.

(So when does prototype modeling stop being fun? For me, prototype modeling stops being fun when you get into operations where folks want to duplicate the paperwork required to run a train. Don’t get me wrong, I like operations and have ops sessions on my layout. I use a computer program that generates switch lists to run trains by, and that’s about as simple as it gets, and that’s all of the paperwork I care to have.)

12

Freelancing allows you “to capture the flavor” of the prototype.

Example: Conemaugh Road & Traction “WHAT IFs” (2) questions:

[1] What If – Johnstown Traction Company was an interurban instead of PCCs?

[2] What If – PRR had completed electrification from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh?

Thus: CR&T – Johnstown’s geography-prototype is in the Conemaugh Valley.

The Pennsy-prototype flavor is how PRR’s 4-track mainline, including Broadway Limited, came through the Conemaugh Valley while the rather large PCC-fleet was doing its thing alongside Bethlehem Steel’s industrial short-line railroads, including the Freight Car Division (BethGons, etc.).

13

You gotta love this hobby. We’re forever inventing new terminology to divide us. Freelancer, prototype modeler, and freelance/prototype modeler. Let me add a new one - prototype/freelancer.

A prototype/freelancer is one who faithfully follows a specific prototype, but adds in the things the prototype forgot to include. In my case I’m modeling the Ma&Pa in the early 50’s, but I’ve added some billboard reefers, the NMRA Heritage/Living Legends cars, and an Sn2 Forney. If I ever find an affordable S scale camelback, I’ll add that too. Plus whatever else appeals to me.

Enjoy

Paul

14

I don’t think “divide” is the word I would have used here. I don’t really think we are dividing up the hobby of model railroading.

Maybe “categorize” would be a better one.

15

My underconstruction effort will be a trunk line connecting with a short line. The trunk line will take turns being B&O, RDG, or PRR as well as the era shifting back and forth from late steam to Conrail. My mood will determine which groups of power I operate and I’ll add or remove time appropriate cars.

The shortline will operate a mish-mosh of assigned or leased equipment gathered from the trunk lines.

Gives me an excuse to consider buying more schemes that way.

16

My now gone GER was freelance. Prototypical freelance if you will.

No 4-4-0s along side SD40-2s. No sir!. I attempted to make the GER look as real as possible. The setting was 1958 and I took great pains to ensure that nothing on the GER took away from that 1958 look. Yes, there are a couple of anomalies in the photos on the web page but these had been removed by the time the GER was scrapped in March 2010.

Why did I freelance?

I would have liked to model 1958 Canadian Pacific but there are few accurate models of Canadian prototypes for any era and I wasn’t going to settle for American diesels painted in Canadian Pacific colours. Besides, how many affordable, non brass, rtr model of Canadian steam, let alone Canadian Pacific steam are out there? Zero, that’s how many.

So I was left with little choice but to freelance but to freelance with rules so that the whole of the GER looked plausible. The basis for the GER is that it replaces the CPR across Quebec and into the Maritimes.

The next model railway to grace my basement will be, hopefully, a portion of the GER’s mainline across Quebec to the Maritimes.

17

The HVT is certainly a freelance railroad. When I first got into the hobby a few years ago a friend gave me some HO equipment he no longer needed because he has gone to Marklin. Included in the treasures was the book HO Railroad that Grows by Linn Westcott. From that the trackwork was laid following his final version.

Then I found MRR magazine and all the talk about prototype and operations and rivet counting. I was lost. Until one day I found complete peace with myself and the little railroad in a letter to the magazine from Steve Gross.

"Most modelers would be appalled at what I call model railroading: my radii are too tight, I don’t weather rolling stock or structures, I mix periods, and my scenery is a patchwork of different locales.

“It’s nice to know that this hobby is satisfying for probably as many different reasons as there are people who engage in it.”

Steve Gross – Kennebunk, Maine

MRR Aug 2007

To Steve and his view I will ever be grateful.

18

Well, I am deeply into the “protolance” thing. My ATLANTIC CENTRAL is freelanced, and it interchanges with three prototype roads, the C&O, B&O and WM. I try to be fairly accurate with those three roads but obviously their connection to the ACR is all “what if” fiction, and I do stretch a time frame here and there on some equipment.

With the ACR I am pretty disciplined about what would be plausable and believable. No Big Boys winding throught the Allegheny Mountains lettered ACR. I stick real close to my 1954 time period and to locos that a railroad in region would have logicly had.

Before begining this latest layout and theme about 15 years ago, I seriously considered the prototype modeling thing, just could not get full into it.

Partly because I am not motivated to model specific real locations in terms of track arrangements or scenery. And, like others, the freelance thing lets me include things I like about a number of railroads, some of which I model as well.

But like Tony Koester and other noted “protolancers” great effort and thought is put into the plausable scenerio aspects of the layout and its equipment. Which actually requires as much or more prototype study and understanding as following one railroad to the last rivet.

Here on the ACR we have re-written a little history, stretched a few dates, and built a few “what ifs”, but much of that is so subtle as to only be noticed by the most knowledgable of historians and rivet counters.

Example: My LIMA built heavy Mikados:

While LIMA and others where building Berkshires for the NKP, PM, C&O, Erie, etc, etc, they also build some very modern Mikes for the DT&I. Had some other railroad asked for a heavy Mike, with larger drivers (not unlike a GN O-8) LIMA likely would have built something just like the picture above. Well the ACR did ask for such a loco, and did not feel it needed a 4 wheel trailer, bu

19

As long as we’re descending into the pit of what’s-this-to-be-called, wouldn’t “protolancing” have to be considered a very long bridge spanning the great amorphous gradient of modeling that lies between freelancing and prototype? Case in point: My Monon-based layout rosters RS3’s, RS11’s, C425’s, and even a 2-10-0 when I decide to run steam, all faithfully painted in Monon schemes just like their contemporaries. That is, the paint schemes would have been faithful had the Monon ever actually have rostered any of those units. But it didn’t. Does that make me a freelancer? [*-)]

Trying to label and categorize us and what we do as model railroaders is and always will be problematic at best, short of developing some sort of 1000-line four-dimensional matrix. [banghead]

Now I must get back to my DC proto-freelanced point-to-point main line continuous run transition era double-tracked prewar bridge single-track short line switching layout.

Jim

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Jim,As far as “protolancing” what’s that? Of course I never subscribed to that notion.[:O]

If all your(general speak) locomotives are lettered for (say) Chessie you’re modeling Chessie.Plain and simple regardless if its a actual location or not.

My Columbus & Hocking Valley is 100% freelance,follows railroad practices but,its still a fictitious railroad.

IMHO “protolancing” came about when some “expert” modeler/author in MR wanted to cover up not modeling a actual part of his/her chosen prototype.I guess “protolancing” sounded more prestigious then just saying I model the Chessie and letting it go at that…