Im currently in the early stages of planing my layout and as I am new to modelling the US scene and also given that I have never been to your great country as I live in New Zealand I am after some general information on which railroads were/ are in which parts of the country also general information on locomotives and rolling stock and years they were in service etc.
I realise this is a huge subject but I am at a loss as to where to start!
Welcome Matt [:-^] Sorry, had to get that out of my system [(-D]
I’m not sure how Amazon.com works for you in your country or if Borders on line books delivers to you. That said I have a couple books that might help in your research.
“Classic American Railroads”, By Mike Schafer published by MBI Publishing Co.
“North American Locomotives”,By Micheal Swift published by Chartwell Books Inc.
Welcome to the forum and have fun
[#welcome] Matt! (Sorry! I too love the opportunity [:-,])
You will find that you have not just come to an excellent place to find answers but one that doesn’t take itself too seriously… which is a really good thing.
You might like to answer some questions for yourself. These will help you narrow down the subjects to ask here. Some of the info that will help us help you will be…
Have you been in the hobby long?
What scale do you work in? (Doesn’t directly affect the Q you’ve asked but it does help us later)
Do you prefer open country, city or industrial?
What period/era? o you want steam, transition, modern or what?
What sort of size of layout do you want? (Realistically)!
I have been model railroader for about 30 years on and off i guess. (where have those 30 years gone!!)
I like to model in HO
The ideas I have so far center around a country layout for the most part with maybe mining or logging.
I really like the transition period but not sure that will fit with my ideas.
It seems a 1930s ere railroad might work better.
The room i have available is approx 11ft by 16ft.
Im not too bothered if i have passenger service or not.
Mostly into running as i like focusing on scenery and watching my trains run through it but some switching is always part of the whole deal!
Hey i sure appreciate any help i can get as i believe in getting help from more experienced people than me hoping this will stop any major planning mistakes!!
Let’s turn it around a little, and ask what first interested you in modelling US railroads?? If there was something - a particular locomotive, or photograph, etc. - that got you interested in US railroading, that might go a long way to narrow down what to model.
If you like mining and logging, consider railroads in the Pacific Northwest states…Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. All three states have high mountain ranges (up to 14,000 feet elevation in Washington, for example) and the western sections of Washington and Oregon are big timber country. In the steam era there were a number of private logging lines, especially in Washington and Oregon. In the early 20th century there was the Everett & Monte Cristo, which focused on hauling ore from the mining town of Monte Cristo in the Cascade Mountains, northeast of Seattle. Northern Idaho had extensive mining. These are just a few ideas. In the Grays Harbor area of Washington, Rayonier’s logging line ran steam into the early 1960’s.
well I wil offer you a littlle modeled eastern road or two as alternates. A great coal hauler about 200 miles long from the mountains to a port in Norfolk Virginia was the Virginian. All types of steam through massive 2-10-10-2 engines and side rod electrics. When it finally dieselized it purchased all FM Trainmasters and baby Trainmasters. Other eastern roads that could be easily modeled are Reading, Lehigh Valley, Central of New Jersey and Western Maryland. All handled large amounts of coal.
On a smaller scale are the railroads in West Virginia. What is now the Cass Scenic Railroad used to be a logging railroad powered by Shay geared engines. But now, some of its present Shays came from the Western Maryland’s coal branches. A little to the north in Pennsylvania was (and still is, at least as remnants) the 3 ft. gauge East Broad Top RR, which hauled both coal and lumber. There were also many other railroads in central and northern Pennsylvania that hauled lots of both. And then there are the PRR and B&O crossings of the Alleghenies, both of which had lots of trains running through pretty woodland scenery.
Next choice, what type of trees and how big of rocks.
Mining in some form was just about everywhere across the US. So lots of options there. Logging was a little more restricted. Basically the entire US except the great plains and desert SW.
So look at various logging and mining books. See what you like.
That’s one of the easiest eras to model. Most of the “railroad” logging was western by then.
That puts you in the steam era. You could also go as far back as the 1920’s with virtually the same equipment (and a much better economy).
Now you have to decide what type of scenery. Sierras, Eastern hardwoods, Southern piney woods, coal, gold/silver ore, iron ore, rock. That sets the flavor.
A big thanks to all you guys helping me out its great!!
I really appreciate all your time and information.
I think i will lean towards a western location layout but am slightly concerned that the available space will limit me scenically. It seems a lot of the articles i read in MR guys have huge areas to build their railways in.
Welcome to the board, when your talking transition era, mining operations I’m thinking this guy is a good place to start some of your research. http://www.zanestrains.com/
Howard models Appalachia (West Virgina) late 1950’s transition era coal hauling mountain railroad.Great for scenery as well as show casing some very interesting looking locomotives. He does something rather unique in that he used to only model Western Maryland but got board with that after some years so on his fictions Piermont division a railroad that purchases used equipment from many different railroads and typically doesn’t bother to repaint them you’ll see a wide variety of power on his layout.
If this sort of idea does not appeal to you what you may want to consider is doing some image searching or general searches on railroads of that time period such as Clinchfield, B&O, N&W, Southern etc. etc. and simply see whose equipment appeals to you. A good a reason as any to model a specific prototype. The you can research scenery bridges stations signals etc. as not all prototypes used all of the same when it came to some if not all of the things I mentioned. It all comes down to how much of a “rivet counter” you want to be. The main thing to remember is build what you enjoy not what someone or some book says it should be or has to be. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of control over what goes on in the real world but in this case we are all lord and master of our universe.
It’s true many of the layouts in MR or RMC are big, but there are many that just look big - or at least, look much bigger than they really are. Adding a good backdrop makes a huge difference. MR’s “Great Model Railroads 2010” has a couple of layouts featured that are basically 16"-24" wide shelf layouts, but with careful use of structures, scenery and backdrops seems much larger.
