I’m curious, do most people choose their engines and / or freight cars based upon a road name that they like or collect? Or do you buy cars based upon the road colors, era, steam, electric, diesel, or something that is appropriate to the era and geography of your layout?
A little of all for me. I try to stay within the latter part of the transition era (60s) so I can get away with late steam and early dieselization. After that, I do try to stay with roads that would have run together in some geographic gateway location. I generally like to think “Chicago” so I can run eastern , western, and even midwestern roads together. Now, if I could just figure out how to run Southern green next to Soo Line red & white!
Len
I buy and model what I’ve seen in the past and what I see now. Most roads are ones I’ve seen. During the early years of Conrail, it was possible to see anything from one of the pre-merger lines rolling though the Lehigh Valley yards in Sayre. The LV had a friendly relationship with the D&H and N&W, so they were common visitors. Even now, I see alot of Soo Line, UP, BNSF, CPR, CP Rail running through on the NS line.
The only line I model that I haven’t seen is the New Haven… due to my childhood Lionel’s. But I like the Penn Central too, and NH did end up in the PC. Motive power roads represented are LV, CNJ, Reading, EL, Penn Central (NYC/PRR to lesser extent), New Haven, Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern. Obviously I do a lot of repainting to get these roads in 027 motive power.
Unlike most, I have the good fortune to be able to afford any engine I desire. That being said, my lastest will hopefully be the the new Lionel Acela in September 2005 or knowing Lionel, 2006 sometime. What do I look for? Whatever catches my eye.
I stick with the local railroads that used to run in this area, the Clinchfield, N & W and the Southern, several railroads interchanged in the area such as the L & N, and the C & O.
I like to model the steam to diesel transition period, of course where I live coal was the major commodity that the railroads moved. Some of my rolling stock weren’t around during that time but the selection of cars in the road names I like isn’t the best.
I generally focus in specific road names (NYC first choice, Pennsy or New Haven as second tier road names). HOWEVER, thanks to my being a New York Central fan and there being plenty of black spray paint available, I’ve bought other road names for the locomotive and re-painted then into NYC’s Cigar Band scheme. These include Dash-8, Genesis, and U33 diesels.
Southern Pacific black widow here, and my boy likes Santa Fe red warbonnet. He also wants all black freight cars like the K-Line Blackbonnet stuff and SP Overnight Express cars. Guess that’s a trend with the younger generation, or maybe black goes good with fallen flags?
Richard
The Golden State
This is the second time I had to edit this message. Woke up late, feel a little foggy this morning.
Since I’m into the prewar and postwar toy trains, my purchases are usually based on how rare an item is, it’s condition and of course it’s price. Of course, it’s often what catches my eye or what I think looks the nicest.
Dr.Fu-Manchu, The Train Guy[}:)][2c] I am leaning toward what I grew up with, SP,UP&
SF with some out of area power. (WP) In S.Cal. in the early 60’s to the late 70’s. Also,
some steam. The problem is finding some models in the roads I want. Such as any
thing in SP Black Widow paint. (GP7,9’s F-units and the like) But If all else fails, buy
junkers and rebuild and repaint ! I do have one beef !! Why is it that when a steamer
is lettered for Southern Pacific, The Tender is coal, not a Vanderbuilt oil ? as far as
I can tell, SP did not have many coal burners. I wi***hat the powers that be fix that
small problem. Other than that, I am a happy evil doctor[}:)] !
By the time I could afford to buy my own locomotives, I pretty much stuck to roadnames that I saw in real life. Since my travels had been limited to the East Coast, that’s where the bulk of my purchases have been. Mostly Chessie/CSX, NS and Conrail, with Amtrak filling in for passenger service, and a representative of the three commuter agencies in the NYC area.
As for freight, I’ve built up a number of unit trains (ore, autorack, grain, TOFC, doublestack), as well as enough mixed freight cars for a few general merchandise trains. I concentrated on a few sub-genres (like sinister-looking black tank cars) in order to give them representation in my fleet, but as far as freight rolling stock was concerned, I didn’t stick to any particular reigon, though I did tend to pounce on cars that I saw frequently in my area. (such as Engelhard/ JM Huber tankers)
Now that storage space constraints are closing in, I’m concentrating on subway trains, as I live in New York City, and see/ride them constantly. Just this past weekend, I spent two consecutive days riding a chartered set of antique subway cars with four carloads of other enthusiasts, racing down express tracks and poking through yards.
I’m up to 60 cars in this category (slightly more than 10% of my total collection), and with the exception of the Lionel Acela, subways/commuter trains are probably going to account for the bulk of my future purchases from now on, now that I have enough conventional freight/passenger equipment to nicely fill out any future layout.
—PCJ
For some strange reason I’ve taken a liking to Burlington, the CB&Q era. Having been born and raised in the east I’ve rarely ever seen a Burlington engine yet I have a facintation with the CB&Q.
Prior to being pushed into retirement I’d select my engines based on the CB&Q during the transition years between steam and diesel, now I limit my self to freight cars.
Since I was a fireman for the B&O for awhile naturally that is my first choice, next would be C&O (pre B&O/C&O merger), and lastly would be the L&N, my grandfather was a conductor for them.
As my name would suggest I am one that leans more towards the NYC and PRR. I do not however purchase only by road name. I like to go by quality first, I like the older post war as they are easily repaired, the price is right most of the time, and they are simpler no motherboard or chips. I like the older metal as opposed to some of the newer plastic. Also I prefer to go with the scarcer ones ex: 681 S-2, 2354 F3, 746, 773. Lionel is my favorite company, but I also like williams as they are nicely built. They mock lionel post war as they eliminate alot of the bells and whistle which can be difficult to fix. I have a nice willaims 746 that is almost exactly the same as lionel ( very minor differences) beautifully built. I tend to go with more “wheels” and magnetraction.
I buy whatever I like the looks of. On the layout right now I can see Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee Road, Western Maryland, and Union Pacific. There is also a mixture of scale 3-rail MTH, post war Lionel, Modern Era Lionel and Lionel MPC.
At the moment I tend to purchase by MTH Locomotives because of the overall quality and DCS (although I run TMCC also), on the other hand, that Lionel 3751 is looking mighty good…
I model the NYC Hudson River Line and the electric trains that ran into New York City in the 30s/40s/50s so that is how I choose engines. JIM
My layout is a western theme, currently I’m using SF and UP, but would consider other western names in the future. Also because I’m strictly an operator, I’m trying to keep the cost of a new TMCC engine below $500. So far I’ve gotten some nice engines in that range and hope to in the future.
Did it run or does it run through the Buckeye State? If yes, then it is considered.
I really don’t choose by Roadname or brand or anything…I find if I like the looks and it draws me too it then I pick it that way. Since using both TMCC and DCS operating platforms do not really matter. And since I also have conventional capabilities thats not an issue either.
If I did choose by roadname though I imagine the PRR would be high on my list with the Norfolk and Western placing a close second.
My only requirement is that the engine be O27 compatible. And I’m not a stickler for prototypical lash-ups or operation by any means. Not do I prefer tyo stay with one line although I do like the New York Central as they had some of the best looking streamlined loco’s ever. So other than that I prefer Pacific/Hudson class steam engines pulling colorful passenger car sets. Cargo carrying cars and consists don’t interest me in the least.
Mostly by road name. I used to be mostly interested in BNSF, BN, GN, CB&Q, SP&S but in recent years I’m more interested in NYC and New Haven (my home areas). In recent years I only buy TMCC equipped locos not conventional or PS2. I really like prewar and postwar repros with modern electronics/sound. From my perspective, this approach keeps things simpler for operating and trouble shooting and yet allows a pretty wide range of choices.