I have the greatest respect for the main focus of the model railroading hobby… modelling historical periods.
I believe that railroads also have a bright future, for many different reasons. Are there any forums or clubs devoted to modelling the railroads of the future, as we might envision them?
I am particularly interested passenger trains.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Interesting concept. Perhaps you should start one & keep us posted.
I believe it was in MRs Bicentennial Commemorative issue - July, 1976 - there was an article prognosticating railroadings future over the next 100 years. I can’t remember who wrote this and, to be honest, I didn’t find it that interesting but you might well find it interesting.
If memory serves me correctly, in 1985 MR published an article - actually a transcript of a panel discusssion held at the NMRA’s 50th Anniversary Convention - discussing the future of model railroading. Although this panel discussion had, admittedly, addressed itself to this hobby’s future there was some discussion of the prototype’s future as well.
Unfortunately, just as “No battleplan ever survives first contact with the enemy!” no prognostication ever survives the next patent - or, for that matter, the next marketing decision; who, for instance, could have, in 1976, have forseen double-stacks.
tc:
Cool idea! If you set it far enough ahead, say 2100 AD, you’ll have lots of leeway. Of course, part of the fun of shooting closer, say ten years down the road, is seeing how close you get, and you can always rebuild if proven wrong.
The important thing to remember, when thinking of the future, is that it probably won’t be as unlike today as a sci-fi author might want to think. 
A really cool thing to see would be a model of the future as seen by people in the past…an alternate future, perhaps. A “steampunk” setting would be a possibility - the future as seen by Victorians. Another would be to style it after METROPOLIS, or JUST IMAGINE. Radio tube trains.
I do remember seeing a clip of a layout on TV once that was very much a “Futureist” theme with what can only be described as “Jestons” buildings.
Don’t think they showed any trains though.
Actually, the future will be MORE unlike today than a science fiction (aka SF) author ever imagined, and in very different ways. To be specific, NOT ONE science fiction author came anywhere near predicting how ubiquitous electronic computers would become, and only a few envisioned anything like the internet…
Just a few of the passenger-carrying transportation systems that have been suggested:
As for looking back at somebody who looked forward, along about 1950 there was a story called The Shape of Things That Came which explored the results of somebody from 1900 who traveled to 1950 and returned. His descriptions were dismissed out of hand by the ’
TTT:
Yes, but remember, SF is seldom about the technology alone, but about the culture that uses it. What they failed to predict about computers etc. is that they would become absorbed into the humdrum workaday world. They always assume the new technology will reshape society wholesale, not plug right in. Indeed, some of the things strengthened by the computer age were once predicted to be casualties. Office use of paper is one excellent example.
Future trains will be constrained by the same limitations as today’s trains - clearances, traffic volume, and preferences. That said, predictions about future trains can be ranked in terms of likeliehood…
Almost Certain: Chicago L cars of 2050 will be the same size as today’s Chicago L cars (due to clearances).
Very Likely: Metra (Chicago commuter rail) will be running silver gallery cars in 2050.
Unlikely: Top of the line mainline freight diesels of 2050 will look like today’s top of the line mainline freight diesels.
I kinda sorta somewhat am trying to model future trains.
My ‘Project Steasel’ is supposed to be a rendition of a “second generation steam” locomotive, as projected by L. D. Porta.
Hopefully, sooner or later, I’ll be working on a kitbash of something more closely resembling the ACE 3000, and then maybe some other steam locomotives associated with the project. I’ve also been in contact with T. W. Blasingame Co, Inc., and have received information about their bio-steam projects that use solidified waste to create steam…
I guess that’s considered in the future. Technically the ACE 3000 is old news, however you never know if something could be resurrected later on down the line.
There was a 70’s-80’s article in MR about a modeler who made a train as used on the moon in some fantasy future.
You could probably use Acela, ICE, Bullet, and TGV trains and establish your “future” with the buildings and scenery.
Here’s a thought, High Speed freight corridor in the Rockies:tunnels, power wires, a straight shot form LA to Cheyenne. The HHP may be the next 4400. Or, not.
Freight may streamline, but plenty of guys in the know have said trains can’t get much bigger, the cost of relaying rail is far too great.
As for Sci-Fi missing the mark, the “communicator” is a flip Cell phone now. And we’re getting dangerously close to a “tri-corder”
If you really want to model the future, you’d best park that ‘Bullet’ in a museum. The prototypes are already there. Present-day Shinkansen trains look like inverted coal scoops, and not even O-Kamisama knows what they will look like after 44 more years of development…
As for establishing the “future” with buildings and scenery, check out the number of places that still feature late 19th century architecture. Not to mention that the basic design of hills, trees and underbrush has been pretty well established for a LOOOONG time now.
Considering the aerodynamic implications of high speed/low fuel consumption, I’d put my [2c] on some kind of full-width diaphragms and skirting - for freight cars.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
FW:
Yeah, 'Wave, but we’re talking on those communicators wearing undershirts and Gold Rush era pants, while eating potato chips in our rubber-tired cars. Where’s the Starfleet uniforms and boldly going where no man has gone before? That’s what I mean. The tech has been absorbed. Not referring to redshirts.
ES4:
With “Lunafans” taking pictures and an unobtanium mine. It was awesome. 
A) Yes but we have pockets. I’d take that over a pollymer jumpsuit, Potato Chips and all. And have you seen the average American? We’re Boldly going. Any more Bold and we;re gonna loose the underline… (Really bad obesity joke) Caned
I honestly can’t say that computers haven’t majorly changed our societies. It seems so easy for us now to pick one up, plug in and go, cause Society adapted a long time ago. It was gradual, but so is evolution. The first computers, even just the technology, allowed us a new ability, then one more, then one more. it was a gradual change, not an Oh My God moment. And sure, the computer is more of a tool, we aren’t drooling and dragging a motherboard over to the monster like zombies. But can you say you aren’t a “slave” to the computer? frequent debugging, resets when powerr coes out, and that goes for dig clocks and Microwaves too. It was a hundred years ago that a communication to a friend was a valued thing. The letter had a meaning. it was a rare moment the only perhaps all year, to talk with loved ones. Teh family might spend a whole evening writing letters to people, this would be a family bonding moment. Now we fire up the old 'puter, (or Cell phone, different metaphor) type out a bunch of things, and then it’s off to work. Plus, we have a backspace. A lot of our ancestors might be apalled with t
Many interesting responses to my original post! Here are some more of my thoughts that prompted my post. I am thinking about the near term for rail development and I hope to tie in my interest in model railroading as well.
I am most interested in a fairly near term… maybe the next 30 years. And, in that time frame, I wouldn’t expect any major technology breakthroughs, although there may be some interesting innovations in fuel, wind resistance, lightweight materials, signaling, balancing, noise reduction and other factors.
My interest is from a urban planner point of view and not from a science fiction point of view. Given what we know today, and given today’s technology and near term technology, what could a rail line look like in 30 years and how would it operate? What services would it provide?
I am researching how rail can be a support to towns that limit much of their growth to walking/biking distance, but require the economic vitality of being connected to the city centers.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
The Acela and TGV’s are probably getting pretty close to optimizing many of the energy considerations for a while. The power plants may change somewhat, but that’s an internal thing which we wouldn’t be modelling anyway. One thing we might imagine is an enclosed, low-air-pressure environmental tube for the right-of-way. This would reduce the air resistance, and also protect the right of way from weather effects and other forms of damage.
Arthur C. Clarke predicted communications satellites back in the 1940’s, and Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men foresaw genetic engineering back in 1930.
I think the monster diesels we are seeing now will be the last of their kind - like the Big Boys and Challengers of the steam era were.
I honestly think that the next step in railroad evolution, in essence, will be a step backwards - massive main line electrification, on a national level. It won’t happen all at once. It won’t happen over night. But it will happen.
All it needs is one of the big names to commit to it. Then the others will follow suit.
Older locomotives will be converted by “third party shops” or the railroads themselves and new locomotives will be built by EMD and GE.
Diesels will still trudge on on shortlines and regionals.
-George