What is the most common era available in model railroading? What era is actually used today in full size?
I am asking because I see a lot rolling stock for model railroading from the 1930’s, '40’s and 50’s. But not too much that is any newer. Where can I find newer?
In any model train store or web store. A couple of the biggest web stores:
Walthers: http://www.walthers.com
M.B Klein: http://www.modeltrainstuff.com
I would strongly encourage you to start out by reading a decent beginners book on model railroading, e.g. this one: http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12447.html
Smile,
Stein
I model quite a few eras, but like the 90’s onward, I call it modern or present day.
Please let us know what type of rolling stock you are having difficulty finding.
I have not had too hard of a time finding equipment that fits into my trains, & I don’t limit myself to any manufacturer, I may have at least one from almost all of them. When I started taking the hobby seriously I began to learn about the eras & still want to learn more, especially 70’s on car marking practices & such.
Which scale are you looking at. The transition era (1945-1960) is the most popular so you will see more for that era. Z, N, HO, S, O, G have quite a bit for it. Other eras tend to be supported less. HO has good support for most other eras from around 1920 to today. N a little less so. Other scales less so although they usually have something. Pre WWI has even less, engines made in that time frame are frequently available only in a post WWI updated version such as with electric headlights instead of kerosene. Some pre 1900 stuff is available.
Enjoy
Paul
Paul,You can model the 1920s to 2011 in N Scale however,the transition era to today seems to be more popular in N.
You can even model the NE Corridor in N …
Yes,there is some that models Nn3.
It’s not just subtle details that distinguish older freight cars from newer ones. Whole classes of cars just didn’t exist before the 70s, and others haven’t been in use for decades. So, when you see listings of rolling stock, the manufacturers typically don’t provide Built-On dates if it’s obvious from the car type. For example, you won’t find well cars for containers in the 1940s, and ice-bunker reefers haven’t been in service since the 50s.
One often-overlooked benefit of the Transition Era is the size of engines and cars. If you are running the “typical” HO-scale layout and need 18-inch curves to deal with space limitations, you may find that the Transition Era, when long steamers were replaced by short 4-axle diesels but before those giant flats and huge boxcars came into fashion, is the one that looks the best comin’ round the mountain.
SUX V R40,
Please don’t take this the wrong way… there are lots of people who are willing to help you with advice and knowledge. And there’s nothing wrong with trying to do this piecemeal, but personally, I don’t see this as being very effective. Looking at the volume and content of your posts lately, Stein really is right – you should read an introductory book on the subject, and get yourself a Walthers Sourcebook (what they call their catalog) and look through it. Not that they carry everything, but they do carry most of what’s available (with the noteworthy exception of Horizon Hobbies products, including Athearn trains and McHenry couplers).
Go do the research, and come back with more specific and directed questions. And also, never forget that there’s rarely a “right”, “wrong”, or “best”, in th
Exact Rail does a lot of modern rolling stock but they cost a bit more. They’re beautifully detailed though
Many of us who have been in the hobby a long time “know” most of the rolling stock produced in a given scale and can tell you what is what, but it is something we have absorbed from a lot of reading of magazines, books, website etc. ModelRailroading (now out of production) and Rail Model Journal has had a lot of great articles on freight car prototypes and models representing them, mostly in HO but N scale too.
My knowledge is mostly from HO perspective so the below comments about makers and era is mostly HO except where otherise noted.
As was noted above, ExactRail is a fairly new model maker on the scene for the past 5 or 6 years who has produced a lot of HO and N scale freight cars for the 1960’s thru the 1990’s, so they would be an excellent place to look for rolling stock, plus they are very nice models.
Athearn has a lot of RTR and Genesis RTR freight cars again, covering mostly the 60’s thru the 1990’s. Atlas, same. Walthers, same although Walthers overlaps 40’s 50’s and go up to 70’s and 80’s and beyond, they cover a wide range.
In HO, probably the makers who go more into the pre1960’s is Intermountain, Proto 2000, Accurail etc, althought they have some 70’s also, mainly covered hoppers, but most of their box cars, gondola’s and tank cars are 40’s and 50’s era.
By the way, something you can look at is many HO models have a “build date” printer in small print to mimic the lettering on the real freight cars they are modeled after. Keep in mind many freight cars in HO and N are “bogus” or painted for railroads that never owned those freight cars - most know that model makers have done this to sell enough models to make a decent profit and pay for the molds etc. That being said, the build dates are a good clue as to what dates the model represent real cars build dates. I’ve found that most of the time they are close enough so you can look at those too. Then remember how long a RR car is used in interchange serv
When you look for European trains, they always light the era in the description. This information is almost always omitting in North American catalogs. I wonder why. If you’re lucky, they will say “old time” or “modern” which means almost nothing. Modernity in itself is an antiquated definition since it started 50 years ago for most people doing MRR!!!
To answer you original question, I would say the transition era is a classic that never dies and that modern (actual) era is also an important trend. People thinks in two ways: they try to recreate their actual environment or to immerse themselves in a glorified past. Manufacturer knows that and follow them.
Matt
Eras would be extremely tough to define for North American railroading due to the sheer number of railroads with different ownership, and the number of government jurisdictions setting rules and regulations for the railroads.
For example, trying to model a US prototype in 1900. Seems easy at first becasue super heaters and steel underframes were basically unknown. But the Safety Act of 1893 (required standardized ladders and grab iron placement, knuckle couplers, and air brakes) was not enforced until 1903. So in 1900, not all railroads were in compliance. Many were, some weren’t. And the act didn’t apply to railroads wholly contained within one state, or were not common carriers (logging and mining lines).
Go to 1910, and things get even fuzzier. Some railroads had many new cars with steel underframes, others had none. By 1912, virtually all new engines were equipped with super heaters and piston valves, but how many new engines were on a given line. Some railroads never replaced their older locomotives until they went out of business. Others rebuilt their old locos in their own shops with super heaters and piston valves instead of ordering new.
Pick a defining feature of an era, and there are just too many exceptions. The best a model manufacturer can do is the build date(s) for the prototype of his models - if that is even known. And since North American railroads were only too happy to modify equipment as needed or desired over its lifetime, a truly accurate model is only valid for a snaps
I don’t have it to hand, but John Armstrong in one of his planning books had a pretty good description of era for North American Railroads.
The book is Creative Layout Design by John Armstrong. Long out of print. My copy is almost a collection of single pages I’ve read it so often.
Enjoy
Paul
Read the chart carefully - it’s a great reference that I use frequently. And you will see that while the chart is a very good description of railroad developments during a given 20 year period, the edges of any given era are totally arbitrary. That’s where the era system used in Europe falls apart in the US (and probably Canada, too). How does one decide whether a given model whose prototype was made in 1899 belongs in the late 1800s or early 1900s? What is the criteria for deciding? The same question could be moved forward to 1969. Does the model belong in the '60s era or the '70s era? What would be the criteria for deciding? No matter what criteria you choose or era boundaries you use, I can guarantee I will find more than one instance of prototype anomalies.
Fred W
I am a bit puzzled by the question-
I assume by “used today in full size,” you mean prototype, real railroads. What era is today? I would just say today is TODAY.
UNLESS you are assuming there are agreed-upon “standard labels” for eras, and you want to know what is the term for the time we are in. I am not even sure we have a general label for the current time in history yet. Sometimes we called it the millenium back in the early 2000s. Sometimes we label eras according to wars and political regimes, but I don’t want to get into that for anything too recent. But for railroads, and models of those railroads…
I believe I have seen such a phenomenon in some European model catalogs.
For American railroads, we refer to steam era, transition era (from steam to diesel), first generation (diesel). And then it starts getting more specialized… early Amtrak era, post-deregulation, etc.
Let’s see- your original questions was “most common era AVAILABLE.” There is a heavy preponderance of mass-marketed HO train sets in toy and discount stores on transition-era freight cars, 1st and 2nd generation diesels and post-transition-era “house cars” (boxcars especially) with modern markings.
Popularity is a whole 'nuther matter. I have my druthers. I would agree with the person who listed transition era and recent-to-today as most popular eras. For my own modeling, I am a transition-era railroader just about all diesel, modeling the summer before Sputnik.