What era do most modeler work with. Present day? the 50’s. Ect.
What do you like about the era you have chosen?
What would you do differently?
I model 1885 right now, but am starting the benchwork for a layout set in 1917. At the club I model present day. How do I vote?
I think you’re going to find most model the transition era, with modern coming in a close second. Thats just a guess.
And as to what I would do differently, well, I guess we’ll find out, because I’m starting over soon.[:D]
It’s a toss up between the 50’s and modern (80’s and newer). Just look in any Walthers catalog and see where the abundance of products lie. If you choose outside those two eras, you choices drop off exponentially.
I model the early 40’s - i.e. the “early”, early diesel transition. I enjoy steam but I have come to really enjoy the early diesels like the Alco “S” series and the Baldwins. (They have character to them.)
I’m not sure if I would do anything differently.
Tom
Amen to the ALCO’s and Balwins, F-M’s having a character of their own, I model the present, but I love having some of the old ones around for ambiance as Michael Gross would say.[soapbox]
i model the exact present- a freelaned road called illinois central (it has to be freelanced to exist in 2006) -the transition era will be most popular- i’ve considered modeling Santa Fe in the 1960’s or 1970’s but i doubt i ever will.
I cant vote bcecause I model the 50s 60s and some rolling stock later. I am just building my layout in the tracklaying phase so not sure what i would do diffrently oh ya the setting is Northern New England in October[^]
This specific poll has been done absolutely to death…and the final results never change. The Transition Era is, by a wide margin, the most popular…and has been for 50 years!
CNJ831
Transition ERA. CNJ831 is right, I have never seen a poll here or in the mags that had a different result. Even the manufacturers have caught on - there’s more made for this era.
Enjoy
Paul
I still like the 60s to 70s…Times of big change for the railroad industry. Also, the era of the “Horsepower Wars” between EMD, Alco, and GE. Pretty neat that in the late 60s, aging seasoned 1,500 horsepower F7s and shiny new 3.600 horsepower SD45s were in service at the same time. New 50ft. Plug Door Boxcars and older 40ft outside braced wooden boxcars also running around. Great deal of variety then. [:)][:D][8D][;)]
I voted for 60s - 80s because the transition era came a decade or two later in Japan.
In 1964 a lot of elderly equipment was being withdrawn from service, while the first examples of locos and car types which later became ubiquitous were making their appearances. Thus I can have creaky old 15-ton WAMU23 class boxcars mating couplers with WARA1 class seventeen tonners that still smell of fresh paint, being switched by DD13 class diesel-hydraulics and hauled over the road by venerable 2-6-0 and 2-8-2 coal burners (the latter fitted with brand new tunnel ducts that make their stacks look like giant mushrooms). The variety was, and is, mind-boggling!
I model the 1960s and 1970s. This is another transition era as AntonioFP45 has pointed out.
I also model the transition era because that was when the railroads, especially the New Haven which I am modeling, were in their heyday so to speak. They were still running I-5 Streamlined Hudsons (called Shoreliners by some) from Boston to New Haven pulling the Merchant’s Limited. They had acquired some very interesting diesel power, the Alco DL-109s and FM C-LIners as well as a plethora of Alco RS-2, RS-2 and RS-3s for instance. I-4 Pacifics were still in use on lesser passenger trains. Freight on the Maybrook line to New Haven was either 2-10-4 steam or ABA lashups of Alco FA and FB diesels. Then there were the fabulous PAs which took over the name train jobs. What a wonderful era, and I lived though it. That is the main thing, I am modeling something I know, not something I imagine. Authors are told “write about what you know”. I feel the same way about modeling.
Mine is so freelanced I can’t really say an exact era. Maybe 60’s to present. Mine is a mythical, unamed, rural town some trains around it, and the carnival is coming soon! Any cars, any engines, any company I feel like buying.
I don’t recall ever seeing a steam engine except in museums so the transition era doesn’t do much for me really. Most people I know model what they grew up seeing. (spacemouse is VERY old)
It’s what I remember best,living thru the steam to diesel transition.
I chose 1980 to present day operations