There are so many eras / genres I’d love to go with, but given that I (like many of us) have very limited space and therefore limited to one era, I think I have decided on an old western / wild west town theme. FYI this will have to be a pretty small N scale layout, probably 3’ x 5’, maybe 4’ x 6.’ I am thinking basically a loop going through a mountain with a town featured in the foreground (although I am open for suggestion on that).
I choose this era for a couple reasons:
I’ve always loved westerns (especially the spaghetti westerns) and that whole look and feel of old west towns with their saloons, brothels, old hotels, blacksmiths, old stations, etc. etc.
I love those vast landscapes. I love the desert topography, wide open spaces, etc. However trying to capture this sense in a small layout may be difficult. I have seen it done, however. Wish I could remember wish issue of MR that was. Anyone know of one?
I think the whole steam-to-diesel theme is waaaay overdone. It just seems like that is what everyone does and you see less of the earlier steam days so I feel like it’s a little more unique.
That being said, I do have some concerns about going down this road.
Lack of products. There are a lot less commerically available materials for this specific era. Remember I am talking old west days. Not 1920’s and so forth. I am talking more like gold ru***o-civil war times. I think I can come up with a sufficient amount of structures, given that I will probably will only feature one relatively small town on the layout (probably all I’ll have room for). And there’s always kitbashing, of course. I notice that Campbell Scale Models has some really nice ones from this era.
However there seems to be a real lack of locomotives from this time period. I see a few in Walther’s catalog but nothing too impressive. Then again, I’ll probably only have one
If you’re modeling in N scale, I believe Bachmann and MDC (Athearn) make standard gauge steamers that fit the 1860-1890 period quite well. Both Bachmann and MDC make a series of ‘old time’ freight and passenger cars, so you shouldn’t have much trouble as far as rolling stock.
Just remember that the 'Western Period" in American history as far as railroads go, covered only about forty years (1860-1900) and after that, both locomotive and car design began to make great leaps forward.
As to buildings and accessories, I don’t know how much I can help you, but I understand that there are various N-scale manufacturers that produce such items. I would suggest getting ahold of the Walther’s N-scale catalogue, which should cover a great many of the items.
One thing to remember, narrow gauge railroading was VERY popular back in the last half of the 19th century, especially in mountainous areas of Colorado and California, or other parts of the West where it was cheaper to build. This doesn’t mean that you HAVE to model in narrow guage (which would be N3 and rather expensive), but it was considered a viable alternative during that period.
Whatever you choose for your setting, I would suggest that you contact local historical societies in that particular area, just to keep yourself as authentic as possible. As far as using the “Spaghetti Westerns” for inspiration, remember that these movies were usually filmed either in Spain, Italy or Germany and used European equipment for their train shots.
And frankly, when you come down to it, the equipment used in the Hollywood westerns wasn’t all that terribly accurate, either.
Have fun. There’s more out there than you might think for that era.
Tom [:D]
One idea you might try is to make a view block down the middle and use two of your ideas together on the one layout. Landscape on one side and western on the other.
I hope that helps.
A lot of the Hollywood westerns were filmed on the Sierra RR in California. Pre-WW2 saw a lot of activity on the Virginia and Truckee. Can’t get much more authentic than that!
Not obvious in the photos is that Calico runs up a canyon on a steep grade. It is a genuine mining town that died in the late 19th century, reconstructed by the gentleman who founded Knott’s Berry Farm. It has been a county park since 1966, and is free of the amusement/theme park atmosphere prevalent elsewhere.
You could get those small catus plants at your local garden center. I saw a layout
done in wild west theme using them and it really added alot to the perspective of the desert.
David
There is a regular ad for a book in RMC entitled, How to Model the Old West. I have not bought it yet, but I plan to some day. I model 1885 myself, but in HO. There is a lot more available in HO. This is an assumption, as I have not pursued N scale. I have gotten most of my structures on eBay–typically cheap plastic with horrible colors. I put a lot of paint on then and they look decent. There are other buildings that can be backdated, by removing electrical connections, etc. But all major industries have to be scratch built.
AS for figures, Musket Miniatures has some N scale old West Figures. I’ve gotten quite a few figures from them. They make more sense out of the box than the stock offerings from say, Bachman. I’ve also had limited luck at train shows. Often, I’ve had to modify existing figures.
I should mention that there is very litle support for pre-1900 in HO scale. I can only imagine N scale will be worse. You should know this going in. But believe me, I’m not trying to discourage you. I know Bachman has a “set” with a 4-4-0 in “N” scale. I don’t know how well it runs. The HO version stalls on the frogs, but work on the tender pick-ups increases it’s functionality.
Your best bet will probably be HO. There is one fellow who specializes in 1870s modeling who essentially scales out his models to “British OO” scale. Most 1860s-70s locomotives are bigger than they really should be–but by changing the scale to 1:76, things become more proportionally correct. OO scale also allows one to use details like the Airfix plastic miniatures which are around 1:72 to 1:76 scale–a bit large for HO but not unusable. These include things like cowboys, Indians, cavalry, settlers with covered wagons, etcetera. One can also use imported British OO miniatures in Victorian period dress, which wasn’t too dissimilar to American period dress, at least for city folks.