My wife and I have been investigating building a layout in our basement for the last few weeks. General information about DCC, basic layout design, and landscaping ideas are easy to find.
Finding information on rail roading, more specifically north eastern United States around 1900 is a lot more challanging. Even the local library only had books that focused on the American west, or Victorian England.
Are there other Model Railroaders who focus on this time period? Does anyone know of any good sites to visit? Wikipedia had info on locomotives, but what kind of cars would be common then? What kind of freight would they be carrying?
Your first move is some ectended time spent internet searching, to find out what reality was back then. Odds are, books on the subject will be hit and miss. One guy might have written one book on one railroad that fits your qualifications, but there probably won’t be twenty books on the same railroad and period. When you are internet searching, you are looking first for pointers to a specific book, then looking for enough information to actually locate and buy the book.
If you get really lucky, you will find a large database on the right railroad in the right era and save the cost of the book. If no books pop up, you can at least look for specific railroad names to use to expand your search.
Once you have the hard info in mind, then you face another problem. The time period you are looking at falls under the general modelling category of “Old Time”, also often called OT. OT equipment is scarce, and getting scarcer rapidly. Most of the companies that used to make it have either gone out of business, or have been bought by bigger companies, with new production schedules a big question mark. MDC made a 2-8-0, and a 2-6-0 in OT steam, but MDC stopped production, was bought by another company, which in turn was bought by a third company, and none of the OT locomotives is back in production yet. IHC and Model Power are still in business (one was bought out but is still producing) but neither is currently making OT locos.
The companies that used to make OT equipment are Model Die Casting, or MDC, with IHC and Model Power making some but not much. Bachman Spectrum offers a 4-6-0 from that approximate period, which you could base a model railroad on, and they also offer a Shay and a Climax which fit the period, but are geared so slow as to be difficult to have much fun running a lot of trains with. Bachman makes a non-Spectrum 4-4-0 which has a rep for poor pulling power and poor performance. MDC has a brand new 4-4-0 out but it is expensive. Athearn is su
I model an early 1900s Shortline in North Central Texas. I’m glad to see another early steam guy out there. We are truly out numbered by all these crazy big steam and modern diesel era folks. As far as freight gos just about every thing moved by rail in the old days. The varity of car types was vast compaired to today. More towns and many more smaller industies of all kinds were on line as well.
Heres a few links that might be of interest to you.
Rob’s PRR Page. Has diagrams and drawings of cars and RR structures. Quite a few would fit 1900 +(-). A great place to vist even if you are not a PRR fan. If you are a PRR fan its a treasure trove. http://prr.railfan.net/
Here is a place to Check out Historical USGS maps of the North East. Some have track diagrams. http://historical.maptech.com/
Westerfied Kits. Great kits of all sorts of cars many that will fit right in on a 1900’s era pike. These are resin kits and are very detailed. The kits are not too hard to build because the instructions are good enough but they take time to build and can be tedious. The resulting models are beautiful. It would be hard to find anything better looking or more accurate even in brass. They would be great if you need just one or a few of a certain type or have lots of spare time.to build the fleet. They also have old time car Orders on CDs that could be a big help in determing the cars you want on the roster for your prototype or one you
As for locomotives and cars, Roundhouse has started production of a 4-4-0 with sound that is mid 1880’s in style. Most of them appear to be Eastern roadnames. They have a 2-6-0 in production for that same period that is due out next may. I notice they are now also making thier 50" Overland passenger cars as well. There have been a few of thier older style cars now in Ready to Run that used to be kits. They will be marked as “Old-Time”.
You might go to Groups at Yahoo.com, and join the EarlyRail group. It’s focus is from the first days of rail, to the first world war.
Also, go to the New England, Berkshire and Western website at Rennselaer Polytech. RPI charges for access to the site, but the monthly cost is minimal (like $7 or so). You join, find the info you want, print the pages, and cancel your membership.
I am assuming you are interested in HO.
Contrary to popular belief, MDC is still in business, they still make their old-time freight and passenger cars and still produce their 2-6-0 and 4-4-0 locos.
Bachmann makes an 1880’s era 4-4-0; They also make a 4-6-0 and have a ‘modern’ 4-4-0 that is supposed to hit the streets within a week.
Westerfield makes resin freight cars.
LaBelle Woodworking makes wooden car kits.
Art Griffin makes decals, Clover House makes dry-transfers.
Model Railroader Magazine did an article called “Why I Model 1905” some time back. It was pretty good as I remember. Anyone remember what issue that was in?
Also, I have some links on my other computer that might help. I’ll post them when I get to it tomorrow.
i don’t have anything to add to the probably already overwhelming info above [:)] other than to say welcome to the forum , and welcome to the pre-1915 niche market that a bunch of us here inhabit . it’s sometimes frustrating to look through an entire issue of MR and not see a single article or advert that has anything to to with what you’re modelling , but the joy when finding something new makes up for it
have fun , and come back often to ask more questions and keep us updated on your progress
You live close enough to Lancaster, where you will find a railroad museum, and a real operating steam museum. Also check out Steamtown In Scranton, and Honesdale (east of Scranton towards Joisey). Honesdale is where the first commercial RR was supposed to have started from. B&O gave strong competion.
Steamtown changed their website so I don’t see it now, but I believe they have a rather extensive Library, available for review upon request. You may find what your looking for at the libraries at any of these places.
THANKS for asking the question! I’ve always been interested in this time frame. Because of your question, I’ve gleaned a bunch of info.
O’ course I’m more interested in Central Texas, so my industries would be different, and the styles would be about 10 yrs behind the East Coast. Still, RR equipment would be pretty much the same across the country.
WOW! Someone else who is interested in older steam and in Texas too.When we moved I had to tear down my small narrow gauge layout and it was a few years before I got around to fixing up the shed out back and starting my layout. (Still have a long way to go) During that time I started looking in to old railroads in Texas for fun and decided to model the Texas Midland that ran from Ennis to Paris. Since it was a standard gauge line I switched to HO, boxed up the narrow gauge stuff and headed out of the mountains onto the flatlands. If you can find old issues of The Journal of Texas Shortlines and Transportation grab them up. I saw some at Kings in Austin but that was a few years back. I also saw complete sets of 12 issues or is it 11 (unfortunatly thats all that was ever published) at Discount Train in Addison (North Dallas). Old central Texas Railroads are featured in almost every issue as that region was the publishers stomping grounds. Most of the railroads that were covered included rosters. drawings, pictures, and often track diagrams and some included a year by year history. If you already have a particular railroad in mind let me know as I may have some info on it. I have also posted a few Texas Shortline Railroad rosters on steamlocorosters at yahoo groups. Cyril Durrenberger who is a member of the Earlyrail group is very likely to be the most knowledgeable person on earth in regards to early Texas Steam. If you need some info on old Texas railroads he
I’ve always had an interest in early Texas steam. When I was a kid, the SP ran about a half mile from the house (living in the country, that’s no distance at all). All the locals referred to it as the SAP. took a while to find out that stood for ‘San Antonio and Aransas Pass’. Due to the name, the area and the time frame, I’ve been hooked for years. I’m working on a subsidiary (fictional) of the SAAP, called ‘Yegua Creek and Southwestern’. Will see if I can pull it together.
As far as freight gos just about every thing moved by rail in the old days. The varity of car types was vast compaired to today. More towns and many more smaller industies of all kinds were on line as well.