| Have any of you purchased model rail cars that are not true to the prototype? I’m interested in an ExactRail Gunderson 5200 boxcar that’s decorated for the GM&O, but apparently that railroad never had such cars. I’ve also looked at the Intermountain 60’ PS-1 boxcars, but would really prefer the Gunderson. Do you worry about such matters or have the attitude that if it pleases you and you enjoy it…run it? All responses will be appreciated. Thanks! |
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| Ship it on the Frisco! |
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What’s a prototype?? [:-^]
Unless you’re a rivet counter I would do what makes you happy. I have a mix of both prototypical and not. I just go with what I like. I also run modern with steamers. If you like the boxcar, go for it.
If the car has a few “errors” it doesn’t matter to me. Its my layout, and something like that doesn’t bother me [:D].
I have a few cars that are not prototypical. Mostly the numbers don’t match what is on the model compared to the prototype.
I have an Athearn AC4400 decorated in the BNSF Swoosh scheme when BNSF doesn’t have any AC4400s decorated in that scheme.
It’s my railroad so I can do with it that suits me.
A prototype is something that gets skewered by forklifts, bounced by too aggressive switch moves, set on fire by people with issues or just plain ol’ careless handling of goods, repainted umpteen dozen times, welded on sheet metal on bottoms of corners, =====we can go on—
This is kind of one of my favorite pet peeves about being too prototypically correct—it tends to ignore these merely plebian events in the life of the poor misunderstood rolling stock
Everyone hasx their own level of accuracy they want to maintain on their layout. I have heard of model railroaders whose layout represents a single day in the life of a real railroad and they strive to make sure everything on the layout is historically accurate. I tend to fall at the other end of the spectrum. I am trying to model and era 1975-85 with a non specific localle that generally represents the southeastern USA. I am trying to keep cars and locomotives that are newer than 1985 off the layout and out of my collection. I also try to keep older rolling stock off the layout unless I get a whim to run steam where I remove all the newer stuff. Most of my buildings will fit either era but there are a few exceptions. I have never worried about whether every individual car has a unique and correct number, build date, rebuild date and etc. Most of that stuff is too small to see anyway.
Bottom line is do what makes you feel good and don’t worry about what someone else may think or say, afterall it’s your layout.
Duplicate Post
I try to be true to prototype as much as possible. However, I like some paint schemes or particular cars/engines that are out of my era so I run them anyway. It IS my railroad after all.
I did a set of Bachmann GP-30s in Western Maryland Ry Speed Style many years ago because I love GP-30s and Wild Mary. See…the railroad made a mistake and forgot to order them before the GP-35s replaced them so it was up to me to fix the situation! Lo and behold…the WMSR now has two of them painted that way. Go figure!
Just have fun and don’t get too deep in the rivet counting that you don’t have fun with your choochoos. After all…they are all toys with tiny electric motors anyway.
Roger Huber
I was once told I could not put my favorite 89 foot boxcar on a club layout because it was too modern. It was a model of a car that was built and operated more than a year before the chosen cut off date.
I am not a rivet counter, and to ME a boxcar is a boxcar,I prefer 40 footers, but I don’t worry whether it has the right ends, doors or what have you, to be “Correct” to a particular roads real boxcars.
I allow plausible lee way with locomotives, I model UP and SP mainly, while the UP never had any Hudsons or Berkshires, that I can find any evidence of, those are plausible types that they could have had, and I have both in UP. They even run on 3 Rails[:D].
I do however respect what I would refer to as “Signature” locomotives, no Pennsy Big Boys, or Union Pacific GG1s(Heaven forbid, IHC actually did a New York Central GG! years ago). No Conrail Cab-Forwards either. I am pretty lenient, BUT, there are still lines that just should NOT be crossed.
Doug
Did we not already have this discussion???
I stand with one foot planted firmly in each camp:
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My Japan National Railways rolling stock is reasonably true to prototype, and freight cars (especially) carry numbers I personally recorded in my target area during the modeled period. Incidentally, I had to apply those white reporting marks to the black cars - they didn’t come pre-painted from the manufacturer.
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The Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo is home for some flights of fancy: Locomotives updated with 1964 era safety appliances that had actually been melted down to provide armor for Mogami class cruisers several decades earlier. Obsolete JNR hand-me-downs that had actually been handed over to scrap yards in the '50s. Wild feats of imagineering totally unknown to the real world. Among the latter: a 2-6-6-2T (Japan never had a twelve-driver steam loco) and seven-axle articulated coal hoppers.
When my wife visits my layout, she still giggles every time that articulated leans into a coal unit of cars which both the JNR and the AAR would disown on sight. I can’t wait to see her reaction to the project simmering on my back burner - the TTT SeKi700 class eight axle three section articulated hopper (Think John Armstrong’s Cementipede painted black with open tops…)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in the Ballox O’Malley Universe)
I once got criticized by an acquaintance (notice I didn’t use the word friend) that he noticed on a 75 car coal train I had repeated some of the numbers on the cars and that I had EJ&E hoppers mixed in with my N&W cars and that never would have happened. Well I just said I didn’t number them Proto did and as far as those EJ&E hoppers they were purchased by the N&W (just made that part up) and haven’t been repainted.yet. He never noticed weather I changed them or not on his next visit because there never was a next visit. As long as you pay for the stuff feel free to run what ever you darn well please. If Allen Keller calls you up and says he wants to come over to video your railroad for the next in his series then I would be a little concerned
One, I can plead ignorant bliss about such things. My rule, if I can see something that’s wrong, and think I can fix it, then we’ll take a stab at said issue. For example, the radio antennae on the George Washignton. Or, I need Hospital Cars, the UP Cities Dorm car sure looks like the door is close, I;m not counting on anything else. It’s about the appearence. If it looks right, then I’m not gonna bother with moving the door a scale 3 ft.
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I don’t study freight as much as I do passenger or steam/special diesels. A boxcar is a boxcar. Coaches are meant to be looked at, and should attempt to be done good. Rule 3 still applies, but more attention to the overall should be had.
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If I can measure it, the car isn’t moving frequently enough.
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Booku (or bookoo or beucoup) pictures of real models of my cars takes up too much of my space. If you have them and are comparing my models to them in real life, Then you need a life.
4.1) If your comparing pictures of my freight cars to pictures of real ones, then you may still need a life
4.2) If it’s coaches that your looking at, then I’m flattered your interested. I’ll save you the time though, most of them are wrong.
I guess it comes with the territory. Everyone has a cross to bear-----[:-^][swg]
Yes.
Yes, but only to a certain level. My own level.
Yes. I have my own level of prototypicalness and it may not be shared by all. If it bothers someone so much how accurate or inaccurate my RR is, then I’m happy for them for two main reasons
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They obviously have nothing else to worry about, or
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they are blissfully ignorant thinking I care they are upset I’m running the wrong car or loco.
If it bothers you becauseyou don’t like it. Don’t run it. If you don’t like it because you’re concerned it will bother someone else, you really may want to find another hobby. You won’t truly be happy. Maybe puzzles. They can only be put together one way. Usually. [swg]
I’d say that at least 3/4 of the topics here have been discussed before in some form.
Oh, no doubt. But the last post to the Exactrail discussion was 7/5. Seems a little soon for the summer reruns.
You must be joking–here?
Here nothing is too soon for the summer reruns-----[(-D]
I noticed, for example, that a certain “end of the hobby” thread got deleted after awhile—gee, i wonder why----[:-^][(-D]
I think we need to differentiate between “modeling” and “obsessing”.
Joe