One layout, two eras - plan of attack

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Okay guys, as you know my layout is dismantled until August due to a relocation. Fortunately, it was designed that setup takes an hour at most, so as soon as I’m moved into my new home I can go back to “playing with trains.”

My 36" x 80" hollow-core door layout was designed to serve with me while I serve the US Air Force. With 12 years in the service, I have another 8 yet before I reach retirement eligibility, so I need to keep this tiny layout interesting until I land somewhere permanent with a nice, big basement.

So, a plan I came up with involves essentially two layouts in one. The current configuration represents the PRR in July, 1956. The businesses, vehicles, and lineside structures all reflect central PA in the 1950s.

The second era would be 1980, four years into Conrail. I’ve mused aloud about why that is in other threads, so I won’t belabor them here.

The challenge: Make a layout appropriate for two eras that can be interchanged at regular intervals without too much “trauma” to the layout.

The good news is by 1980, Conrail really hadn’t changed the face of the PRR much, so signals and lineside structures were mostly intact.

Step 1: Purchase the trains. Already started this one with a CR caboose, PC boxcar, and RBOX boxcar. I’m anxiously awaiting Atlas’ Trainman N scale Conrail GP15-1.

Step 2: Vehicles. Gotta get some 70s wheels; the '51 Hudson Hornet might look a bit dated.

Step 3: Lineside structures. I plan to buy “seconds” of the two interlocking towers, the watchman’s shanty, the section house, and the Lewisport depot. In the Conrail era they’ll be two-tone gray (instead of the current two-tone brown with red window shashes per PRR) with Penn Central-style signs nd boarded up windows. Lewisport depot will get Amrak signs.

Step 4: Businesses. The freight station (complet

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Hi!

Congratulations on “12 down, 8 to go”!

You are a brave man to work two eras on the same layout. Yet, it sounds like you have everything under consideration and given the relatively small size of your layout, you should have a relatively easy go of it.

From my point of view, the most easily recognizable period clues are autos, and then rr cars, and lastly certain structures - like fast food places, gas stations, and coal facilities. Again, it sounds like you have all that under consideration. Sooooo, all I can add is “ENJOY”!!!

Mobilman44

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Dave, this appears to be a well thought out and plausible plan you have for the two eras. The good news is you now have 4+ months to tweak the plan and sleep on it before getting around to building it into the layout(s).

Notice the plural use of the term! I know you just added the staging section recently, but have you entertained any ideas about adding another hollow-core door section to start creating a “modular” layout? I know space has been an issue, maybe an L-shaped design would fit into your new location.

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I’d say that’s a pretty darn unique idea [:)] I should think it would prove manageable given the size of the layout. As far as the structures go, would it be too much trouble to try some “reverse weathering” if you will? For example, heavily weather your current station and coal trestle to reflect conditions in the '80’s, and then “freshen” them up some for the '50’s? Yep, I like that idea, I wonder how much work it would be to implement with my proposed layout? [;)] The wifey might have a problem though! [:)]

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Sounds like a plan.

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Thanks! I was thinking that… Maybe one of the small-town structures might be swapped out with a Pizza Hut or something. That would scream 1980!

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My current layout (just started late last year) is designed to rotate era’s from the 1940’s to 1990’s. My last one was designed with that in mind too but never really got far enough along. I’ve had the idea for a quite a while, an article I wrote about it was published in RMC in 1983.

As far as switching buildings, Atlas has a “Roadside Inn” kit that is actually a re-working of their depot kit, so you could use the depot building on the older era, and have it replaced by the restaurant in the more modern time. Same ‘footprint’ so it would be easy to switch.

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Mid 1960’s and mid 1930’s for me. I was happily engaged in building my post-transition-era layout when I walked into my LHS and had one of those “Some Enchanted Evening” moments. She was dark, husky-voiced and ran on steam. Yes, I had been seduced by a Proto 0-6-0, with sound, and I was hooked. While my order made its way from Walthers, I realized that it wouldn’t be too hard to double-era my layout, and would give me a lot of extra modelling opportunities as well.

In HO, of course, we’ve got all those great Jordan vehicles for the pre-war timeframe. Each one is a project in itself - lots of tiny parts, and a chance to customize with paint and decals at every turn. I think the autos and trucks say more about your era than anything else, so I’ve given a lot of thought to that aspect of my railroad.

Anyway, Dave, I’m glad you’ve found a way to fill your time while the moving vans transplant Pennsylvania out west of the Mighty Mississip.

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Major Dave,

Glad you continue to think about RR while you undergo the rigors of thesis defense…

A couple of thoughts for the swapped-out scene for your freight station:

  1. Replace the freight station with gravel for a team track. I have seen this all over the country.
  2. Replace the freight station with a concrete modern tilt-up building or similar (e.g. steel-sided or concrete block) for some new user of the space–a food distribution warehouse, perhaps?

Hang in there! We all look forward to the rebirth of your layout in NB.

…an Army vet…

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I would look at the non-railroading areas as well. Anyone who has had the experience of revisiting a familiar place after being away several decades can attest to the how much a place can change. Businesses come and go. Old buildings get torn down. Some get additions. Others get repainted. New buildings get raised. Undeveloped areas get developed. You don’t have to change everything because some things stay the same. Just change enough to suggest the passage of time. I’d swap out some business signs on the commercial buildings. I might have two colors of one or two houses showing them repainted a different color. Residential landscaping will change a lot over time as new homeowners move in.

The real challenge would be changing automobile traffic standards. For example, center turn lanes are quite common now as well as in 1980 but I don’t think they were around in 1956.

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Did the same thing many years ago (60’s) when products were not the greatest and variety not much either. Managed to do it however, and maintained two eras for about 10 years. My work was causing me to move often then, and tearing down and building up was not a fun thing.

Your idea should work very well for you.

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Dave V., it looks like you’ve pretty well thought things out.

I toured an HO-Scale layout in the San Diego area a few years back that was multi-era themed - the '50s and the '80s. The day I was there he had it set in the '50s; another rail there at the same time had toured this layout on another occasion and commented that the last time he had been there it was in the other era.

One thing his layout had was numerous swapable billboards; one of those billboards carried an ad for DeSoto automobiles and this would have been swapped around with an advertisement for Datsun. He had “seconded” his passenger station and he said that the 1980’s era structure had boarded up windows and he would park a couple of railroad owned hi-rail vehicles outside indicating that the structure was now used by the maintenance department. One interesting note that gave it a 1950’s era flair was a REA truck in the Main Street traffic.

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Looks like you’ve been taken in by the Conrail Krishnas!

Those wacky cults… Always recruiting!

Lee

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Hey Dave, I jsut had a great idea: if you have a residentia section, “burn” down a house. Have it good in the 50’s and burn down about 1979. If you are interested, I could probably find some good photos for weathering. depentdign on how far out in the stick the house is, the burned one might jsut be a pile of blackened sticks, althoug that happens in the cities occasionally…

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as for stuctures, maybe have dropin/out sections to place an older or modern structure.

There are plenty of old towns with all the old buildings in place with little modernizing.

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Don’t forget street markings. In the 50s the centerline was still white. In the 80s it will be yellow.

Tom

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I have a couple of thoughts on this for you Dave, might be a little odd so feel free to use them or laugh. first off hopefully you can do like Silver Spike suggested and expand to another door, seems like if you can move one safely two is doable, now for the odd parts, if you were able to do the second door have one of your steamers go into a tunnel and come out the other side a diesel, like do the second door sort of a mirror future image of the first if you see what i mean, like i said it may seem odd but it might be kind of cool to see the 2 side by side. Also you could do things like have a young guy outside one of the buildings and in the diesel era have the same figure aged, if you have a cemetary you could add more grave stones and weather the old ones, bussiness signs could go from “potter millworks” to “potter and sons” kind of give it some continuity and show time passage, just a couple of thoughts for you.

Chuck

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Dave,

Love the new banner.

Lee,

Love the picture more. That’s Hillarious. (You know Dave has been acting a little odd lately. Did he try to give you a book, too?)

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In the '80’s version, will one of the tracks be ripped up and replaced by a service road? Making it replaceable would be a challenge.

Also, instead of boarding up the station, it could be a nail parlor or a drug rehab center with a chain link fence separating it from the tracks.

And don’t forget the weeds between the ties.

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Thanks for the ideas guys!

A challenge will be the signage and the road markings.

Right now my layout has 1950s-style traffic control; white street dividers and yellow stop signs.

Now, the 1954 Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices permitted red stop signs for the first time. So, I can go red in 1956, although most signs were probably still yellow at that time. The dividing line on the road is probably a wash; I’ll have to leave it white.

Chances are I’ll need at least one or two town structures to swap out… Figure maybe a fast food joint or something.

I probably won’t do the burned-down house thing. On a layout this small it might just stand out too much. I want the town to be a subtle setting for the trains rather than the center of the show. But it’s still a good idea in terms of showing the passage of time.

I like the idea of leaving just the foundation of the freight station, and turning the platform into a public team track.

For the Machine Tool factory I might be able to have a pre-fab 70’s add-on section (I have room) with a 70’s sign on it.

The covered platform across from the depot may instead become an Amshack.

All cool ideas.