Gracias a Dios, Psstor Bob.
Hello, SteinJR, Stein, you know that most of the posts on this forum are for Eastern RR’s! Oh God, I’m in love with the Pennsylviania RR! I never even HEARD of it until I became an adult. Who gives mierda about it. Route Rock ! MN Commercial RULES!!! Just saw an old ALCO (C420?) today. I was driving southbound on MN280 towards eastbound I94, she was SMOKING as an ALCO should be! Das ist gut, ja??
Jimmy
There are far too many articles about Western railroads in the hobby press. But then, we New Haven fans consider the PRR as one of those Western roads, so bear that in mind. [(-D]
Seriously, I did an analysis 2 years ago of both Athearn and Atlas in regards to their loco models and sorting by East, West, and Canadian using their websites. The results were what was expected, mainly that Atlas (1205 Eastern locos, 858 Western locos, 59 Canadian) and Athearn (1538 Western locos, 921 Eastern, 93 Canadian) each showed a significant bias towards their own location (Atlas in New Jersey, Athearn in California). When combined, the differences between Eastern and Western locos made by the two companies isn’t that significant.
Paul A. Cutler III
As most modellers are not modellers of railroads but modellers of other people’s model railroads is it not suprising that most modellers model eastern roads as the preponderance of model railroads published these days in the comics are of eastern roads?
Blame this on the rise in popularity of such model railroads such as the V&O and the Midland Road et al. Both Tree Belt model railroads. And, as stated above, as most people model and copy what they see in the magazines rather than what’s down the road, you get eastern railroads. Even “Tony The K’s” latest road isn’t western but more central and treed rather than western and desert and will no doubt bring forth a flood of similar designed railroads.
Back in the 1950s, 1960s desert railroading was all the rage and why? Because the Gorrie and Dapheted was the most popular road back then so everybody copied it, fantasy scenery, fantasy bridges and dinosaurs included. And as people copied the G&D so more G&D style western roads flooded the comics. Then in the 1970s, along came the V&O, a model railroad based on real railroading and not other people’s model railroads, and the Tree Belt was born.
There are still those who do not model either the Tree Belt nor the Desert Belt but model the Disneyesque Belt, al la the modelling of Sellios and Furlow for example. Once again showing how most people model other people’s model railroads and not the prototype either via prototype modelling or, to use that awful phrase, “proto-freelancing”.
Signifique a decir Pastor Bob, lo siento mucho
Jimmy
Sir, agreed, B&O, Pennsy, maybe some other eastern RR,s. What did they have?, maybe 20-30 miles of track that they could call their own?? What about the Crab Orchard & Egyptian?? An Eastern road?? I don’t think so. We, as hobbyists, need to re-think about our romantic notions concerning eastern RR’s.
With respect, Jimmy
I think I’m one of the three Rock Island fans that remain on this earth.
Digo, Gracis a Dios y Route Rock!!
Jimmy
Si, mis amigos, tengo tarjeta verde. Just in case anyone was wondering. Estoy legal.
Jimmy
I have also noticed the large number of midwestern roads in print - but the mag that runs this joint is in Milwaukee, so I suppose I’ll have to agree with the previous poster that people model (and write about) what they are familiar with.
I model eastern simply because I think it is more interesting. Growing up I had never been west of Ohio and so many photos I saw of western roads focused on trains rolling through massive, empty scenery. Now that I live in the Colorado foothills, friends who have never been here think I am lucky to live in such beautiful place. I reply "The Rockies are majestic, the Appalachians are beautiful.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
Before I really got into RRing I always associated the Big Engines with the Western RRs–UP --ATSF–ETc
I was amazed how many large articulated and non articulated populated the eastern coal handling RRs
Hello Jimmy,
I do hope I’m counted as one of those 3 RI fans. Who but a RI fan would have an AB6 as an avatar! I’ve even had a shot at converting a B unit into an AB6. I decided to start it over when I got better information. I might even get it finished later this year! Only problem is I didn’t get into trains until I moved to the Carolinas. Thanks to 3 different yahoo groups, ebay, and various books I have been able to put together a couple short RI passenger trains and freights in N scale.
As my closing says I do others lines too. Thank you Kato for the various ATSF cars. I’m also trying to put together a Wabash Cannonball. If Kato would do 3 more cars (they already did 3 domes) I think a Wabash Bluebird would be really cool, and most of the cars still exist, in Georgia and Illinois. A RI-SP Golden State would be interesting too…
Being from Peoria many different lines ended or passed very near: C&NW, GM&O, RI, IC, CB&Q, TP&W, ATSF to the North and East, Pennsy, NYC/Peoria and Eastern, (later PennCentral), NIckel Plate (later N&W), Minneapolis and St Louis. Even Wabash came there temporarily. There was also Illinois Traction and I believe Illinois Terminal. Again, if I knew then what I know now…and had a camera.
Well once again I’ve rambled a bit but there are a lot of roads still without much in the way of prototypes but as has been already mentioned most folks either model what they know or what they can copy. If I were younger I would model the two big lines in my area, NS and CSX. Although I bet the Southern would be a good seller locally. But can these smaller roads be modeled with any profit for the manufactures? Unlikely but we can hope.
Bob
I;m not really a Rock fan but I sure would like to see an N-Scale Class R67b Northern with 69" drivers.
As an N scaler, I’d suggest that we see more western stuff anymore. Apart from the PRR GG1 and Broadway sets, Kato pretty much only releases stuff lettered for UP, BNSF, and their predecessors. Most of the “big steam” releases from Athearn have been UP prototypes.
The exceptions would be Bachmann, based in Philadelphia, and Atlas, which is in New Joisey… They do a pretty good job of supplying eastern models, or at least eastern paint schemes.
I think coverage is actually pretty even. We may think we’re being slighted based on our particular niche. Obviously, the manufacturers, authors and publishers can’t be all things to all people.
Lee
Yes. I grew up in the south, but spent about half my life in the west (Air Force), including 15 years in Colorado. Now I love the rugged west, but you are right. I alwas thought the Rockies were sort of a “Hey, look at me and see how great I am” mountain range, while the Appalachians were more of a “Slow down and get to know me” range.
I will repeat the heart of my earlier comments, with the exception of the PRR, and a few N&W, NYC and C&O pieces, most efforts by manufacturers that require railroad specific tooling are for western and mid western roads - as per the examples I sighted earlier.
The market for B&O, Reading or New Haven models has got to be at least as big as for the Milwaukee.
Sheldon