HI!
Welcome to the Forum!
As I believe most of us MRs will agree, you can do what you want to do - and its OK - for its YOUR RR!
If you want to be strictly prototypical, that’s another matter. But to build a layout and have fun, just do whatever looks/feels right to you.
I model the Santa Fe and Illinois central “somewhere in the midwest”, with nothing on the layout built in real life after 1959. Yet I’ve got late 1950s diesels running alongside 1940s steamers and while that never happened, it really lights up my world. And while the Santa Fe and Illinois Central shared some real estate in northeast Illinois, I’ve got them sharing trackage all over the layout.
Please, do what makes you happy and if that involves using locos from the '90s and the '40s, who cares? The point is,
ENJOY !!!
Without knowing what other roads you have the question can’t be answered. It may not be possible to find an time period. For example the PRR ceased to exist n 1968 so you can’t prototypicaly run their trains next to Amtrak which did exist until 1978.
I am a do what I want modeler and I am happy with that… I lean towards CSX as my main railroad but I do have a BNSF and a couple UP trains and one made up short line (Crabville Eastern Railroad) and my scenary is more geared towards high deserty took like one would see in central and eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. No one says you have to stick with a place or time or railroad. Put on your engineer hat, toot the airhorn and enjoy your trains
Welcome to the forums and Model Railroading. [tup]
Railroads interchange / exchange cars with each other all the time. If a load from California has to go east to Virginia, the load usually stays in the car it was loaded in for the entire trip. Some railroads will try to use a car from the east if they have one so the car will move toward it’s home territory.
Locomotives and caboose are different. They stay in the home road area and are lettered for the home road.
As an example, I model a freelance RR. That means it is a RR that I made up, but would act as a real RR would. My RR name is Chesapeake & Atlantic. It is located in the east. The locomotives and caboose are painted and lettered for the C&A. The cars, on the other hand, are from all over. All different road names.
When a car from one RR is run on another RR, there is a fee that the using RR must pay the owner RR for using the car. Some modelers pay attention to this detail, but most don’t. Some don’t even know how it really works (like me) but do know that the procedure exists.
Most modelers have quite a collection of locomotives, and most of them have different road names. But if a modeler is building a layout and wants to stay more authentic, they may just use locomotives for the RR they are building. There are exceptions and excuses that modelers use to be able to justify to themselves why they run other locomotives. One may be that their RR allows trains form other RR’s to use their tracks. Another may be that their RR just bought a used locomotive from another RR and they haven’t relettered it yet. So stories can be made up to justify about anything.
But, because it is your RR, you can do anything that you want. As you enjoy the hobby and do some research if you want, you will continue to learn. Then you can decide if and when you want to change something to make it better for
I would just run what you have and have fun. Here in the Philly area I’ve seen several loco’s from out of area. A few canadian and SP were recent.
Just run what you have and have fun with it.
Welcome to the forum! [#welcome]
Since buildings last for a LONG time, it would be entirely reasonable to have a glass-and-stainless-steel edifice right next to the First National Bank (est 1854.) Even wooden buildings a century old are not uncommon.
Steam locomotives are rather regional, since they were designed to meet the specific operating conditions of their owning railroad. However, by the 1990s, most steam locos were in museum collections - which could be eclectic (i.e., a hodgepodge of machines from just about anywhere.)
Cabeese would stay on the owning railroad - except in a (very) few cases where they were part of a run-through arrangement.
Diesel locos, especially in the present, can show up anywhere, thanks to run-throughs and power sharing agreements.
Coaches and RPO cars would usually stay on the owning road. Sleepers and head-end cars could be swapped around. I recall seeing Armour Yellow UP cars in New York City in the early 1950s. I don’t doubt their Tuscan red PRR equivalents ended up on the Oakland Mole.
Standard gauge freight cars permitted in interchange could end up almost anywhere in North America - even interchanged onto the 3 foot gauge East Broad Top (they swapped trucks at Mount Union, PA.)
OR - you can simply tell any Scale-Rule Harry that takes exception to what you do that you’re modeling a different universe. Most people model Universe 3, Neil Armstrong. I model Universe 13, Alfred E. Neumann. Frustrates the heck out of rivet counters who can’t believe that my coal-hauling shortline pulls seven-axle articulated coal hoppers with 12-drivered articulateds…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with tongue in cheek)
The problem is that at the start we collect what catchs our eye. As we grow in knowledge we begin to gravitate toward more prototypical operation. Some all the way. Most of us slowly. Knowledge as in everything is the key.
Is your question really
a) “can I do whatever I like on my own layout?”
or
b) “can you come up with a plausible explanation for why it is realistic that engines from lots of different railroads (and possible different eras) would be running together in real life?”
The answers are:
a) Yes.
b) Probably not, but maybe possible - depending on what the theme, location and era you want to model, and what engines from what roads you actually have.
Smile,
Stein
To me, a model railroad is a model, Its not real. So I think if you like , JUST DO IT. Trains are trains. most everything on a model railroad is for you to have fun with it. Also some buildings that were built in the 1800’s are still standing today. so if you have the stuff,and you really like, use it, and have fun.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Sam
Welcome!
Eventually, someone will post words on this thread to the effect that you’re not a “serious” or “real” model railroader if your layout and operations are strict representations of railroading and reality in miniature. Unless that really is your ambition, you can safely ignore these folks.
Instead, be a “happy” model railroader, do what you like, enjoy your layout, and enjoy the hobby!
As I see it, you have a couple of options:
-
Run all your stuff. If it’s just rolling stock, that’s not a huge problem. On a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I saw a trio of Norfolk Southern locos pulling a train composed, as far as I could see, entirely of BNSF hoppers. A couple miles behind that was a second train, with 2 NS locos and a Conrail (!) loco, behind which was a train which had just about every reporting mark in railroading, including all the major ones and including some you wouldn’t expect to see (Penn Central, Conrail, Chessie, and B&O, to name a few). Locos are more problematic, as they tend to stay on home rails, or where they have trackage rights.
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Pick a road (or, as you said, some that go together), and gradually acquire equipment in that road name as time and budget allows, phasing out the old stuff as you go. Successor roads are fine, because the major roads take years to repaint things after significant changes (see the example above).
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Create a couple of different themes (NW US, modern day, or NE in the Fifties, whatever), and only operate one scheme at a time. Change out structures / industries, locos, rolling stock as appropriate for each scheme. Scenery would have to be a compromise, but many things are in model railroading. Obviously, this would be time consuming and require a lot of effort on your part, but it might satisfy your urge for greater realism without requiring you to get rid of a large portion of your stuff.
Whatever you do, remember to have fun!
What I am going to suggest would be sacrilege to some.
Obviously, it bothers you somewhat to have this mismatch of road names and eras - or you wouldn’t have asked the question as to how you could possibly make it look realistic.
If you can come up with a favorite prototype and/or era, then you use what you have that fits, and sell the rest. Use the proceeds to acquire more appropriate rolling stock and structures. After a few years, most of us have more than can possibly be useful on our layout, anyway. So get rid of what doesn’t fit. For stuff that “sort of” or “almost” fits, I use it as a stand-in until I have the funds for a replacement that is more appropriate.
The beauty of this scheme is that you can have a slowly evolving roster and layout with a consistent theme without having to store bunches of stuff. And if you can keep your theme in mind when visiting the LHS or a show, and not buy items that don’t fit, the scheme will be much easier on your wallet.
I reformed my ways when my wife grew tired of moving my train stuff from house to house, but never seeing any of it come out of the boxes to be displayed or used. She very pointedly asked what was the point of spending several thousand dollars (over the years) on stuff that was never going to come out of the box to be enjoyed. So I settled on a theme and appropriate rosters for locomotives and cars and structures. I sold nearly all (kept back two locomotives and 6-7 cars) that didn’t fit my layout theme. Those 2 locomotives and few cars are used as stand-ins until I build more appropriate replacements. And if I come across something that is more appropriate or better than what I have, and I can
One way to handle the buildings would be to have two towns - one with the early buildings and one with the newer buildings.
Set up a layout with 2 staging areas. Then set up multiple trains, each consistent with itself. Then you could run trains that logically coexist with each other from each staging area to the other. As they exit your “stage”, bring on the next set.
Enjoy
Paul