hello, i am thinking 'bout modeling the current time. what would be some of the stuff to have? like the locos, boxcars? i live down in texas and what is some of the stores in other states? what we have in texas is probably not in other states.
thanks as always for your help, stephen
Where in texas do you live? If you are anywhere near San Antonio there is a train show this weekend and a couple of great hobby shops. I model the 90’s which is pretty current. I have a lot of 60+ foot boxcars, covered hoppers and other misc. cars. The catch with modeling modern railroads is that stuff is bigger so you need to build with larger curves. Not to mention you cant fit as many cars on a given siding as you could if they were older and smaller.
What a daunting task to list everything. Below are some guidelines.
Any EMD locomotive from the GP38-2/SD38-2 (the SD38-2 was not built in significant numbers) and later (replace the 38 with a higher number, some do not have the -2, like the GP60) and any GE locomotive with -8, -9, AC, or ES in the designation will still be very common on Class 1s. GE -7s may still used by Class 1s in fairly significant numbers. EMD SW1500s, MP15/MP15DCs, and MP15ACs are probably also significantly used by Class 1s. For shortlines, generally any four axle (espicially EMD) locomotive could be believeable, although second generation locomotives are displacing large quantities of the first generation locomotives on many shortlines.
Boxcars/Reefers: no roofwalk, low brake wheel (there are still some real boxcars with high brake wheels running around). Almost all boxcars built within the last 15 years are excess height with the majority seeming to be 60’ interior length, though there are still thousands from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s that are not excess height.
Flatcars: generally, look for a minimum length of 54’, even that does not guarentee a modern car. For TOFC flatcars, 89’ is the minimum length. Any spine-cars (excluding Impack [sic], at least I have never seen any) and double stack cars are still in use. Any fully enclosed autocarrier would still be around.
Covered hoppers, look for rooftop walkways toward the sides of the car, not down the center. I believe that the Airslide hoppers have their walkway down the middle of the roof and they were made into the 1990s, so they are an exception.
Open top hoppers, looking at the trucks would probably be the most reliable way to determine if it is modern. Walthers 4-bay, aggregate, and Ortner; Bowser 3-bay; Athearn rapid discharge all are modern. The Atlas Trainman car looks similar to modern cars but those are probably all out of service by now.
Gondolas, most modern
one of the great thing about modern railroading is that its pretty much wide open. i mean as long as youstay within some guidline like ericsp stated, if you model a shortline you’ll have no problem with engines. u can see the weirdest consist, all in different road name paint scheme with only a stencil repaint. i ve seen all kind of car being used. building can be a little bit harder, theres a big lack of modern store, unless u go for the model power issues of BK and KCF youd have to scratchbuild these ever present places. same for really modern gas station, convenience stores, laundromat,modern looking churches, car wash etc…a lot of stuff will still be useful for you though, even though you model say 2000, buildings built in 1950 or 60’s are still around… in fact they’re everywhere, sometime they just change vocation. the industrial building of 1930 become the modern loft and condo complex. dont forget the little things, like graffiti on car and buildings. modern billboards and cars. these little thing really help set your layout in a time frame. you might want to add city noise if you are modeling a small to medium town. our towns nowaday are a lot noisier than they were 50 years ago so that goes toward helping you recreate this. hope this helps
I model the 1960’s. Part of the “scene setting” effort is finding all the little details that define an era. If you look at Bob Grech’s photos, you’ll see a lot of Jordan vehicles, which clearly tell you that you’re not in the 21st century, even if you can’t see the steam engines. Cars change more rapidly than trains, so they better define your time.
I will be putting in a shopping street with a movie theater. I’ve already scoured the Web for old movie posters from that era. They will be displayed on the theater and on sandwhich boards out front. I’ve also been making decals of old advertising signs to put on my structures - things like Ted Williams telling you to “Drink Moxie,” or George Burns and Gracie Allen pushing Spam.
the Internet Movie Database has the original,genuine movie posters for its movies on just about each movie’s pages,easily shrunken to scale and printed out (i did it myself and they look great)
to suggest a scene is set in the country,away from building codes and zoning ordinances,you can take a colorful,yet dilapidated highway trailer and turn it into a shed by cutting a door into the side and making a porch roof. this makes a rundown structure that is more colorful, more interesting than a gray wooden structure, and fits with modern times.
One thing I see a lot in 1:1 but seldom on model railroads are railroad stations that have been remodeled as restaurants, museums, etc. Here in Northern Utah, many of our vintage stations still exist, but as follows:
Richmond station - Antique store
Logan Station - Mexican Restaurant
Mendon Station - City multipurpose building
Brigham City Station - Museum
Ogden Station - Museum and Southwestern Restaurant, and community building
Salt Lake Rio Grande Station - Mexican Restaurant and Folklife Center
Park City Station - Restaurant
In Wyoming the Centenial Station and Medicine Bow Station are now museums
I’m sure there are more, but it seems part of the contemporary cityscape for the old railroad depot to have found a new career. If I were a contemporary modeler, I might buy a station kit and revise it as one of the above.
Man, that’s a really big question you’re asking there, but then, being a fellow Texan that’s totally understandable…
There’s not much I can add to what the other members have offered so far, except to say that you might want to find a nice train watching spot and just kick back and observe what goes by.
I work in Houston just off highway 290, and every evening during my shift there’s at least three or four Union Pacific freight trains that come by headed west. Most are a mixture of tank cars, covered hoppers, center beam cars and gondolas, while I have seen others that were either nothing but tank cars or covered hoppers. Just down the road from us is a cement plant, and at least twice a week a train of nothing but open hoppers carrying rock backs down the side track to unload. As for building and so forth. A lot of modellers now a days like track side industry like rice dryers, grain elivators and alike.
Good luck to you.
Tracklayer
A couple of things that will scream, “21st Century,” even to the mundanes, are cell phone towers (possibly disguised as trees[(-D]) and miniature satellite dishes. And then there are casino ads on billboards - in states where playing poker would have earned a trip to the slammer a decade ago…
How about a Hyundai dealership? A Starbucks? A humongous Wal-Mart next to a row of boarded up ‘Ma and Pa’ stores?
It isn’t just the trains that define the time and place.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Where in the country (or the world, for that matter) will your railroad be set? If you’re going to model Texas, then look around. You might want to visit travel sites on the Web for other places. However, as the 21st century progresses, I’m finding that more and more, the country looks very much the same everywhere you go.
The vegetation may be more indicative of place than man-made stuff. Pines in the Northwest, cactus and dry brush in the Southwest, deciduous trees in the East, etc.
Industries are still regional, based on resources. You won’t see a lot of coal drags in Florida, or iron ore in the Pacific Northwest. There would be lots of oil operations on the Gulf Coast, though.
If you put in a gas station, make sure it’s got modern pumps. The style of gas pumps has changed a lot over the years. I’ve got a gas station on my layout. When I’ve got the layout in the 1960’s, I have one set of pumps, and a different set for when I set the Wayback Machine to 1937.
How about a junkyard with an old (1960’s) Volkswagon Beetle in it, wheels off, somewhat rusted, with a new (2000’s) Beetle outside on the street? That would be an interesting contrast, clearly showing that times have changed.
Garrisson Hill in Dover NH, a town I plan to include in my modern layout, is forested with cell-phone towers. Thats a detail I plan to include as it screams “modern”.
Chris
Don’t forget to have a security guard/Barney Fife hassling some railfans in a parking lot too!