Its not a bad thing, so don’t get me wrong. I see alot of people on here have alot of steam era layouts. Maybe that what they grew up with or maybe its just what they like to model. I am more your diesel guy, like 80s’, 90’s, etc… Thats what I grew up to.
I see more “WPF” based in steam rather than diesel. I don’t know, maybe theres more detail items for those era’s rather than the later years. I haven’t really looked at that point.
Maybe someone can enlight me.
I think as many people model diesel as steam, possibly more (there sure seem to be a load of NS fans here) but modern layouts and locos seem somewhat pedestrian (and perhaps, less photogenic) than steamers. I love diesels, especially NS ones, but if you have seen one black and white C40-9W, you have seen over 1000 of NS’ engines.
I also think that MOST steam is more model (layout) friendly than big diesels and 89 foot autoracks. 6 and 8 coupled steam with little 40’ cars looks a whole lot better on 24 inch curves than 2 or 3 huge diesels and a herd of humongo boxcars on the same curves, and will have many many more cars per train than a comparable modern train. This is probably why modern stuff seems to gain more and more popularity in N scale. Some people still run Big Boys on small layouts, but once again, they dont look real good while doing it.
You are kidding, right ?..
Actually, steam is more popular than diesel if you were to take a serious poll. And then you have people like me that are into the transition period of the mid to late 1950s so we can run both steam and diesel. I also built my layout so that I can change out some of the structures, automobiles and trains and go from the 1930s to the 50s to the 70s to modern day.
Tracklayer
Robbie,
I did not grow up with steam because it was pretty much phased out by the time I came along. However, it is my choice of locomotive (along with early diesel) for my early 40s New York Central layout. For me, I find steam a lot more interesting and visually captivating to watch than diesel. Pistons, side rods, cyclinders, steam, smoke chuff, whistle, blowoff: They all add to the mystique, intrigue, and/or nostalgia of the Iron Horse.
Whether there are actually more steam layouts than diesel, I can’t say. I would tend to agree that an all-diesel layout is probably more abundant, with steam AND diesel second. Again, that is just a guess.
Tom
My fictional short line is owned by an wealthy eccentric who fell in love with trains at a young age. He purchased and restored various locomotives and rolling stock from those bygone eras. His road uses modern stock for the revenue part of his line, but from time to time, he likes to set up a railfan excursion. This way, I have the best of both worlds. I’m modeling my home town, which is a small midwestern town, and most of the buildings were built in the early 20th Century. We have car shows on our town square during the spring and summer, so I can have vehicles from almost any era on the layout.
Nostalgia comes to mind when it comes to steam…
I model 50’s to 60’s freelance…
I dont model a particular area but have a US railroad running in Australia…
That way I can use buildings i know with US rail cars and locos…
Steam and Diesel, but mostly steam, I make out that the company is a die hard steam team…
Steam looks better and sounds better with dcc sound…
Having never seen a steam engine run, other than the tiny narrow gauge ones at amusement parks, I can definately say, it isn’t childhood experience that gets my interest in steam locomotives up. That may be why they are just more interesting to me. Modeling (if that’s what you can call what I do) a Now time period just doesn’t appeal to me. I can go down the street to the Oakwood NS yard in Melvindale, Mi and watch all the NS power I can stand to see.
I think if polls were taken, you’d find that more people have transistion era layouts than one or the other. Running first generation diesel and late steam engines seems to appeal to more people. I further think, that’s what drives the market. The market doesn’t drive the interest.
There are probably as many reasons for modelers to prefer steam as there are modelers who run it - so there is no one answer. FWIW, here are a few:
So, what’s my excuse? I want to bring back and reinforce fond memories of a very specific time and place. Happily, it’s possible for me to do so.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
This subject will keep coming up as long as model railroading survives. Ten or twenty years ago, letters appeared in MR and RMC from younger modelers whose attitude was: “Why are people still modeling those outmoded, inefficient steam locomotives?” That’s like asking a guy who builds model airplanes for display why he’s bothering with those inefficient prop planes when jets are faster, etc. It often comes down to esthetics–never mind what we grew up with. A lot of airplane modelers love the WWII or even the WWI warplanes because they’re esthetically pleasing to the eye–but also because of significance! As someone else pointed out, steam locomotives provide a lot more visual action than Diesels, which is esthetics.
I was born not more than about 50 yards from the Milwaukee Road’s double-tracked mainline between Milwaukee and the Twin Cities and we moved when I was still a baby to a house about 100 yards from it. I was just a little yard ape while steam-powered freights and passenger trains alike stormed through little Pewaukee, WI, at 60mph, and watched way freights shuffling cars onto the industrial sidings around town, amid all the chuffing and clanking that only small steam locos seemed to generate. We were thrilled with the Diesels, however, particularly when they started to displace the streamlined “Baltics” that pulled the vaunted Hiawatha, for they were so sleek and colorful. (For years, after steeping in American Flyer lore, I thought the MILW pulled the “Hi” with Alco PA/PB combos, only to discover, years later, that they were Fairbanks-Morse “Erie Builts!”)
We moved to nearby Waukesha, now home to Kalmbach Publishing, seven miles away but light-years away in the amount of hustle and bustle. That was in 1953, and steam was gone already, but I was transitioning myself, from American Flyer trains operating
Why do we hear more steam layouts than diesel, too? While sound adds something to diesel operations, it really comes into its own with steam. I fell in love with sound listening to a steamer, not a diesel.
I also think the point about running shorter cars was important. Many of us are limited to 18-inch curves, which look decent with 40-foot boxcars. Today’s 80 and 90-foot behemoth freight cars won’t even run around these curves, even if you’re willing to put up with how out-of-place they’d look.
Don’t worry Robbie , we diesel freaks are out here, My employment for 38 years kinda influenced me, I built , later tested , and ran GE locos for a living, before moving into an IT position at GE in Erie, PA. Do I have a lot of U-boats and such on my layout , actually no , I love ALCO diesels and some of the other odd balls , FM, Baldwin . Freelancing my layout I have a mix of all kinds of early to late diesels all running together. My choice to be a weirdo.
I agree with the DCC part w/sound. I was looking at some on youtube and they sound great. There was a few times I rode The Great Smoky Mountain Railway, and the had a steam engine going. I guess its the smell, and the looks, and the sound that makes you fall in love with them. On the other hand… I guess someone like me that was raised up near NS lines, that I choose to do diesel. At my age (28) I don’t have any steam memories, other than certain places.
I don’t want people to think I’m knocking steam. BY NO WAY I AM. I was just curious on why there was more steam than diesel layouts. I guess its what you like, which theres nothing wrong with that at all. [;)]
Steam, at least for me, has more personality than a diesel. Each engine is a little more unique than the more mass produced desiel.
I suspect it’s for much the same reason as above. A steamer, when having problems, puts out a noticable frustration in her puff than the same hum of a diesel. There is one on the big Dash 9s, but it isn’t always as distinguished.
Okay, so I’m not buying my own reason anymore. And I;m wanting to do a UP press show with 4449 and 844 tacked together on the end of the modern era RBBX
I was born in 1965, so I have no memories of Steam in daily revenue service. But I can’t remember a time that I was not FASCINATED by steam, even as a small child. As others have said a lot has to do with the visibly moving machinery being Industrial Poetry, where as I usually refer to Diseasles as Rainbow Bricks. They can be colorful, but aren’t a whole lot more interesting to watch than a boxcar with windows, to Me.
Having gotten a little throttle time on an H.K. Porter 0-4-0T, the Nevada Northern’s 4-6-0 #40, the NN’s SD-9 #204 and a GP-38-2, I can tell you that, while there is no denying that I enjoyed every minute at the throttle of the SD-9 and GP-38 (my first throttle experience ever) That the Steam experiences were the High light of my Rail-fanning Hobby. To pull down on that Whistle lever and hear that Steam Whistle WAIL was a Soul moving experience that took me to another Time/Place that was gone before I was there to see it. I can’t wait for July this year, a trip to St. Louis where I will get to see a Big Boy for the first time in my Life, then 2 weeks later to Sumpter Valley Ry to run their Narrow gauge, most likely the 2-8-2, as it will likely be too late in the Fire season to run their Wood-Burning Heisler ( Definitely EARLIER reservations for next year)
I have some Diesels, and this is not the complete collection of either Steam or Diesel, but the ratio is always growing more and more in Favor of Steam on MY Roster even if not in the real Railroading world. And Yes it is a mostly Transitional period that I Model/Collect. Click pic to enlarge.
&n
Well, Steam is pretty popular because of range of products and all the moving parts and such in my view. But Its all what you like, i model conrail in the 90’s and own three PRR steamers. Diesel is pretty popular if you look at it, but steam is still WAY more popular. Now I model conrail because i used to live along the conrail mainline in Pennsylvania, but i model it because thats what grew to like in trains, big diesels and coal drags, but then again i like them both. Steam is a little easier to model in my opinion, because of the range of products like in my walthers book, there is so much more steam era products then diesel. Steam is popular because may the raw energy in a steam engine, and the power that comes along with that era, a era of change.
Tjsingle
Your railroad might be fictional, but it sounds very much like the Ohio Central Railroad which is privately owned by a single individual, not a corporation. This railroad maintains a small active steam fleet, mostly formerly CP, and these steam engines are occasionally used in revenue freight service to this day. It used to run excursion trains but gave that up a couple years ago. Now days, the steamers are hired out for promotional purposes. One such outing was last fall in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where it was used to promote an new art gallery that was opening in the former B&O depot which has been beautifully restored. I believe the building is also rented out as a party house. I was at the grand opening and talked to one of the engineers and it was from him that I learned about the railroad being privately owned. Although the engineer didn’t say so, I got the impression that the owner is someone who has a love affair with steam and that is why the steam roster is kept active. Since it is privately owned and not beholding to stockholders, the owner apparently is willing to spend the money to keep the steam roster active. I’m guessing this is done at some expense to the bottom line. Obviously, this regional railroad must be run as a profit making adventure but apparently that can be done while still mai
Steam is certainly more interesting to watch than diesel that is one reason.
My guess is that transition era modeling is far more popular than pure steam era and the reason for that is that it allows the greatest variety of equipment. That is certainly the case for me. When I got back into the hobby as an adult in the late 1970s, my intention was to run strictly early diesels, because that is what I remember from my youth. I believe I only once saw a steam powered train that was not an excursion and that was from a distance somewhere in either Iowa or Illinois around 1960. Then one day, I bought a Rivarossi UP Mikado on an impulse and I was instantly hooked on steam. I had to have both on my layout and on my current layout, steam still slightly outnumbers the diesels.
Besides the variety that the transition era offers, Chuck touched on the nostalgia factor and I think that plays a part although that is probably more for the 60 and over crowd. I am not quite there yet. As I said earlier, I have almost no memories of real steam but all my early electric trains, Lionel and American Flyer were steam powered so that is where the nostalgia factor comes in for me.
Steam is just more interesting to look at. Period. Take it from someone who DIDN’T grow up with steam locomotives. Modern locomotives are still very interesting to me, and I’d like to model them too, but steam won out. Back then it was a simpler era, no “ZOMGZ TEH WURLD IS GUNNA END IN 2012Z!!!11!1!”, no worrying about getting harmed for looking at someone funny, just worrying about what momma is fixin’ for dinner and whether or not the 4:15 is gonna be late today. [:D]
I have to agree that steam is more interesting. I grew up in the 50’s when you still saw steam, but I think inherently the steam locomotive with all its exposed moving parts has a fascination for us that diesels can’t match. And frankly modern railroading with its streamlined diesels, welded cars, unit trains just doesn’t have the same variety. Plus these days we’re down to 7 class 1 railroads, again less variety.
Add to this all the trackage that has disappeared. Many places have some rails left usually in the pavement to show trains once passed this way, but they don’t anymore. Trucks do most of the local deliveries - a process that should increase as more container shipping is used. The whole railroad industry is just not as interesting today. If everyone wasn’t driven by a desire to have big steam, I think pre WWI would be the most modeled era.
Enjoy
Paul