I had a reply, but I feel it is time to just let this go.
Agreed, I am getting ready to build a new layout, a moderately large one. And by modeling the 50’s, my large curves, long trains and big spaces will seem even more realistic.
Sheldon
[tup]
I hope the moderators clean this thread up before it gets deleted.
-Kevin
Agreed,
One last thought to Travis, there has been “ugly” in EVERY time period in the history of man, and we are no more “enlightened” today than 100 years ago. We just think we are.
Sheldon
Trying to get back on subject.
I like modeling my hometown of Toledo, if that were the case now I would be stuck with CSX, GTW and NS none of which I really care about. By modeling the 50’s and 60’s I have the PRR, NYC, B&O, C&O, NKP, Wabash, DT&I, Ann Arbor, D&TSL and Toledo Terminal along with their much nicer paint schemes compared with the current crap.
And if I really want to go off the reservation I can throw in the Ohio Public Service a freight only Interurban that operated in the 50’s.
Rick Jesionowski
Well, I don’t know about modeling Jim Crow, but right smack in my modeling era (~1935-1946/7), and in my modeled area, was the Heart Mountain Relocation Center (one of Japanese-American internment camps in WWII). The CB&Q had a station called “Vocation” there for six or seven years. I will be modeling this station stop as it is part of the history of the region. I will not have passenger trains full of American citizens stopping there, as I consider the forced relocation to have been a huge black eye on the history of this country (where were the German-American Relocation Centers?).
So if you got past that without throwing up…
I model the 1930’s-1940’s for some very pragmatic reasons. Almost all freight still traveled by rail. There were lots of small local trains and lots of industries to switch, as centralization was just getting started. Freight cars were mostly about 40’ long, so a train of a given length has more cars than more recent eras, giving a model train a more realistic appearance even if it is short. Highways were mostly primitive, so most travel was still done by rail, meaning passenger trains were in abundance and stopped everywhere.
As far as the not really pragmatic reasons - I love steam, and diesels are “eh…” at best. And the nostalgia factor for that era is very big for me.
Many of us like steam locomotives and diesel locomotives. In the 1950’s both types of locomotive were in use, and a model railroad can have both types AND be prototypical (real). Many of us want our model world to be prototypical.
Other reasons to model the 1950’s. Freight cars in the '50s were only 40 feet long. Later era’s began to run 50 foot and longer freight cars. You can fit more 40 foot cars onto a layout than you can 50 footers.
Many of us like to model the era that we grew up in. I grew up in the 1950’s giving me a second reason to model the 1950’s along side my love of both steam and diesel engines.
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As many already mentioned, I also like steam engines, but also have diesels, so it places me in the transition era.
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But also, I like the automobiles from the 50’s and 60’s.
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Due to limited space, my layout is only 6x9 feet, so I am using smaller curves, which limits me to shorter (= older era) engines and train cars.
I am born in the 60’s, so I have no memories to fall back on for my modelling era.
I am not strictly prototypical with my railroad, so I tend to stretch the era, placing it into early 60’s, with some older railroad equipment still in use.
When I got into model railroading in the mid-'50s, I didn’t have any thoughts about eras, and simply ran what I liked, steam and diesel.
When I got into the hobby somewhat deeper in the late '60s/early '70s, I was primarily modelling the time of the start of that era, but couldn’t give up on including steam.
When I finally had room to build a decent-size layout, it continued in the same vein, but I finally opted to model the late '30s, when the Depression was mostly over, steam was still king (although there were some diesels around), and the future had at least the possibility of even better days ahead.
While I try to be reasonably faithful to that time frame, I’m unabashed about running some not-all-that-common cars of that era, especially covered hoppers (although none of the larger and more sophisticated ones seen nowadays).
The cars and locos are weathered, but, in most cases, not extremely so, and most of the structures have a well-maintained appearance. For me, the '50s have very little appeal, as much of what I saw and experienced was not to my liking.
Pretty-well all of the following eras were interesting in their own way, but for me, that doesn’t make them candidates for modelling.
I admit that my layout is a fantasy of what may have been or may not been, but because I acknowledge it as a fantasy, it suits my interests almost perfectly.
Wayne
Sheldon,
In the September 2001 issue (page 68), Model Railroader ran an Trackside Photo where the flag pole in front of the town hall building had a Battle Flag of the Army of Tennessee mounted above a US Flag. It caused a big stink on rec.models.railroad in August 2001 at the time. Of course, less than a month later we had more important things to think about.
Well, I missed the controversy because I was not on any forums or chat groups in 2001…
I likely looked at the photo without even noticing.
As a student of history, I’m not in favor of re-writing or erasing the ugly parts, but I have no desire to replicate them on my layout either.
I think using the idea of “modeling accuracy” as an excuse to bring this up is a straw man.
I choose to exclude “ugly” from my modeling, if that makes me not “scale” enough or “serious” enough, so be it.
Sheldon
Interesting how where you grow up influences certain perspectives. Growing up in Nebraska, or maybe Wyoming, Jim Crow laws were discussed probably in a 10 minute session in junior high or hi
Lots of places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans#World_War_II
The War Department wanted mass relocation for all Axis-related Americans, but couldn’t figure out how to manage the 15+ million German and Italian Americans.
I wanted a Rapido Royal Hudson. No particular reason except it really is a beautiful thing to have. It needed a train. Rivarossi made a consist which popped up about the same time as my desire for the locomotive. The layout was underway. My companions in the project wanted to run diesels. So, our era concept is, shall we say, fluid.
The less detail you install on your layout the less confined you are to era.
Scenery doesn’t change much, at least up here anyway. Props like vehicles and people really date a layout as they do a movie. We don’t use either at present. Also, small towns and rural areas give you the flexibility to run just about anything you want, just maybe not at the same time.
The steam to diesel transition era is just easiest to accommodate to this idea. For the CPR it just barely permits road colours and locomotives in four different liveries from basic black for freight steam to two letterings on the grey and maroon diesels to the first red multimark diesels.
We suspend disbelief routinely in this hobby.
What an interesting thread. Once over I thought it was going to be ‘blocked’.
I wasn’t going to join in as the O.P. was talking of the layouts set in the 1940s.
Speaking from the UK when I was a lad most layouts were of the Great Western region; mainly 1930s.
Times and plans change. Now with a lot of models ready available peope can build a layout quickly. The trouble arises that although rule 1 applies people are not really modeling; just placing items on a board. They haven’t thought out the overal plan. They haven’t modeled anything. They run trains without a reason. They then become enchanted and give up - maybe to build another layout or give up altogether.
I have two layouts running on the same track plan.
First is diesels set in a timeframe 1968 - 1983. Why then? It was a time when I was around the 1-1 scale. The models I have I have seen most of the real ones.
The scenery the trains run through are of areas my family know, therefore are involved one way or another.
My other layout is steam in 1914 - 1919. I was reading a book about The North Eastern Railways prior to and during The Great War. It mentions that in 1909 Railway Companies were told to build ‘Ambulance Trains’ for in case of war. Nursing Staff to ‘be ready’ for any emergency regarding war. In 1912 Several Military Manouvres took place on the East Coast in case of invasion. Britain had a great fear that ‘a country in the east’ would invade. (Germany was that country although never mentioned.)
The factories on my Sovereign Street section are ‘in the main’ making materials for the war effort. Engineering and clothing are the products. Trains that run all have a purpose.
Well, I picked the early 50’s for the mix of steam and diesel. I picked the Maryland and Pennsylvania RR because it had small steam, freight cars, and passenger cars dating back to the early 1900’s. It also had diesel switchers (SW1, NW2, SW9).
As others mentioned, I don’t model segregation, dirt, depression, graphetti, etc. If I want depressing realism, the evening news brings me plenty.
Enjoy
Paul
Wayne nailed it for me!
I started out in HO in 1951 and just stayed there. I loved trains and the trains I liked the best were what I saw every day as a teen. The powerful Southern Pacific AC-9s pulling the slight grade from ElPaso TX to Alamogordo NM every morning. The AC-9s would be going north when I walked to school in the mornings and the SP Golden State passenger was headed south into town on my way home from school. Early on the Golden State was pulled by Alco PAs and about a year later by EMD E7s. Thus my love for both steam and diesel of the early to mid 1950s. I graduated high school in 1956 so that ended walking under the SP tracks every day but the memories of those times have stayed with me for 65 years.
I was helped along by my mentor John Allen and his original G&D layout. His small 3’7” by 6’8” G&D could be replicated in a bedroom of a railroad crazy teen. I didn’t buy my first diesel until the 60s, my Roundhouse 0-6-0 served me well for many years until I bought my first F7 but stuck with my steam, the rubber band drive didn’t do much for me.
The F7 bit the dust somewhere along the way but my 0-6-0 still looks and runs like it did when I bought it 70 years ago, great!
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
It’s hard with a topic like this to come up with a “one size fits all” answer. Some folks like the 1950’s because they’re old enough to remember it, and want to recreate what they saw. But some younger folks want to model that time to recreate the things they missed because they hadn’t been born yet, like steam engines and the great streamlined passenger trains. Others have a family connection, ancestors or other relatives who were railroaders back in that time and passed along their stories and knowledge.
And others find tons of 50s-era HO stuff for short dough at train shows. Availability influences choices.
The 1940s were really the first well documented era of railroading for the enthusiast and modeler – the Lucius Beebe picture books, the introduction of Trains magazine by Kalmbach. One could make the case that the decades from 1900 to 1940 were even more interesting from a modeling perspective – when even small towns had passenger train service (and a depot with an agent/operator), and even pretty small businesses and factories had rail service because the truck business was not yet really national. But it was not a well documented era in ways that were accessible to the railfan and modeler. Now in the internet age we see some astounding documentation from long ago, but that stuff was not easy to find before Google!
Another factor is that the hobby is aging. It was still a young person’s hobby – both toy and scale model trains – into the 1950s. Then things started to change.
Yet another factor is that you can only buy what someone is selling and that first enthusiasic rush towards mass produced locomotives, rolling stock, structures that came after WWII – well some of that tooling proved to be remarkably durable. Many models that were for sale in 1950 – and modeled the then current era – were still for sale in 2000 and some are still for sale here in 2021!
Dave Nelson