I am still fairly new to this forum, still being moderated, but not new to the hobby. From my profile name you may be able to figure out what era I model, 1955 to be exact. I picked that year because I can do steam and 1st generation diesel, the variety of freight cars, passenger trains, variety of models for this era, but mostly because I am familiar with this era. This is the time that I discovered trains, saw the end of steam, got my first lionel and I look upon this time with nostalgia. I could have done the 60’s but that is when I discovered sports, girls and answered the call to duty.
One thing that has impressed me from some other modelers is when they do a scene that just looks familiar to me. I look at it and feel that I have been there. I have found that with the plethora of suppliers with stuff from this time, I have had an easy time Doing this for my era. Kalmbach has released several books on this era, there are plenty of photographs and movies, On the Waterfront, that helps me to accurately model this era. I am a freelancer so I need only to do a generic scene that feels right, borrowing form here and there to accomplish my goals.
I am greatly impressed with people that model later eras. Yes, we have all of the corporate and franchise buildings that look the same all over the country, research is easier, but we are all too familiar with the time, and it makes it all that more difficult to build that scene that we all can relate to. I have seen some that model today, do excellent scenes. Some scenes I actually believe that I have been there recently. Of course every interstate exit looks the same, which challenges the modeler to make it look familiar while also different from others. My problem with modeling today, is so much that I like to model is gone. The textile industry that was the main source of livelihood in so many communities in the South are gone, torn down. The towns have their stores closed
My son often pokes some fun at me and says, “Dad, you’re stuck in the 80s.” That is the era my layout is loosely based upon, and the decade during which my son’s Christmas train set lead us onto the wonderful hobby path of model railroading. Chosing the 80s for my currently under construction ISL was not only the fond memories of building those first layouts with my son, but also the desire to continue enjoying some of the models and equipment from those layouts.
Can’t say that I don’t sometimes think about how much fun it would be to model the 50s or 60s, the decades I grew up in. Yes, I can still remember a few steam locomotives when living, literally, but a stone’s throw away from the S.P. mainline in the east San Francisco Bay Area. Maybe next time.
I model the Chicago & North Western which of course was absorbed into the UP in 1995, so any C&NW layout is a “period” layout.
What is curious is that while I have the best documentation (slides I have taken and purchased, as well as various books and magazines) showing the 1980 to 1990 era, I have chosen to model the mid to late 1960s, say 1966-69, which is when I watched trains with my friend and took some crude Brownie camera photos. The bigger challenge is that most of the available C&NW models are either later or earleir than that late 1960s era. And C&NW bought so much used stuff that relying on Built dates can lead you astray.
What photos I did take I have scanned and taken to making multiple copies on the computer, then trim and expand them until background details and structures can be seen more readily. It is not optimal but it works, sometimes. Oddly, things I was sure I remembered one way often turn out to be contradicted by my own pictures. A gas station I was certain was Shell turns out to have been Pure, for example. And a spur track that I was sure was inside the crossing gates turns out to have been outside the gates, meaning the crossing needed to be flagged. That is not how I remember it but the photos do not lie!
I’d guess a great many of us end up modeling the railroads we watched during our “formative” train watching years - whatever that means. For me I’d say that was a 20-25 year period which lasted from my teens and into my 30’s, perhaps a little later. That period covered my train watching of the Southern Pacific in northern California around Davis, Sacramento and over Donner Pass (high Sierra’s) and also a number of trips across the Rockies in the early to mid 1980’s where I saw the D&RGW on my way to college in Indiana (where I earned my bachelors and masters degrees).
I was actually collecting model trains which represented trains I was seeing in real life right up until about 1990 or so, and I would have hit about age 40 or so at that time. By then I had been away a few years from my “home” state of California and graffiti was starting to take hold and wide cab diesels were increasing in number, and many other changes in the railroad land scape like speed letter in TTX corp, double stacks replacing TOFC/COFC etc.
So pretty much true to what many people do, I model what I watched during my late teens through thirties (D&RGW and SP) of the 1970’s and 1980’s. I originally collected models as late as 1994 but have sold off nearly everything with dates past 1990 now (all Golden West, all TTX speed letter, wide cabs etc).
The past 10 years have seen many nice models, especially accurate freight cars for the SP/SSW produced which were new in the late 1960’s thru mid-1970’s - a great aid to modeling that period, and those wonderful bay window cabooses produced by Athearn Genesis and Intermountain/Centralia!!! With many nice video’s and color book resources to help me I have been skewing my interests further toward the 1970’s, but still have a strong interest in the 1980’s as well.
There’s a unique feel to the SP&S, both the history and the location. The 60’s are Ideal for me because diesels ruled the main, companies were getting new paint schemes, and pass. Trains were still running. F units, centuries, and a whole plethora of diesel types, unique consists of power and cars. There’s more though, that’s just the gist of it.
I suspect many people’s eras reflect their youth, either as kids growing up by a train line or their teens when they could first drive to different locations to see trains.
Despite how it seems in MR and forums etc., not everyone models a specific year or ‘era’. Some folks like accumulating models of a particular railroad covering a broad period of time and don’t care about being specific to one time; or are interested in so broad a time that they have a layout that can ‘rotate’ between one or more eras.
Like a lot of modelers,I started with what I grew up with and remembered,which was the late 60’s thru late 70’s era on the SCL-L&N.my modeling interests are mainly 1st-2nd generation Diesel superdetailing and I then took an interest in premerger Seaboard and other Roads -CB&Q,D&RGW,SP,Northern Pacific,New York Central, Erie Lackawanna.Reading even Penn Central.I started modeling some of their locomotives and cars and run them also.I like that era and the equipment when Boxcars Still had full lettering,emblems and slogans,and were not totally covered with graffiti with just reporting marks.there were still caboose being used.and everything wasn’t strings of stack cars pulled with ES44s and I run what I like.I really don’t care much for modern era railroads and modeling.my model railroad is an escape.
There are very few people around that remeber the 1940’s. The vast majority of modelers were born in the late 40’s through the 1960’s.
I figured out early that once I started modeling anything other than my personal experience I would probably be getting most of my information from a book or some other source. That means that it really doesn’t matter what era or location I model its all going to end up with research.
Amazingly enough I have been able to find out a lot of information on modeling 1900, maybe not as much as I did when I was modeling 1950, but more than expected. Biggest barrier is strangely what colors things were, virtually 100% of all photography was in black and white. In the 1890-1900 era “Pullman color” was brown not green. Colors rendered differently on different films. On some films red looks almost white and on other films it looks almost black. If something is a medium gray, chances are it was actually yellow (all those models of grey NYC Grain Transit 36 ft boxcars? psst don’t tell anybody, they were all yellow not grey) Other thing about colors, G-R-A Y is and shade of white and black, G-R-E-Y is any shade of white, black and other colors. Lots of stuff you pick up reading hundreds of posts on colors.
I chose the era I did because of the challenge and the benefits. Lots of switching, lots of short trains, short cars and engines. On my layout a 15 car train is less than 8 ft long but looks big because of one engine and a lot of cars. On a 2000 era layout a 8 ft train would look dinky with a couple engines and a handful of cars. 24" radius and #5 switches are not a big deal for a 1900 era layout. Downside is virtually every car is a scratchbuilt, kitbash, resin or wood kit.
I entered my teens in 1950 and I wish I was still there both in age and the time period.
I model the fifties for many of same reasons that you listed. Huge steam articulated locomotives and great diesel power too. My favorites being the SP Cab Forwards, AC-9 Yellowstones, Alco PA-Bs and E7-8s. I also slip back on occasion into the 30s with Shays & logging trains. I try to keep everything tight to earlier than 1956 but something always slips in here and there. My structures all conform to pre 1955, an occasional tractor trailer rig has slipped in.
I mostly model different eras, within a 20 year time period.
1998-2007 Modern Era BNSF/Union Pacific (Not to pass May or June 2007 to be exact.) The Union Pacific diesels I have all wear the red reflective stripe before most of them were replaced with yellow in July 2007.
Conrail 1987 March or April. 2 months after the Maryland train collision on January 4th. The layout was planned after it, thru January 1989 but it changed to 1987-1988. Don’t know what’s going happen with this time line.
Lately I wanted to model the Southern Pacific/Cotton Belt in the early 1990s with the Santa Fe before UP/BNSF mergers. I remember seeing SSW locomotives in the train yard with SP units while I was growing up.
The New York Central railroad was the one I liked because of the 20th Century Limited J3a Hudsons. When I grew older I began liking the lightning stripes on their equipment. I’ll be modeling this one 1957 thru the 1964/65 before renumbering their locomotive roster in 1966.
I intend to model the modern era because of one thing. AMTRAK. If I could I would be the main railroad on the layout. With freight trains waiting to pass the passenger train.
*Most of all the freight cars I have wouldn’t change during the 20 year rotation. Which saves time.
I remember what it looks like, there’s staggering documentation on the Internet for the 2000-2015 window compared to most eras, and I somehow ended up with a 2008 ORER. That collapsed my 2010 ish window down to a specific year.
I model the present day CN and CP around southern Ontario. I like this era as there are many ready to run models available, and if I have a question it can often be answered simply by watching what happens at trackside. I also like the look of the modern diesels, autoracks and doublestacks…
I guess I am of a different breed. I model PRR steam to Diesel transition period but I was not born until 68 when the PRR/NYC merger started. My grandfather worked for the PRR and his stories that he told me was what really caused my interest in that timeframe.
I’m in 1975. I lived in Roanoke, VA in the early 80’s and had many friends that worked for the railroad. Most of them did not come through the merger well so this fixed my era as prior to 1982. Going back to 75 allowed me to include many different diesel paint schemes.
I don’t have the space for big steam, but if I could get the models I’d love to do a 1900-1910 layout.
My modeling is mostly centered on 1950-1954, with a few excursions into 1947 or so. I was born in 1946, so those are the years when I was first awakening to the inherent excitement of the railroad. As I’ve grown older and been exposed to more and more information on my favorite railroads, I’ve found that the equipmnent and operations of that time period is most interesting to me. So that’s where I stay.
And by the way, Dave, I can’t see why the need to scratchbuild or resort to craftsman kits should be considered a drawback. That’s how you get what you want, so it’s not a bad thing. It just means your modeling is uniquely yours. That’s what draws me back to the basement to build Sunshine AC&Y Mather resin boxcar kits.
Interesting comments. I notice that I tend to have different perspectives about some things on this forum. My interest in the “modern” era is driven by practicality, in that its easier to research what is taking place rather than researching how things were back in the day. Although my chosen era of the 90’s is being pushed into the history books as we move on.
Because its less time consuming for me, I became interested in the modern era.
Also, my interest in short line/branch line modeling is driven by practicality as well. I don’t intend to have a basement filling layout, or more than about 250 sq ft in which to keep one. I simply want space to do other things. I know that I can’t convincingly build a decent representation of a class 1 railroad in 250 sq ft or less (curve radii and length of train realism) so keeping the overall train length shorter tends to support class 3 railroad modeling. And since I will always be a lone wolf operator who is both engineer and conductor, one train at a time operation will be the norm on my layouts.
Because modeling class 3 railroads fits the amount of resources I want to give the hobby, that is what I became interested in.
I picked the mid 50’s initially because it would allow me to include on my then under design layout the construction of a new line that was not put into service until 1956. Plus I could run the last of the steamers with all the first gen diesels. Things changed and that layout will never get built, and now I am doing a less of an exact representation so it doesn’t matter, but I made all my loco and car purchases with a 1956 cutoff date in mind, plus I still want to run the steam locos.
In addition, it’s from before my time, so I need to do research to find things out, I didn’t live through that time. The railroad was still strong, and still important enough to matter to most people.
For me, the juxtaposition of the end of steam and the beginning of the “modern” era of first and second generation diesels combines the romance of railroading (steam era) and the start of technology-driven railroading. So, I just take a generic view that runs from the early 50s through the early 60s, happily free lancing my way.
I run nothing but steam engines. I just never liked the first generation diesels I grew up with. So after getting back into trains in the early 70’s steam would be it and still is.