viperman said:
I'm aware of the thought of scratch building, but I'm still fairly new to model trains (only been back in the hobby for about a year now), and still don't really know what a lot of these parts look like or do
That is why for some things I just say 'does it look like it?' [building, loco, tree etc] and if it does then it is good enough
For amything made of wood though I detail mostly because I enjoy it than because I think I need each board 'just so'.
Only detail if it is still fun or you can go nuts finding the right number of rivets :S
Anyhow, earlier Steve showed a picture of 60 foot passenger trains I spoke to you about. That was what I was trying to say by 'modified'.
They took 85 footers and simply modeled them shorter is all.
Also older passenger cars [like the ones shown] were shorter as well.
Hope that helps you out there