Trains/area help

[barney121e]

Hi All

Thank you for all your help so far. I have a rough idea now on a layout plan and have been thinking on structures etc. I really like the Walthers dairy Kit and want to base my layout around this. So i am thinking of a rather green area and town and am wondering if you could recoomend trains that would run in these areas, and where the areas are.

Cheers

Dave

 

[umtrr-author]

A number of geographic regions had dairy farms-- they almost go hand in hand with the kind of scenery you're thinking of.

Just a few locales:
Western New York (where I live now)
Eastern New York
Vermont
Pennsylvania
Northwestern New Jersey (yes, really!)
Wisconsin

The type of trains you can run depends on the Approximate Time Period you want to model. Generally speaking, the timeframe from about 1910 to about 1950 would be the most likely time, but as you can guess, that covers everything from medium size steam to early second generation diesels.

There are any number of nice looking milk cars out there now including a relatively new wood body style from Athearn, and a soon to be released steel version from Intermountain. Other manufacturers offer refrigerator cars in milk car paint schemes although they're not as prototypically correct as the above two types.

 

[Herc Driver]

Don't forget the North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland areas too. But what do you want to model? A rural small town? Small city? Farm community?

 

[barney121e]

Type

I suppose somewhere between a small city and a rural town, if that makes sense.

 

[Herc Driver]

Well you pretty much have a blank slate to work with - which is probably the hardest to work with since any direction you'd like to take your layout is correct - but you'll need to decide everything about the layout as opposed to copying a layout. Around my area in the Carolinas, there are plenty of small towns, seperated by farm land by rural towns. Same for many of the northeastern states. Have you been checking out layouts on line for ideas? There are quite a few that you can gather ideas from that incorporate small cities and rural towns.

 

[barney121e]

Websites

Have seen a few sites, can u recommend any which you find good?

 

[barney121e]

I am going to base my layout in the 1950's, so am interested in what locomtoives for both passenger and freight services i should be looking at. Is there a website that can offer help?

Thanks

 

[Herc Driver]

Here's one right off the top of my head...I like the easy operation and setup of these designs. Look at all the scales - then see which design has some interesting points you'd like to incorporate.

Mike's Small Trackplans Page

Plus, do a google search on layouts and you'll find more.

 

[Triplex]

I am going to base my layout in the 1950's, so am interested in what locomtoives for both passenger and freight services i should be looking at.

That depends on what railroad you choose. One big difference was how quickly different roads dieselized.