Just trying to take care of my hubby

Does 'prototpye' mean authenticity? If so, then I do care about that, at least I would like to be aware of it. I didn't know that freight cars were exchanged (I don't know much about trains...) but that is great to learn, that means we could have a B&O car on a NYC train :D

What is the best way to learn about the time period for trains, are there books/magazines that you would reccommed to look at to get a feel for the era?
 
Kalmbach has a book titled MODEL RAILROADS OF THE 1950's. They also publish a DIESEL SPOTTER'S GUIDE, but I'm not sure how current it is. I think they upgrade it about every 10 years, maybe every 5. It will give the dates that particular engines were produced. Scale model freight cars will have prototypical data on the side of the car. If you look closely at the data, you will see a "blt. followed by a year" That gives you the year the car was built. Freight cars stay in interchange service for 40 years. So if he has a favorite era, you can get a locomotive for that era, and freight cars built within 40 years of the locomotive. Class 1 (major railroads) keep locomotives for different periods of time. Burlington Northern, Santa Fe (now BNSF) as well as Southern Pacific and the Rio Grande kept locomotives for a long time and continued to rebuild them. In fact the BNSF is currently running a gp9 from the early 50's up in Washington State. Other railroads like the U.P. trade off locomotives fairly often and generally the oldest locomotives in their fleet will be from the late 1970s or 1980s. Short line railroads are small independent companies and there equipment will usually be used or refurbished locomotives that have been traded in by the major railroads.
 
MammaGehl said:
I went back to the hobby shop today and decided I definitely want to get a steam loco. I think I am going to end up going with O -- is Lionel the main name in O gauge or do I have choices? Also can I run any train on FastTrack or does it have to be a Lionel one?

Thanks!!
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Atlas also makes some mightly nice 3 rail O Scale( same as Lionel ) but no train sets.
 
MammaGehl said:
Does 'prototpye' mean authenticity? If so, then I do care about that, at least I would like to be aware of it. I didn't know that freight cars were exchanged (I don't know much about trains...) but that is great to learn, that means we could have a B&O car on a NYC train :D
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Yeah, by prototype I was referring to the actual way the RR's did stuff. It takes all kinds of people to fill the freeway. Some people will run anything, others will :cry:in horror if you perhaps run a Thomas the Tank engine on their layout which is set at 4:59 PM Aug. 12, 1950.

From what it sound like, if you want a steam engine then you will be in the steam era. Now, there is early, middle, late, etc.....but if you just go steam era that is good. The main problem is not all railroads that exist today existed back then (but some do). So, you cannot run a conrail (70's -90's) or CSX freight car on your steam train and be totally authentic. Or you can't use amtrak passenger cars. Most model steam engines are based from about 1900 till the end of steam (early 50's). So there is an idea when you look for dates.

You might try loooking for books from your local library, lots of times they have RR and transportation books you can borrow. You can also try the site wikipedia.com.
 
Russ: I just checked my 1928 RR Atlas, and the Ma & Pa seems to have had one line from Baltimore north to York, Pa, passing through Bel Air.
There used to be (50 years ago) regular models of Ma and Pa rolling stock. A lot of early model railroading was based in and on Pennsylvania.
MammaGehl: "Prototype" means the original. In engineering it's the first one built, before the production line starts. In model railroading, it means "the real thing".
If you want a 20th century steam engine, you're pretty safe with anything painted black. There were other colours, but they can wait. Anything with a red cab and cowcatcher and other bright paint (lots of brass or gold) will be a bit old.
 
I just wanted to check back in to this forum and thank you all for the help you gave a couple of months ago -- I ended up getting my husband the New York Central Lionel set and he LOVED it -- we have already stopped in every hobby shop that we see so he can look into his new favorite hobby :D Here are some pictures of my husband, my son and me (oh, and the dog too!) running the train THANKS AGAIN!

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Glad we could help. I think you made a great choice. Your son is a little young to operate the train right now, but as he grows into it, the Lionel is the ideal size to start out with. Have fun with the new hobby.
 
I love the dog`s expression!
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That is the dog realizing he has just landed with a solid thump at the bottom of the pecking order... My dog first got this expression on his face 5+ years ago when my first was born. He has been unable to remove it since... Remember what your mom told you about your face sticking that way...! ;) :D

Andrew
 
These few photographs tell the true story of trains more than any other words.



BTW don’t hit any GROUND HOGS with that new train. “Punxsutawney Phil is due to come out very soon”
 
Burlington Northern, Santa Fe (now BNSF) as well as Southern Pacific and the Rio Grande kept locomotives for a long time and continued to rebuild them. In fact the BNSF is currently running a gp9 from the early 50's up in Washington State. Other railroads like the U.P. trade off locomotives fairly often and generally the oldest locomotives in their fleet will be from the late 1970s or 1980s.
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To add to this list, Conrail was quick to retire old power, but CSX is slow.
 
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