Which do you model? Do some people do a bit of both? If you try to model a prototype, I'm guessing there will always be things that aren't prototypical on the model railroad.
Mike.
Mike.
Prototype or Freelanced?
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Considering that the smallish London CN Yard not far from my own house is a little over a kilometer in length, which would work out to being about 20 feet long and a little over 12 inches wide... I really don't have the space to model the prototype... so I suppose I'm modelling after prototype given the door-sized space that I have available to me...
mike My son and i just freelanced and did our own thing and thats what we wanted to do. WE did not want to copy a setting from somebody else or model a peticular area or time frame
but we feel its what ever you want to do
but we feel its what ever you want to do
The only prototype I have are 6 SP engines. Other than the engines and all the cars, my layout is strictly free lance. I have 4 engines painted and decaled as K R & T, the name of my layout.
I model the Penn Central in that I have PC engines, PC freight cars, and PC cabin cars/cabooses. I create Eastern scenary to suggest some place vaguely NY/ PA. I've created fictional towns like Kings Port and West Mill Jct. that include industries appropriate to the NE area.
If I really wanted to get more prototypical I would chose the PC River Division and research it more to learn about operations between Enola and Selkirk, numbering my trains EV-4, etc. , and create models of actual communities like Kingston, NY. Maybe I'll do that with my next layout if there is one but right now I'm happy with a mix of prototype and free lance.
Ralph
If I really wanted to get more prototypical I would chose the PC River Division and research it more to learn about operations between Enola and Selkirk, numbering my trains EV-4, etc. , and create models of actual communities like Kingston, NY. Maybe I'll do that with my next layout if there is one but right now I'm happy with a mix of prototype and free lance.
Ralph
The small bit that I've done has no resemblance to any real line except that I have track and run trains. I've named the towns and railine and sculpted the scenery out of my imagination. I suppose that qualifys me as being freelance.
Oh yeah, I do have engines from several lines including UP, BN and BNSF, but they are allowed to run on my line, along with any other, since I only have one engine and one freight car painted for my line so far (Oh boy, I sure have a bunch to learn thereops: ) and I don't want to overwork them.
Don
Oh yeah, I do have engines from several lines including UP, BN and BNSF, but they are allowed to run on my line, along with any other, since I only have one engine and one freight car painted for my line so far (Oh boy, I sure have a bunch to learn there
ops: ) and I don't want to overwork them. Don
I'm modeling the Ashley, Drew & Northern which was a 41 mile shortline in southeastern Arkansas.
I'm trying my best to model features that are from that area and that road. I have done a fair amount of research and am trying to get my operations setup to be as close to the prototype as possible. I try to be fairly faithful to the prototype, but as always compromises have to be made.
I'm trying my best to model features that are from that area and that road. I have done a fair amount of research and am trying to get my operations setup to be as close to the prototype as possible. I try to be fairly faithful to the prototype, but as always compromises have to be made.
My railroad, the Minnesota International Ry. is freelanced, but it is based upon a past one. The real Minnesota & International RR. disappeared into the Northern Pacific RR in 1941. But in my basement it will still be around in 1990.
Dan
Dan
My layout is freelanced with my own road name but do have interchanges with the prototypes like CP, CN, BNSF but the best interchange I have to date is one with Catt's GVR
C
Catt
Completely freelanced,but with interchange connections with CSX,CPRail,and NS.
I also have connections with Robin's MAT.Fact is this is where NARA got it's start.
By the way the GVR was created in 1978 ,so you can see its been around for a while.
I also have connections with Robin's MAT.Fact is this is where NARA got it's start.
By the way the GVR was created in 1978 ,so you can see its been around for a while.
My trains run predominately through vast expanses of plywood on foam road bed - guess that makes it freelance at this point.
My goal is to model CPR operations in Sudbury, Ontario...not sure how close to the prototype I will be able to come.
Oh wow! My parents have a cabin in Spanish, Ontario, which I think is only about 45 minutes west of Sudbury. I've been to Sudbury several times. It's the best place us Yankees can go to pick up some Cuban cigars to enjoy while we fish.
Originally posted by DaytonTrainDude
Oh wow! My parents have a cabin in Spanish, Ontario, which I think is only about 45 minutes west of Sudbury. I've been to Sudbury several times. It's the best place us Yankees can go to pick up some Cuban cigars to enjoy while we fish.
L'il Havana's on Durham Street? I know it well...
Track plan for my Sudbury layout will be forthcoming once I finalize the dimensions of the new train room.
Freelance
The A & T is a short line between Alpine and Terlingua, Texas. No such railroad ever existed but the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Co. (the S.P. Sunset Route) did/does go through Alpine. I probably should, but don't, try to use more accurate S.P. equipment for my staged S.P. through trains...........maybe someday. In the mean time, I'm happy.
The A & T is a short line between Alpine and Terlingua, Texas. No such railroad ever existed but the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Co. (the S.P. Sunset Route) did/does go through Alpine. I probably should, but don't, try to use more accurate S.P. equipment for my staged S.P. through trains...........maybe someday. In the mean time, I'm happy.
Sounds like me!The plan, and stuff being collected, is for a prototype (WM) running through a fictitious area (town yet to be named) that would be typical of what the WM would have served. Ditto the scenery.
Hard part is staying within the time period of the late 50s-early 60s when there is very limited equipment out there. I'll learn to build my own someday.
The nice thing about N is, you have to use a magnifying glass to tell me the C&O boxcar that just came today was built in 1972! I've always built freelance model RR's...I sometimes run prototype equipment, but in a freelance setting...
The K&I RR is a fictional RR set in the early 60's that's kind of an amalgam of all the RR's I grew up with...the L&N, C&O, Sou., & a couple of others. This way, I can include things I like, without being nailed by the 'prototype police'!
I must confess though, to having this dream of building an N scale layout based on the L&N's Cumberland Valley Div (circa 1960) between Middlesboro, KY (Sou Ry interchange) & Norton, VA (N&W interchange) For me, this was the "mother of all Appalachian lines"! :thumb:
The K&I RR is a fictional RR set in the early 60's that's kind of an amalgam of all the RR's I grew up with...the L&N, C&O, Sou., & a couple of others. This way, I can include things I like, without being nailed by the 'prototype police'!
I must confess though, to having this dream of building an N scale layout based on the L&N's Cumberland Valley Div (circa 1960) between Middlesboro, KY (Sou Ry interchange) & Norton, VA (N&W interchange) For me, this was the "mother of all Appalachian lines"!
:thumb:Prototype
From this and other media it would seem freelance is by far the largest segment of layouts. I really admire guys like Jack Burgess, Tony Koester, and, and, uhhh, can't think of any others but my hat is off to them. On a brand X forum one guy asked if anybody was doing a completely fantasy type layout..........mythical towns, railroads .........a purely mythical layout. Not too many were. I think most of us fall somewhere in between pure prototype and pure fantasy.
From this and other media it would seem freelance is by far the largest segment of layouts. I really admire guys like Jack Burgess, Tony Koester, and, and, uhhh, can't think of any others but my hat is off to them. On a brand X forum one guy asked if anybody was doing a completely fantasy type layout..........mythical towns, railroads .........a purely mythical layout. Not too many were. I think most of us fall somewhere in between pure prototype and pure fantasy.