What Era Do You Model, Past, Present Or Both?

Late 1950's- early 1960's with gusts to beyond.

 

Rusty

End of 1930's to mid 1970's, mostly steam. mostly Strasburg, PRR and Polar Express.

40's to late 50's steam and diesels

     Past! Choo Choo Kenny

PAST. I model 1943, mid-WW2 era.

That said, if I ever decided to do something special, I guess I could swap out all the vehicles with modern ones, slap down a few scale porta potties and say it's a preservation RR...

I have a toy train layout and go from the General to the newest ES44.

On my layout you'll see the old Union Pacific Challenger pulling a long string of old Atlas boxcars past a new Alaska Genset shunting intermodals down the line.  So not only do I not model a time I don't even model a particular road name!   

1932 - 1952. Steam and the earliest diesels.

In O-gauge its 1930 to 1980 approx. 

In H0 its the sixties to early eighties.

In narrow gauge(various scales), 1900 to 1970 approx.

But nothing after Graffiti took over the public space.

I've always wondered how we choose the era or epoch of interest we model.


Still I'm not exactly sure what exactly started me on 1939-1959.

I like steam, diesel, & double stack intermodal. Why do I have such a passion for postwar Lionel? I'm not old enough to have had a childhood Christmas Lionel not even close enough. My early childhood was in the middle 1980's.

My first choice is 1950's.

1970 back to the thirties. But with some of the new releases I have added 1970 to close to the present..............Paul

Paul,

   I have a very child like fun Christmas layout that is General in scope, with original Tin Plate Trains, clear up to modern Legacy and P2 engines and now up graded original Tin Plate with ERR modern controls.  No certain era applies.

PCRR/Dave

From Steam Era on but nothing newer than second generation diesels.

I model late '50's to early middle '60's.  Early diesels and no steam.  Pre Amtrak passenger trains.

 

BUT, because I love Intermodal and modern diesels too, I plan to alternate and run modern Amtrak and diesels with unit coal trains and etc.  Store my early equipment during modern run sessions.

 

When nobody's looking, I run them together. 

 

Art

I do mid 70's through mid 2000's. The only steam is excursion specials with Milwaukee Road 261, UP 3985 and CP 2816 Empress, because they have all run in the area that I am modelling.

1880-1920............

Future. lol

 

 

 

I try to keep it around 1935-1975, but I have some modern stuff. I also have some 1880's buildings and scenery.

For the scale trains, the steam/diesel transition era, roughly 1935-1955.

 

Present, mostly all modern diesels like you would see on the tracks today.

When I do my layout it will be modern (1980-present), but will still operate older locomotives and engines when I want.

 

Chris

1949.  With a couple of exceptions, everything on my layout was active in 1949.  I do have a PRR N8 caboose with a build date of early 1950, and I run a PRR HH1 (Y3) all of which were sold to other roads by 1948.  I also plan to buy the PRR Q1 someday, which was retired in 1946 and scraped in 1949.  I really like those three models so I will need to develop a story as to why they are on the layout

I am not necessarily particular, but I like Lightweight passenger cars that put me in the era from 1936 and up. There is no hard line for me and my favorite locomotive is the ATSF 3000 from the early 1900's.

 

When Lionel introduces a new Acela, I would get that as well which takes us up till now.

O scale 1970 to 1990 and N scale 1990 to present.

pretty much anything goes at the moment....

 

I do have some longish term plans to model the NYC 30's though 50's (all the neat stuff), so my ongoing layout mods tend to support this period.  In the meantime, I have been buying up appropriate NYC locos and cars in preparation for the transition

I model in 3-Rail SCALE, early thru mid 1950s. 

If it's got flanges, I'll model it.

Things that I like including Thomas but primarily my interest is the LIRR from my childhood memories of steam until the 1970's when I moved to NYC from Patchogue.

Scotie

Past (1940-1960) for me, present for the G'son. For us, it's all what we grew up with and we are familiar with.
Ray.

For me, it's easy. There are several reasons:

• I've always been into the WW2 era, even when I was a kid. I own a WW2 Jeep and have been doing WW2 living history events since the late 1980s, and I can model WW2 vehicles and soldiers on the layout:

• The RR I model also had commuter service during the war years (there were two big rayon mills at one end of the line which were running full tilt in the war years)
• My layout takes place where my parents grew up and this timeframe is when they were kids. In a way, I built the layout partially out of love for them, as they both indulged my interest in trains growing up. I just wish they'll get to see it someday (probably not as I live on the opposite corner of the country from them and they hate to fly).

My "signature" says it all! If it was around before or during 1954, I like it!

My primary era is 1950's NYC, but I also love 1970's Rock Island and modern Iowa Interstate.  I never run then together, but the layout will be setup so I can run Any era.

I model the era where big steam pulls intermodal trains and passenger service is run on Amtrak and sll the other railroads

Mostly 1950's but, every now and then the mid 60's put in a surprise appearance.

Curt

I'm more toy train but still like it to look kinda sorta realistic.

 

You may see a new CSX or a very old Clinchfield steam, never can tell.

 

Larry

 

 

 

 

Little bit of everything and most locos have different sets of trains to pull.

An old friend of mine back in Florida has a massive HO scale layout in his basement (though it's more of a parking lot for an incredible brass locomotive collection anymore) and he models what you'd have assume is the future. It's all steam, with a RR name that has a Star Trek theme to it. He runs steam with modern rolling stock, so it's common to see a N&W Y6 pulling double stacks, Amtrak metroliners pulled by steam, stuff like that. People ask what era it's supposed to be and his answer is, "The spring of 58," but he'll quickly remind you he's not telling what century it is.

Original intent was 59-66 CBQ/GN. But now it looks like I am now moving it right up to the merger 59-71.

I guess the layout looks 1950s, but I run whatever I like.

In HO scale: Early 1960s, Kansas City theme.

 

In V scale: Various link n' pin era's and various locales. (That is, I have routes set in the 1860s, some in the 1870s, others in the 1880s, and two in the 1890s. Some in Colorado, one in the Sierra's, some in the Ozarks and even a couple or so in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma/Arkansas!)