From four came 10,000 - steam locomotives

[ljudice]

BTW - I didn't mean to imply any negativity to the 95% out there. We would have nothing without them - except scratchbuilding supplies!

I just meant to show where manufacturers put their R&D budget...

Lou

[DKS]

I was at the LHS last week and a guy was there who said he modelled the New Haven, but he was buying a Big Boy and a set of Kato Coalporters. There was less angst in the transaction than when I debate myself for a week over models that have conspicuity stripes.

I have never in my life understood that mentality. 

When I model a railroad and era, that's what I buy.  In fact, I've been sitting on the fence for a year now on expanding my era to include CR and PC.  But even so, there will be no Big Boys, Challengers, or SD70MACs on my layout.  Neither will I jump on the "iconic" models like the Daylight or the Super Chief.  It only so happens that Kato's new icon, the Broadway Limited w/ GG1 fits my era.

Are we really that small a minority that we care what we run?  That "looks really cool" is not the only litmus test we give something before we place it in service?  Or are we missing out on fun?  To me, anyway, I always felt re-creating a plausible scene was more fun than just running cool stuff.

Food for thought, I guess.

This is why I modeled a line like the Black River & Western. Yeah, they run steam tourist trains (oh, the horrors), but they still switch freight, too ("real" railroading). So, you get to run a diesel specific to a southwestern railroad on a northeastern line, alongside steam, with complete accuracy. Plus, the yard is a small museum, where you might find just about anything. Granted, those "mantlepiece models," while not out of place, will be static on the layout, but they will still look really cool. And you could run them when no one was looking...

[Dave V]

I guess I need to be more careful...

I hope no one thought I was passing judgement.

That I don't understand a mentality does not mean I condemn it.  Rather, it just simply means I don't relate.

For those that want to run a mix of roads and eras, I have respect, because you have unencumbered yourselves with the restrictions I have chosen to place on myself.

Some days I feel like those restrictions are a great thing; they focus my efforts and my hobby dollars.  Other days, though, I think "what if...?"

...which is why I'm on a PC/Conrail bent right now.  The early Conrail rainbow gives me an actual prototype for running a big spectrum of eastern roads on one line.

What I will probably never get, though, is the New Haven guy buying a BigBoy.  It would take a humongous stretch to even come close to making that plausible.

[SirTainly]

What I will probably never get, though, is the New Haven guy buying a BigBoy.  It would take a humongous stretch to even come close to making that plausible.

Serious question, why does it have to be plausible to be worth while? I mean I know a lot of ops focused guys occaisionally want to watch a bit of roundy roundy action, so they put the car cards down and just run their trains in loops. I'd think it could be the same for the NH guy, maybe is layout is 100% NH, but once it a while he cracks out the Big Boy and just enjoys watching it run.

At least this is whay I have a  stuff that is not even remotely SP.

Simon

[Dave V]

What I will probably never get, though, is the New Haven guy buying a BigBoy.  It would take a humongous stretch to even come close to making that plausible.

Serious question, why does it have to be plausible to be worth while? I mean I know a lot of ops focused guys occaisionally want to watch a bit of roundy roundy action, so they put the car cards down and just run their trains in loops. I'd think it could be the same for the NH guy, maybe is layout is 100% NH, but once it a while he cracks out the Big Boy and just enjoys watching it run.

At least this is whay I have a  stuff that is not even remotely SP.

Simon

Well, to each his own, I guess.  To me, a BigBoy in Connecticut scenery would look awkward enough that I woudn't enjoy it.  But if he likes it, then he should have all the fun he can with it.

[wm3798]

Maybe it's being towed to Steam Town!  Get Tom to weather the s**t out of it!

Lee

[ljudice]

That BR&W yard down in Ringoes probably has one of everything available in N-scale sitting it it...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I do love me some BR&W... it's the first place I ever road a train, behind a FEC pacific, no less!

So of COURSE I have me one of these:

[Dave V]

If I could get a reasonable model of one of the Strasburg's engines in N (I suppose maybe I could kitbash #89 or #31, but would prefer the 90 or the 475), I'd eat my words and have an SRR consist.

[DKS]

That BR&W yard down in Ringoes probably has one of everything available in N-scale sitting it it...

And it changes from month to month, too, which is neat because it lets you cycle through a large collection.

I do love me some BR&W... it's the first place I ever road a train, behind a FEC pacific, no less!

So of COURSE I have me one of these:

Oh, yeah. Same here--first train ride, behind #60, the year BR&W started running tourist trains in fact (boy does that make me feel old). Actually I got both versions of the RS-1, just because. Then I started thinking Atlas should have done their caboose... until I remembered that, for quite a while, BR&W's caboose was Maine Central, which Atlas already made! Hey, how good can it get?

[wm3798]

Well I suppose the BRW falls under the heading of "There's a Prototype for Everything."  But I'm with Dave.  I'm pretty specific about what I buy, and with rare exception, they fit the concept of my layout.  The only real foobie I have is my Bachmann Connie, but even that is lettered for the home road.

I would like to expand my steam collection, but it's really not a high priority.  The locomotives I would add would be the NKP Berk, which is available, and a Reading T-1, which is not (although a brass one might be out there floating around...).  These engines both ran in excursion service during my layout's era, so I could work them into my regular ops without feeling "dirty."

I've also sized up the MP Pacific to see if it would stand in for WM-202, which survives as a static display in Hagerstown.  If a landmark WM steamer like a Potomac or a Decapod became available, they would also be hard to turn down.  And if I decided to accumulate enough steam era rolling stock, I'd pick up a couple more Consolidations, not because they are accurate, but because the run so damn well.  Finally, if one of those brass models of the Big Six ever fell into my lap, I'd gleefully run it back and forth on the Chaffee Branch until its wheels dropped off.

But I have no need nor any desire for any GS-4's, GG-1's, or Big Boys.  I guess that makes me no fun...
Lee

[FrankCampagna]

I guess that makes me no fun..

Of course it doesn't. As long as you allow others their quirks. I plan on modeling a fairly specific place and time. But if I had the money, and access to an Ntrak club, anything could go.

Frank

[bsoplinger]

I do love me some BR&W... it's the first place I ever road a train, behind a FEC pacific, no less!
[picture removed]

Is that yet another pic of the famous Dorthy™ house? Yanno, the one where the twister lifted off the roof? 

[Iain]

My problem is that I have not yet chosen an era.  However, since for the railroad I model scratchbuilding or kitbashing required no matter what era, I have decided to use my college time when I don't have room for a real layout to build stuff from all the eras that interest me.  An AS416 isn't hard to store, and neither is a Berkshire.

[Walkercolt]

I didn't mean to rain on anybody's parade...probably only 5% or less of N-scalers who are "serious" prototype  and era model. Too many N-TRAKers who can run anything, and want to, and too many people like me who N-TRAK with specific roads and eras, which give us lot's of lattitude. Of the 5%, I'd say 5% will "bash" a steam engine, or passenger cars for their purposes. That's an awful small number. It's much harder to bash something in N-scale and it look good than in larger scales. People don't judge O-scale contests with OptiVisors on! Z-scale guys are borderline(?) manic-obsessive-compulsive, and I love ya' for it. Your ideas are fine, but the economics aren't there. Bachmann never changes their "standard" steam engines, except for making small improvements over what, 35 years? "Good enough to sell" is good enough. Not the ideal state of affairs, I know. Even 5% of the market has a very tough time "moving things forward". You're treading water in an ocean of people saying "it's OK". I'm a 5%er in motorcycles. I ride lots of miles, but not on a "crusier/Harley", "Crotch rocket", or Gold Wing. I like a less specialized bike...very rare today, like 5 models in all displacements and all brands combined. I'd need to build what I want in a bike, and it would cost a ton of money...like $50,000. And my kind of bike wouldn't sell 5000 a year, but they'd be ridden 25,000 miles a year, not the 350 miles a year most bikes are ridden.