Ideal era?

[Rich Reinhart]

Talked about this at the LHS yesterday, if you were going to start from scratch, with a pretty nice budget, and no prototype that you favor. Just buy studying the Walthers catalog, various magazines, web sites and forums, hobby shops,online etailers. What would be the ideal era to model in N Scale? Just by using the locomotive and rolling stock types, structures and vehicles etc offered, what would be the ideal time period to model? Steam is king? transition? 70`s? modern day? your thoughts.

[MichaelWinicki]

I think a many of the diesel era's wear well in N-scale... Many choices in locos and cars from the transition era on.

Steam era locos and cars seem pretty hit & miss. 

Structures seem to cover most era's pretty well, with the exception being the modern era... Vehicles seem to follow the same path.

I think any era that has a good across the board representation of locos, cars, buildings and vehicles is a good one.

I selected 1970 due to the variety of diesel power running the rails, the existence of a caboose on a train, and in many areas there was still robust industrial switching going on. 

[inkaneer]

Well it will depend on what criteria one uses for choosing but I think the Transition era is ideal.  Lots of railroads around with all sorts of rolling stock most of which is available in model form for minimal cost ala Atlas Trainman series.  Steam or diesel motive power is available and cabooses.  Real trains have cabooses.  [Just showing my bias there] 

[sirenwerks]

I think I'd stick with what I am working towards - late 60s. The bulk of available diesels were used then, as well as freight and passenger equipment. Structures? Meh, I think N scale's lacking in that department no matter; what unless you like small industries, shanties, and outhouses. So scratchbuilding would be the ticket in that department. Luckily we have a decent brick sheet again.

If you want to get down to the details though, I mean really, the details, transition and modern's the easiest to model. Look at the vehicles available. Most are pre-1960 and post-1980.

[Catt]

I an quite content to keep my Grande Valley Railway in the present tense.! am 65 years old and road behind steam for the first time when I was 6 weeks old (for some reason I don't remember any of it)I was 6 months old the second and final time.

I was in my 40s the first time I saw a real steam loco and it didn't really impress me which is probably why I am content to model today's railroading.

[chuck geiger]

I like 1986, Doing that with the SP future Exeter Branch layout. You can
use older rolling stock and the introduction of newer cars. 1984 was the
start of most double-stack container units, so there could be some or
none. All of the motive power stays in the GP-30-50 range with still some
SW's. No merger stuff to mess with. I also have a 1986 timetable for the
district which helped set the date.

[up1950s]

I think many like the era when they were 10-15 years old .

[Brakie]

Maybe the decaying 60s since that was a interesting decade.

[SkipGear]

I don't know about ideal, but easiest era to model in plug and play form would seem to be 90's on UP or BNSF. Thanks to Kato, Atlas, and FVM there is plenty of modern power available. Much of the key modern rollingstock is out there; stacks, coal gon's, grain and plastics hoppers, boxcars. The only thing possibly lacking is modern structures and auto's.

The ideal era is going to be different to different people. I don't think the UP or BNSF is ideal at all, too easy and too boring. There is something to be said for a little bit of a challenge. If everything is there for the picking, it just becomes a matter of how much you want to spend and seeing how fast you can slap it together. A little challenge helps curtail the costs and slow things down to extend the "enjoyment" of building your model.

BTW - I model an era 20 years before I was born.

[mplsjct]

I think the Modern Era.

I remember being in N scale in the 1980's, and the lack of a decent SD40-2.
Kato makes most of the modern loco's on the rails today, and let's face it, we all have a weakness for locomotives.

Of all the things I miss about years past, the caboose is the one I miss the most. (I'm too young to remember steam locos).

[wcfn100]

Part of the draw to modeling the CGW was that I could get all the road power; GP30s, SD40s, F3/7s.  Of course, back then, I could still get it all in undecorated without going through hoops and there were decals available. 



Jason

[Iain]

Maybe the decaying 60s since that was a interesting decade.

"You know, all us people from the bay area, we're real LSD freaks; we take a lot of LSD, we've taken a lot of LSD; we know what LSD is.  I'll tell you one thing:  the stuff they're passing out today may or not be LSD."  Words of advice all the way back from Woodstock from Country Joe McDonald.

[lock4244]

I think many like the era when they were 10-15 years old .

Yup, that would describe me to a tee. Mid to late 1980's is when I started going foaming with Dad, and my era is set between 1987-89. This allows me to have all the operations and power I remember from my youth, like the Temagami ore trains on CN (assuming someone ever does the cars in N), F7A's and F7B's on CN, MLW's on CN and CP, vans, smooth-side passenger cars on VIA, graffiti free freightcars, branchlines, 40' boxcars (in Canada at least), open multilevels, unrebuilt GP9's, weekend warrior GO units on CP, leased ACR SD40's, ex. Chessie GP40's , ONT SD40-2's, CR35's on CP, leased B&LE SD9's on CN.

I like foaming modern stuff, but my heart is in my youth.

[delamaize]

My ideal:
Transision era. you can have late steam, and Early diesel. you can even get away with some earlier steam, that may have stuck around....

[sirenwerks]

Part of the draw to modeling the CGW was that I could get all the road power; GP30s, SD40s, F3/7s.  Of course, back then, I could still get it all in undecorated without going through hoops and there were decals available. 

Jason

Oddball's got a fair amount. Microscale still has the stripe sets, though I don't know why they don't do a set with stripes AND logos (side and nose) AND lettering/numbers.