Era Modeling by Age Group?

[btrain]

Born in 1986, model the Nickel Plate Road around 1957, the last full year for the Berkshires. I blame the museum in Bellevue and the Norfolk Southern steam program for stearing me towards that modeling interest.

[johnb]

I was born in 1976, I model a line that was primarily an electric line that leased and owned steam and diesel locos in the 1950's...I grew up going to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA. My dad is a huge fan of the Pacific Electric passenger operations, while I prefer the freight. I model  both.

[SP-Wolf]

Born in 1963 - I model the SP in and around 1955

I got hooked on Tiger stripes, black widows and of course -- daylights.

Wolf

[bman]

Born in 1962. Modeling a really small piece of the ex-Penny Panhandle main from Pittsburgh to Columbus from late PC(1975) into Conrail. Mostly because I remember watching PC switch a couple of customers on the Pennsy Cleveland, Akron, and Columbus line near where I grew up in Columbus. Then for something different a little bit of modern Wheeling and Lake Erie.

[TLOC]

Born in 1952 in Chicago living nearing Clearing Yards of the Belt. I model contemporary 2015, CN in Central Wi.

TomO

[rickb773]

Born in 46. Model the Pennsylvania - Reading Seashore Lines in 1950 before they started removing lots of track following declines after the traffic surge of WWII. Otherwise I would have modeled the late 50s when all the Pennsy and Reading steam came to PRSL rails to die. I model the town I grew up in (Westville) and the town in which I went to high school (Woodbury). And since I needed a yard I have a non-authentic Camden, NJ.

[Maletrain]

Born in the transition era and model the transition era because I think steam locomotives are more visually interesting than diesel locomotives and the old streamliner passenger trains are more visually appealing than the new Amtrak stuff.

I grew up around the B&O Metropolitan Sub, but model B&O on the other side of the Alleghenies because that is where the coal came from and I wanted to generate a lot of traffic for my layout.  Besides, I like the mountains more than the suburban sprawl.  But, that means a lot more trees

[CNR5529]

Born in 1986, model mid to late 1950s, the later part of the transition era for Canadian roads. I also dable in post war German railroading.

[eric220]

Born early 80’s and model 1950.

[Jbub]

'79 for me and I'm modeling UP, 2005 and on. My choice though was more about accessibility and what I see more than anything else. I do find late steam and transition era far more interesting especially when it comes to passenger cars.

[thomasjmdavis]

Born 1953.  Modeling 1956 or 57 (haven't built the layout yet- and other than a couple 57 Chevy's on the layout, there wouldn't be much difference other than minor variations in passenger consists).  I would be modeling late 1940s, if there were fomr passenger steam locos available for the "Dearborn station" roads.

[MetroRedLine]

Born in 1971 (Gen-Xer). Started out with Lionel 027 and Lionel/Tyco/Bachmann HO train sets before getting serious about the hobby. I'm a "model what I see" modeler so I do the modern era, I've always modeled the modern era since the early 1980s, I like the challenge of keeping up with the present. I converted to N scale in 2006 after being fed up with HO and its large-radius requirements, and N scale was starting to look less toylike and more like a smaller version of HO.

When I was modeling my first layout in the 1980s, I modeled the Southern Pacific. When they merged into UP I was angry and hated the UP with a passion...
...but I got over it eventually and love the UP now (You have to respect a company that has kept the same brand identity for over 150 years and runs both the most modern diesel AND iconic steam locos on their roster)! I still put some SP heritage infrastructure on my layout (bridges, ballast color, etc).

Proto Railroad? - Union Pacific
Proto Era? - Modern (2019)
Availability of Locos/Rolling Stock (might change eras/roads if enough became available) - Generally available, N is very modern-friendly.
Collectorism, no real favorites? (and maybe no layout?) - I still kept a handful of my HO Athearn blue box Southern Pacific locos (SD40T-2, GP38-2, SW1500),
thinking of either converting them to DCC or just putting them on static display to honor my HO beginnings.
Other, not fitting in any of these broad categories? - I'd also like to collect (eventually) HO scale traction in Pacific Electric - I'm from Los Angeles, and the PE played a huge part in the local history. If I had the time/money/space, I'd make a small HO Pacific Electric traction layout set in the 1940s.

[PiperguyUMD]

Great thread!

Born 1983, in Western North Carolina. Dabbled in HO scale and modeled the transition era on SOU's Murphy Branch after going to school near there. Switched to N when I moved to DC and modeled a modern day freelanced coal road. Went with some friends to hike some of the Great Allegheny Passage one weekend and have been hooked on the Western Maryland for the last 10 years.  When I switched to WM, started modeling the early 60's due to what was available. When I realized I could 3D print steam locomotives it was game over. I model 1953 WM, fireballs and black diamonds!

[k27463]

Nice to see others in my age group on here! (Those danged millenials! ) I, myself, am a 1988 model.

I guess I'm the young'un 

To answer the original question (whoops, I kinda skimmed...)

I entered the hobby around age 3 with the gift of a Lionel G scale Thomas set; unfortunately that lasted all of about a month before "Daddy, real trains don't have faces".  I settled into a bit more of a "bigger train is better train" mentality for a while, and then the family decided to visit Colorado in 1998.  BAM.  Narrow gauge bug bit, hard    I ended up convincing my dad to sell pretty much everything and begin investing in LGB narrow gauge stuff.

That lasted until ~2008 when I was in high school and wanted something a bit less expensive to feed the train habit; that led to the Kato 2-8-2, of which I picked up a CB&Q model.  Kato announced the Silver Streak Zephyr, and the rest was history; I've always appreciated CB&Q's passenger equipment, and an inexpensive E5 with the correct consist easily pulled me in.

Around 2015, I happened across a Bachmann HO Russian Decapod that'd been dropped at a train show; that, plus the discovery of DCC, led me into HO modeling.  In my case, my first full size steam encounter was Frisco 1522 in June of 1994; that, combined with the clean, well proportioned lines of Frisco steam, led me down the dark side of vintage brass.

In the end, I feel like I model what I do based on the rolling stock and setting; Frisco for the steam, CB&Q for Budd passenger cars and E units, narrow gauge for mountains and outside frame Mikados.  My eventual layout will likely be transition era Frisco in HO for ease of operation (I attend op sessions on a fairly regular basis) and available brass steam, with N scale involved in some way for the CB&Q passenger equipment.  I'll likely also have a backyard layout for my narrow gauge stuff.

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[Chris333]

I model 26 years before I was born in N scale and about 55 years before in HO.