What Era Do You Model?

[Loren Perry]

I model the mid-1950's. The transition-era gives me the greatest variety of equipment and color schemes, plus the bonus of big flashy American cars for the roads. But I also have equipment from 1980's and 1990's that I occasionally operate just for grins.

 

I'm trying to get something roughly looking like Rod's Stewart's cities scene on a much smaller scale, and I have to tell you the pickings are thin for structures.

A number of Rod Stewart's city structures are scratchbuilt. Anyone modeling a major metropolitan scene will have to do a little home-brew here and there.

[rsn48]

And I'm warming up my home brew scratch building skills.  Now if Rod Stewart would only take my calls.  I'm sure you read the last issue with Stewart discussing techniques and some of his structures are build with MDF, must weigh a ton.

[MVW]

I'm obviously bored. For giggles, I combined the results of this poll with the recent one on Trainboard. The era divisions were a little different, but this is how it comes out:

Pre World War II                18 (5.1%)
1940-60 (approximately)  124 (35.1%)
1960-80                            87 (24.6%)
1980 to present               124 (35.1%)

Kinda shatters the illusion of the transition era being the dominant choice. Only about a third of respondents chose it.

I think I posed this questoin upthread, but got no responses, so here it is again: Is this departure from the transition era peculiar to N scale, or common across all scales?

Jim

[Denver Road Doug]

I'm not so sure it shatters anything.   First of all, both polls were different, and neither statistically signficant.  But, throw that out...they're still data and we'll use it.  I just think you're probably getting a lot of HO responses as well.

And I'm not sure the transition era has ever had a "stronghold" on n-scale. (or modern either, for that matter)   I think there aren't enough good steam locos in N to make it as attractive as transition era HO.  If anything, it's been late transition era in N probably, at least until some of the recent better steam locos have hit the shelves.

[robert3985]

...I just think you're probably getting a lot of HO responses as well.

Got ANY evidence for that statement whatsoever??

Just askin'...   

[MVW]

I'm not so sure it shatters anything.   First of all, both polls were different, and neither statistically signficant.  But, throw that out...they're still data and we'll use it.  I just think you're probably getting a lot of HO responses as well.

And I'm not sure the transition era has ever had a "stronghold" on n-scale. (or modern either, for that matter)   I think there aren't enough good steam locos in N to make it as attractive as transition era HO.  If anything, it's been late transition era in N probably, at least until some of the recent better steam locos have hit the shelves.

The polls were different, as I mentioned, but not by so much to skew the results greatly. And I wouldn't call 335 responses statistically insignificant. Most national surveys only poll 500 to 1000 people. In addition, doing a "poll of polls" has proven to provide accurate insight into political races, for instance.

Now, there was certainly some crossover, with people voting in both polls. And the RW poll allowed two votes, so that probably injected some noise. (On the other hand, it seems like a fair amount of people are equipping themselves for two eras.) So, scientific it's not.

Still, I don't think it unreasonable to draw some inferences from the polls. I'm merely surprised that only about a third of the respondents were interested in the transition era. I would have guessed closer to 50%.

I think you do have a valid point though about the relative lack of quality steamers in N until recently. Hopefully that trend of new releases will continue.

(I model the transition era, and if I ever switch it will be to the '20s or '30s.)

Jim

[brokemoto]

Mid 1950s for the larger pike.

I do have a small nineteenth century pike, as well.  It is on a two-by-four foot piece of plywood.  I operate any nineteenth century equipment on it.  I do not fuss too much about narrow time periods in the  nineteenth century.  What I want out of it is for someone to look at that pike and know that is set in the nineteenth century.  Most of the structures are wood, there is a livery stable/smith shop, a firehouse with horse-drawn equipment, a Wells Fargo Waggon (with an 1880s Wells Fargo logo).  Most of the rolling stock is wood.  That, and colorful locomotives (although there are some plain black or Russian Iron) all spell 'nineteenth century'.

GF likes nineteenth century trains, as well.

[Denver Road Doug]

Got ANY evidence for that statement whatsoever??

The same amount of evidence that everyone else has that is making inferences about the data.

There IS evidence of HO voting on the Trainboard poll.

Anyway, I'm not sure my point made it across correctly...  I was skeptical of the statement "kinda shatters the illusion of the transition era being the dominant choice."  On one hand, yes I'm saying that I'm not sure that the number of transition-era modelers is "dominant", but I'm also saying there's very well may be more transition modelers since the sample size is so small.   I could concede that transition-era modelers might possibly be the *majority*, but not be a number that anyone would classify as dominant.

And if we really look in the mirror here, what about the N-trak guys that run SD70ACe's pulling a string of stock cars and a Happy Birthday caboose.   Which one did they pick?   We are constantly "reminded" by hobby shop proprietors and some industry guys that MOST (and I've heard up to 90% even) don't give a flip about what era even means.   But like anything, they'll weirdly/randomly still pitch their tent in one camp for whatever reason.  So, there's that.

In my mind, (based on polls I've seen over the years) the number of transition-era modelers and "modern" modelers *in n-scale* is pretty close.  Some people say post-'80 as modern, some say post-70, etc.   So depending on the split-out, one or the other probably edges the other.   If you'll notice the Trainboard poll had "Post-2000" as modern and I think that now that's probably where the term needs to sit, and with 70's-90's being some new term (Deregulation-era?)   It would be nice if there was a common, fairly specific breakout so these polls and discussions were on even footing.   Seems a lot of folks bend the era's to fit their desires and then things get harder to compare.   As to which has the edge, I know a lot of new modelers are "modern", and the modelers I know locally generally model post-'65ish....not "modern" by any means (although there are a few of us) but far from transition-era.   And I'll say again, I think that has a LOT more to do with available equipment in n-scale than any popularity contest.  I just expect that many transition guys are more prone to stick to HO, especially those running small steam.

[rsn48]

Just a note to Jim, statistically speaking you are correct in saying a certain number of respondents is larger than a national poll, but that doesn't equate to accuracy.  As any statistic freak knows, getting the right blend of respondents to reflect the population you are discussing is an art in itself.  So 300, 500 or a 1000 doesn't mean much unless it is the "right" 300, 500, or a 1000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size_determination

[sd45elect2000]

From the articles and photo's that appear on this site , especially concerning passenger car projects that the majority of members here are transition era modelers.

I model the CMStP&P and the CNS&M (and connecting roads) during the early Korean war.

Randy

[Rich_S]

P&WV 1963.
P&LE  1976 through 1980
Conrail 1980

[bbussey]

Autumn, late 1950s and early 1980s.

[MVW]

Just a note to Jim, statistically speaking you are correct in saying a certain number of respondents is larger than a national poll, but that doesn't equate to accuracy.  As any statistic freak knows, getting the right blend of respondents to reflect the population you are discussing is an art in itself.  So 300, 500 or a 1000 doesn't mean much unless it is the "right" 300, 500, or a 1000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size_determination

Of course. But the respondents were all model railroaders, so that makes 'em the right ones. 

Jim