What Era Do You Model?

[Smike]

I model the fall of 2015, at this rate is about when I'll break ground on the layout.. 

[sirenwerks]

I think for the hobby to succeed there will ultimately be a shift to modern contemporary RRing.  Kids today who by the way ride many more passenger trains than kids did in the past, even though the rides may be shorter trips on trains such as Seattle's Sounder and Vancouver's West Coast Express, will be more interested in modelling what they see now rather than being obsessed with steam.  I'm not saying they won't like steam, it won't be in their consciousness; just like I had to teach my son how to use a rotary phone and I won't repeat what he said after he used one....lol..

I think you're right about the model what you know idea but those kids are a ways off from buying houses to have layouts.  I think that the prototypes clamp down on access will have an impact to, too many youth not being able to get up close and personal with the trains to catch the bug as easily.  I'm the early adapter market the manufacturers should be looking at.  And I was roaming the WM yards in western MD while BL2s and slugs were still the yard goats, and 4 axle lash-ups in rainbow colors snaked along the OML and that's what I'll model (though I wised up and am now focused out west but same time period).  So the market should/will still focus on the early adapters with spending money; and a majority of them were coming of age with N scale in the 70s, so you'll have more modelers with spending power focusing on the 60s, 70s, and early 80s for some time.

[SkipGear]

I think the disconnect may actually improve the popularity for transition era. If you have the train gene, and don't have personal experience with any one style of railroading, then you pick what looks interesting. I know a lot of transition era modelers that were born 30 years after the last revenue steam loco pulled a train. They have no direct experience with steam yet are drawn to it. I'm 45 and the closest thing to mainline steam I have ever experienced was a ride behind the Chessie Steam Special when I was 9 yet I could care less about modern railroading. I really don't believe the old "you model what you grow up with" axiom.

[eric220]

Personally, I have to laugh at the "you model what you know" argument. I was born decades after steam. My only experience with them is in videos and excursion trains. I also model a railroad that ceased to exist many years before I was born. I model a vision of what I wish I could have experienced. There's a mistique to railroading that existed in the late steam era that people like me (who only know fatheads and homogenous hood units) can only imagine. The models take us there.

This is a personal perception with a sample size of 1. YMMV

[MVW]

I'll pile on against the apparent logic of "you model what you know." I was born in '62, and I model '54. Simply put, I find the transition era is just a much more interesting time in railroading than anything that's happened since. Inter-city passenger service may have been waning, but there was still plenty of passenger activity. And a majority of the nation's goods still moved by rail, making for more interesting and varied traffic. (I just can't get excited about watching 100 covered hoppers slide by.)

And, of course, steam engines just look cool.

I'm not knocking anyone for modeling a different period. Whatever floats your boat. But I don't think the attraction to steam (or the transition era) is going to pass anytime soon.

That being said, I'm still surprised the transition era is such a favorite of TRW visitors. I had assumed this was mostly a modern crowd. I guess the modern guys are just more vocal. 

Jim

[rsn48]

My grandfather was an engineer in Jasper Alberta, taking the Super Continental to Edison and back in one day, and the next day off.  I would stay with my grandparents while my father was away in the military, which was a lot.  So in theory, I should be modelling Jasper roughly in 1957 (I got to see the first ditch lights ever there, being tried out experimentally).  My uncle was also an engineer in Jasper initially then transferred to Edmonton after he almost died in a train slide down a canyon, decided he want to go where the land was flat.  But I don't model Jasper in 1957, instead I model a fictitious CN subdivision which is contemporary.

But logically we are what we eat and so what is familiar, for most, will be modelled and steam remained latter in Canada.  A buddy of mine, a retired service manager for CN out of the Thorton Yards (Vancouver), told me there was a short line here that was the first in North America to go from diesels back to steam, now I never knew that.

[soo]

I like to say I model from 78-86ish, all the roads in Wisconsin. I loved those days,,,one day might see a SOO gp30,, then the next you could see exhaust plume from the GB&W Alcos and that would make you forget what you were doing,, cept you felt a force driving you to chase the Alcos,, man, those were the days.

I remember chasing the SOO from Shops yard to Duplainville junction. Also memories of Green St in Bensenville,,, where you could walk right up to the units and take all the pictures you wanted. So I choose those years, they are the best of times, spent with the best of friends. I miss those days. I bet we all do.

Wyatt

[Nato]

             Whatever I feel like modeling at a given point in time. September 15,1862 seems interesting right now. Hey no just kidding. As a Baby Boomer who got to see the very end of steam I guess that era (time frame) is what interests the most I could model my birth date May 15,1946,but I have not, and as can be seen in photos of my layout I have an eclectic mix of rolling stock although the TE (transition era) is what is represented out there permanently on the layout used for Op Sessions. If the Lunar Railroad was a reality and a fascinating operation they I just might model the future. Remember the really dumb "Super Train" TV show. Ok nuff said, I did vote for transition only because there was no category for turn of the century thru 1920's. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[pjm20]

Ok nuff said, I did vote for transition only because there was no category for turn of the century thru 1920's. Nate Goodman (Nato).

Isn't that what the Pre-war (Pre 1942) categories covers?

[garethashenden]

I can't really do "model what you know" because all the local trains had gone before I was born (1987) and the not quite local ones were infrequent and had a big orange G on the side. So I'm going with the Boston & Maine in 1950.

[paultccrn]

I model 1881- 1890 which means I scratch build most of my rolling stock. Thank goodness for the Atlas 4-4-0!

[bnsfdash8]

I model modern NS because that's what I like, but I do have some steam engines and first generation diesels just to diversify myself. I choose to model modern NS because that is what I grew up seeing, I was born in '92 and grew up near the ex NYC Chicago Line in northern IN so it only seems natural that I have an interest in NS.

[PAL_Houston]

I model 1881- 1890 which means I scratch build most of my rolling stock. Thank goodness for the Atlas 4-4-0!

Paul:
Let me be the first to welcome you to Railwire!
Not many people scratch-build most of their rolling stock!
I hope you will share some of your work with the rest of us going forward.

[sirenwerks]

I'm 45 and the closest thing to mainline steam I have ever experienced was a ride behind the Chessie Steam Special when I was 9 yet I could care less about modern railroading. I really don't believe the old "you model what you grow up with" axiom.

Yea, I'm 48 and I caught the bug by standing too close trackside to the Chessie Steam Special and almost getting sucked under.  Well, it felt like it at least.  Don't get me wrong, I do like steam.  The GN had beautiful steamers that I want to model for the hell of it and I am seriously contemplating a door layout set around WWI on the Washington/Canadian border.  But I still think what we grew up with is like comfort food and what many are drawn to.

[Hamaker]

Being born in 1940, I grew up with steam.  My father was a freight conductor with Santa Fe for 42 years and when they began switching from steam to diesel, it was as if I was holding him personally responsible for such a "terrible mistake".  As such I model AT&SF/BNSF.  We lived in Bakersfield so there was also a heavy Southern Pacific element. So I have a couple "Black Widow" S.P. units (GP-7 & RS-11).  I model the agriculture areas around Bakersfield.  It can range from 1950 to 1995 by just changing the vehicles, freight cars and locomotives.....at least it's close enough for me.  Many of the existing old packing sheds at Edison date back to the 40s/50s.

However, no steam.  Power ranges from Zebra Striped GP-7s, V-1000s, SD-24s and GP-30s on up to modern BNSF