Do you fudge the truth?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Though I model 1996-1999, I have decided to include the Acela and HHP-8 on my layout. I did this for two reasons: The lack of available electric power (specifically the AEM-7),  the the fact that the Acela is so iconic. Amtrak's first profit turner. Our first taste worked class rail travel. It changed the look of Boston and brought a pride to rail travel absent for so many years. In fact, the trains were indirectly responsible for both the South Station and Worcester Station rehabilitation projects.

So my passenger operations will be based on the 2002-2003 timetable and the stations will reflect their current glory rather than the shambles they were in during the mid 90's.

I'm Ok with this, even as a strict prototype modeler. I am curious, have any of you also bent the truth to run specific equipment?

[randgust]

I don't know if I'd call it fudge but there are some chocolate sprinkles around, particularly when I theoretically hold to a rather strict July '72 time freeze.    I've had a couple RBOX cars around (1975) and some warbonnet-painted CF7's that weren't around until 73-75.... and I was outed on having 45' trailers on my intermodal train.   I've also been known to host some bicentennials,  an SDP40F, and some other slightly-off-timeline glitches that an eagle-eye might spot, but at least no Conrail!

[davefoxx]

I'm running Amtrak Superliners on a layout set in North Carolina in the early- to mid-1980s (at least they're in Phase III).  Oh, and I own an ATSF GP60M, too.   

DFF

EDIT: How could I forget my Atlantic Coast Line E7 and modeled local ACL passenger train that I put on the layout now and then?  That misses my modeled era by more than twenty-five years! 

[arbomambo]

No...I stick to my era and railroad on my little Santa Fe layout.  I DO have an interest in the other two railroads that served LA's Union Station...so I am acquiring SP and UP equipment as well, but still, only equipment seen in my modelled year-1957
Bruce

[conrail98]

I"m finding I'm going to have to. For example, my era is 1996, mostly because it's before the merger talk for Conrail. But I have a steel mill planned and finding appropriate rolling stock for that timeframe is getting hard as the older releases sell out and stuff coming out now is just too a tad too modern, i.e. Atlas Coil Cars. I have a feeling I'll need to go slightly modern for a time being and hope older coil cars become available (and Exact Rail does the Coil Shield). I also plan on running the Broadway and Capitol Limited on the Ft. Wayne Line and they were off of that by 1991,

Phil

[Denver Road Doug]

Yeah, somewhere there's a nice little bell curve that explains my (lack of) era adherence.   

I model 1998-2003, focusing on 2000.  My current layout is pretty generic but my next layout (not my dream layout but what I like to call my "shattered-dream" layout) will likely hold up (track, structure, scenery, and signal-wise) from mid-1996 to mid-2007. (really mid-2009)   So those are kind of my drop dead dates, although even that leaves a few "sprinkles" as randgust so eloquently stated.      Amtrak is part of my issue as well, although I haven't done enough research to know exactly how much it moves me outside of my focus of 2000.   I still want to keep 90-95% of my fleet within the 98-03 range.  The main reason is simply money.  I don't want to have to have a whole 'nother fleet of freight cars and locos. 

As it stands now, about 99% of my fleet is era appropriate, but I do have visions of some post-2003 equipment eventually.   I would have to push out to 2007 to run the FEF & Business train--for example--and then there would be some Gensets, 70ACe's, BNSF Swooshes, and another flavor of coal train or two added to the mix also.  But I can still sell 2007 pretty easily (which is similar to the amount of bending you're talking about here) without buying a TON of new equipment.   I think I'm gonna regret not buying the FEF set but it's just not in the cards at the moment.

I also have a few late-80's pieces and an inclination for more...the layout likely won't hold up the story very well with that era, but it'll still be done from time to time.

[Rossford Yard]

There are degrees of fudging, no?  At let the first who has not fudged cast the first resin shell....

I have actually been pretty faithful on the current layout, with some pretty suggestive track patterns in key areas, notably Blue Island and Gibson.

I am even down to modeling 2003-5 because the IHB got their (Atlas) GP40 back then, or maybe a bit earlier because they got them back slowly, and I still have a few in SP paint. That, I actually have more of these 9 units in IHB and SP (so I can still use them to run trains when the same number unit is down in staging) isn't so much a fudge as a theatrical compromise.   I have to admit, the IHB cabeese on the market are a bit fudged to any particular year, as those transfer cabs went out of service (down to last 2 in 2003, but I have 3.....) and a few other items stretch the mark just a bit in fleet numbers, but not years.

Do you count things like Metra detouring over the IBH, even if era appropriate rolling stock?  The fact that I run a terminal road so I can run almost any loco combo, because it happens in the prototype, even if I don't model train schedules to the hour or relative density (i.e., more CP and NS than UP and BNSF in real life than on my layout?)

What about general compression, with me substituting Gibson where Blue Island Yard would be, because I just couldn't bear to be without a large roundhouse? Or more general switching in the yard than Gibson (really a Blue Island Hump Yard function) would do as it focuses mostly on auto racks?  I do need to do is model an out of service coaling tower in my Gibson Yard because it came down in 2007.

So closer than most, I suspect, but still not without taint!

[thomasjmdavis]

Well, to be completely truthful, my layout is currently no functional, other than a rather simple outer loop, as I have my passenger terminal (which I had enough foresight to make removable) off while I reconfigure track to eliminate a hidden turnout that was causing one too many issues.

But that said, I do make some compromises on occasion with my era (presumably 1956).  Most of the "fudging" revolves around paint schemes.  I just can't bring myself to repaint shadow striped 6-6-4s that came that way from Kato and Centralia, and while some ATSF map cars had probably not been repainted yet, they are certainly over-represented on the layout, again, because I just don't have the heart to repaint them.  I also sometimes cheat a consist- for instance, I may run a Grand Canyon consist that is actually from 1954 or 1957 in order to utilize more heavyweights.  Luckily, most of my anachronisms are backdated, and so while they may be "wrong", only people who were relatively expert on a particular train at a particular date,

When I want to be a purist, I have enough equipment for my relatively small layout that I can be pretty accurate on any given day.  But I figure that my stuff will never be 100% accurate- I still run some Kato Budd coaches as ATSF, when they are off from the prototype by a couple windows, and some Walthers coaches as L&N, again, not really accurate, but look really good in dark blue and gray.  And most of my kitbashes are at best "close."  I could also park the hi-level cars on the storage shelf, and run as though it was 1951 or 1954- except then there would be a lot of experimental '55 and '56 Fords and Chevy's in the parking lots.

And truth be told, if anyone ever comes out with a 1937 Super Chief, well, it's my railroad, and I can create a time warp if I want to....

Tom D.

[Rossford Yard]

"When I want to be a purist, I have enough equipment for my relatively small layout that I can be pretty accurate on any given day."

Now, I like that statement and attitude.  Who among us doesn't want to cheat every once in a while, and what harm is done?

[Philip H]

car-wise I mostly stick to my 1995-2005 decade.  Granted there is a not of stuff that needs to be more heavily weathered to have come to that era, but I digress.

Locomotive wise, not so much.  I'm still running KCS F units as full cab locos in white as opposed to the cut down slugs they were by that time.  Ditto my pair of GP30's.  I also have a GP60M (run through don't ya know), and F7 in the ATSF Yellow Bonnet scheme and I'm on the list of a GMD-1.

[C855B]

Of course I fudge, but it's a slightly schizophrenic fudge. I target a range of years "with conditions". I want to have things like Alco PAs and FAs just because I like them, but still have one or two Dash-2s to build consists I witnessed and enjoyed in person (DDA40X-SD40-2-DDA40X sandwiches, specifically). In reality these extremes missed each other by seven years (on UP). OTOH, my sense of decorum prevents the truth being completely broken by running them in the same consists. Also, the 40-2s are only because of wanting to portray that specific history - otherwise, my hard ending target would be 1970. So, my chosen era bracket is '65-'70 with a specific truth-bending exception.

One acknowledged fudge - I more or less have to, given the RTR choices - is rolling stock. If a bit of revenue equipment has a built date between 1970 and 1980, I won't automatically exclude it if it's something appealing. These days, I at least try not to buy too much that has 3-panel COTS, but a U-1 dot (1978) will get it put back on the dealer shelf.

[bbussey]

Yes, I fudge (or will fudge).  There are various pieces of equipment that predate or postdate 1956 New Haven that I want to run anyway, so I will include them.

[Iain]

I try not to most of the time, but I also purchase everything that comes out in original NS regardless of era just because I want to see more of it made.  I also recently did a GP18, which wasn't a thing until fifteen years after 1948 (my chosen year).  I settled on August of 1948 because I can plausibly say that was the one month that NS passenger trains were hauled by diesel before passenger service was discontinued.

It also happens this means I get a nice mix of Baldwin diesels and steam.

Of course, I like a lot of locomotives that were never found anywhere near NS, like my Lima projects.  However, these are largely train show runners.

[Rossford Yard]

Stepping back a bit, what constitutes an "era fudge?"

I have seen 2 year, 3 years and 10 years of "era creep" listed.  Seem like at least by strictest standards, 10 years is a fudge......And, I know it is really tempting to extend the first few years by another , and another, etc.  Granted its a sliding scale for each of us. But, somewhere, it seems that fudging just changes into freely running what you want.

I recall back in my HO days, modeling B and O/Chessie, their F units retired in 1973 and the SD40-2 came in 1974, so that was the first time I extended the scale version life span of a loco to get what I wanted.  I know DRD has a few similar favorites in a 2 year period. 

What should we consider the outer limits of legitimate era creep, and should there be a distinction between extending to justify "X" on the layout vs. (again) just running anything that suits your fancy?

Yeah, I know.  Picky.

[w neal]

I am curious, have any of you also bent the truth to run specific equipment?

NO WAY!!!! I ALWAYS FOLLLOW ABSOLUTE STRICT PROTOTYPE ADHEARANCE AT ALL TIMES!!!!

Right?