[shadowmodeler]

I am aware a thread like this may already exist in the deep recesses of the forum but I wanted to make my own for posterity. I invite my fellow HO scale modelers to share details on what their era/region of interest is. I am curious to know what the other people on this forum are doing with their layouts! Pictures are encouraged. I, for example, model modern era northeast corridor. Think Amtrak, or Metra North. Just starting out so I merely build temp layouts around the house so I can run trains, will share pictures when I start on a more permanent project!

- Leo

 

[wvgca]

era is 1890s, location is up north in the woods ..

 

[All-Scale Railfan]

I like to model modern, present day. Norfolk Southern is my preference since it is the most common railroad near me. I'll collect locomotives from other railroads such as BNSF and Union Pacific because I see those as well. It makes sense to model what is around for easy field research, but I don't see a problem modeling something that may be a few hundred miles to halfway around the world. 🙂

 

[Old_Hobo]

Mid 1940’s to early 1970’s….western Canada….late steam and mostly first generation diesels….

 

[mesenteria]

I model whatever my layout ends up looking like when I throw in the towel on scenery, and my rolling stock dates from the 1890-2017 era...an era on steroids. I have small Overton type passenger cars, heavyweights, and modern Pullman-type and ACFs. I have ore gennies, modern covered hoppers, but no boxcars longer than 50'. My earliest locomotive is a Pennsy K4s 4-6-2, and my most modern is a Canadian Pacific SD-4400ACu. In between, an RS-3, and RS-18, and I have an N&W GE UBoat coming my way in a few weeks.

 

[1905dave]

The Wilmington & Northern Branch of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, Birdsboro, PA to Wilmington, DE circa 1900-1905, centered around October,1903. There are still W&N lettered cars, I get fall foliage, I get wood and early steel cars, the majority of cars will have air brakes and knuckle couplers, it's just before the "bigger" engines started to be used, October is a peak traffic month and the P&R is using a more "modern" rule book..

 

[SF Gal]

Thanks for starting this neato thread! It's nice to see what others are doing!
I model the Santa Fe Railroad Exclusively from Chicago to Santa Fe. No specific era though I do not have any steamers nor do I have any BNSF merger locomotives, as of yet. I do have a few modern road vehicles on the layout so I tend to model a "what if era?" as if locomotives never went out of favor and never wore out. Where time stopped and we still have a world full of "common sense!"

Chicago is a yard and suburb town in Illinois.....

...the outskirts of Saint Louis....

The points past Saint Louis to Santa Fe are still in unfinished stages...

 

[Magic]

Southern Pacific and Santa Fe, Southern Cal in the late 1950s.

Magic

 

[Murv2]

My plan is to have three eras:
1840 to 1880
1880 to 1920
1920 to 1960
That way I can have three sets of rolling stock, two on shelves and the third in use.
As far as scenery I'm going to stick to older structures (for example, the grain elevator is wood vice concrete) and a few automobiles and trucks will be added when diesels are on the tracks, otherwise only horses and wagons.
That's the plan anyway...

 

[Gramps]

I just have a shelf layout in the garage originally set in the early1960's but I wound up getting a deal on some rolling stock that included a PC box car so now my era is 1969 which is post NYC-PRR merger and the year my daughter was born.

 

[MichaelE]

I model from the late 1960s to the present. This allows me to run steam if I choose (if I ever get a steam locomotive). The last steam locomotives were not retired in Western Europe until the mid-80s.

Railroad is set in southern Bayern, western Austria, and eastern and southeastern Switzerland.

 

[cv_acr]

At home: Algoma Central Railway (northern Ontario, Canada) circa 1985

Algoma Central in HO Scale

Modelling the Algoma Central Railway in HO scale

vanderheide.ca

At club: Canadian Pacific Railway "Sudbury Division" (also northern Ontario) circa 1970-79

Waterloo Region Model Railway Club

Modeling CP Rail's Sudbury Division in the 1970s

waterlooregionmodelrailwayclub.ca

 

[65steam]

I model the Hill Lines in southern Montana during early fall 1965.

Hill Lines: Growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I sometimes saw older freight cars indicating the lineage of the Burlington Northern Railroad and was fascinated by them (especially the Great Northern cars with a mountain goat on them). My father would tell me stories of watching Northern Pacific trains pass by during the transition era.

Southern Montana: My parents grew up in southern Montana during the 1950s and 1960s. Driving out to visit my grandparents, I was fascinated by the trains that we would see and also by the mountains and rail tunnels.

Early fall: My birthday is in October, and I was introduced to model railroading when my parents bought me a starter set for my 9th birthday. My layout is set slightly earlier in the fall. It is early enough in the season that I can model lots of people outdoors. It is late enough in the season that I can model trees starting to turn color and snow in the mountain passes.

1965: This allows me to model an era that my parents described to me, during which the Hill Lines had not yet merged to form Burlington Northern. It is late enough that I can model an early second generation diesel locomotive (EMD GP30) as well as some Great Northern freight cars painted in the Glacier Green color scheme. It is early enough that I can (somewhat) plausibly model a steam locomotive and a diesel railcar still in service. It also allows me to include beautiful 1950s and 1960s automobiles on the layout.

 

[BigGRacing]

1940s -1950s roughly Halifax - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; hitting some landmarks that are no longer here after being destroyed by the Halifax Explosion.

 

[JeffHurl]

I model a fictitious area along the Ohio river, somewhere south of Weirton, but north of Wheeling, around the 80's. The Ohio Central Systems (now part of Genesee & Wyoming) still goes through our town, just East of Columbus, and meets up with larger RR's in Mingo Junction, Ohio, just south of Steubenville.

My family has deep roots in the panhandle of West Virginia, and I have very fond memories of watching trains and river barges along that stretch of river.

I'm N scale, so pardon the intrusion, LOL!

The layout sits in a footprint that is approximately 11' x 11', so that would be the equivalent of about 22' x 22'. I'm fortunate to have a pretty big basement where I can float this layout.

I was going for a very open, rural look, with a county seat type town on one side, and on the other, a coal mine, logging site and a dairy farm.
Here are some random pictures.

The river is still a white, unfinished area in the background in this first picture below.

 

[traction fan]

I am aware a thread like this may already exist in the deep recesses of the forum but I wanted to make my own for posterity. I invite my fellow HO scale modelers to share details on what their era/region of interest is. I am curious to know what the other people on this forum are doing with their layouts! Pictures are encouraged. I, for example, model modern era northeast corridor. Think Amtrak, or Metra North. Just starting out so I merely build temp layouts around the house so I can run trains, will share pictures when I start on a more permanent project!

- Leo

I model the Seattle area in the 1920s & the 1950s. Not in HO-scale, but in N-scale. Hope that's OK, to show work in a scale other than HO. (after all, other scales do exist)

Traction Fan

 

[traction fan]

I model a fictitious area along the Ohio river, somewhere south of Weirton, but north of Wheeling, around the 80's. The Ohio Central Systems (now part of Genesee & Wyoming) still goes through our town, just East of Columbus, and meets up with larger RR's in Mingo Junction, Ohio, just south of Steubenville.

My family has deep roots in the panhandle of West Virginia, and I have very fond memories of watching trains and river barges along that stretch of river.

I'm N scale, so pardon the intrusion, LOL!

The layout sits in a footprint that is approximately 11' x 11', so that would be the equivalent of about 22' x 22'. I'm fortunate to have a pretty big basement where I can float this layout.
View attachment 596443
View attachment 596444

I was going for a very open, rural look, with a county seat type town on one side, and on the other, a coal mine, logging site and a dairy farm.
Here are some random pictures.

The river is still a white, unfinished area in the background in this first picture below.
View attachment 596445
View attachment 596446

View attachment 596447

Very nice scenery Jeff.

Traction Fan

 

[afboundguy]

1956 Pennsylvania Railroad Philadelphia 30th St Station to Horseshoe Curve!!!

 

[LocoChris]

era is 1890s, location is up north in the woods ..

Would love to see the rolling stock and locomotives, as hardly anyone makes stuff from that era these days.

I'm collecting stuff from three eras:

Mid 1950's - mid 1960's (UP)
Late 1970's (UP and Amtrak)
2010ish (CP/Soo)

 

[OilValleyRy]

The oil valley geographic area of Western Pennsylvania, Thanksgiving week of 1978. I’m very specific about that in order to get holiday decorations for three holidays mixing together (remnants of halloween & early christmas). Also, an overcast damp day with evidence of a thunderstorm the night before (puddles, wet brick walls, etc).
Proto-freelanced OVR being the “home” road with appearances of N&W, Chessie, P&LE, and early Conrail.
Not much to show yet, still in the benchwork assembly phase. My first triple deck layout build.