What to Model? A Look at the Many Options

If you are taking a serious look at model railroading, you might be up to the point where you are going to be building a layout. If you look through the pages of model railroading publications and at other people's layouts you will find that most of them are not just a jumble of whatever they buy, most of them have a theme. Sometimes people are particular about accuracy, others not, however those who aren't concerned with rhyme or reason at all are few and far between. Of course, it's your choice what you do with your own railroad, but here are some things to consider.

First you need to look at era. It is perfectly okay to run any train from any time period you want; the trouble is it often looks out of place to have an old-timer 1800s locomotive running alongside a modern high-speed train. You may think it sounds cool, but if you actually see it in real life you probably won't. Most people choose a general era to set their layout in. That means that the trains, buildings, and other accessories do not look out of place. Some people are particularly picky and choose a certain year, such as 1948. Some are super-picky and choose a specific day. Most tend to choose a decade or part of a decade, sometimes two or more. A very popular decade to model is the 1950s; this is mainly because during this period railroads were transitioning from steam to diesel, allowing modellers to have both. Others might choose to model a period that is not too far off, such as 1945-1965, with things centered around the 1950s. You will find a lot of equipment from all different eras, although pre-World War I era layouts are fairly rare and 1800s layouts are even rarer. The widest availability will be from World War II to the present.

Now you need to look at location. Are you going to be modelling the desert? The agricultural Midwest? The hills of Pennsylvania? The industrialized East? There are so many options. You can choose to keep it generic but at some point there should be some sort of idea. If you want to keep things at least semi-realistic it is best to examine what sorts of industries are found in certain areas. Grain elevators are found in the Midwest and a Midwest-themed layout should probably have a good fleet of covered hoppers, whereas one set in the Appalachians should have a fleet of coal hoppers. It also pays to remember that certain railroads ran in certain areas. You can choose a mixture of locomotives and rolling stock that represent the general area you are modelling. Once again there is a choice in how picky you want to get. Somebody might say "the West," others "Pennsylvania." You might want to play with geography or create fictional places. Others want to model a specific area, sometimes to the point of representing it accurately based on how it actually appeared at a certain point.

Another point that comes up is prototype vs. freelancing. Prototype modellers model real railroads like the Pennsylvania, New York Central, or CSX. Freelancers create their own fictional railroads and paint and decal their own equipment accordingly. Others choose a middle route and go with prototype freelancing. Prototype freelancers choose a real prototype or collection of prototypes in order to keep a believable world albeit adding in some points on the actual prototype they may have felt were lacking. However, they create a fake railroad name and paint and decal equipment accordingly. In other situations people like to take history at a certain point and spin their own story off from how things actually took place to create a background for their railroad.

Now you need to ask yourself about the focus of your layout. Some layouts focus around operation, others around scenery, most a mixture. Some layouts are point-to-point and focused mainly around switching in yards or around industries and contain mainly freight. Others are geared toward realistic mainline or branchline operation. What you need to keep in mind is whether you will be operating alone or with friends. Lone wolf operators can't achieve everything so they might need to scale back. Other people focus mainly on building scenery and running trains through it. Most tend to focus on a middle approach although there are some people who because of either preference or necessity choose to move in a more radical direction.

Finally, and perhaps most important is the issue of size. We are often impressed by big, but should we be? Just because a layout is big does not mean it is built to quality. There certainly are some very detailed large layouts but the general rule is that the smaller the more detail you can fit in. Size also ties into operation because there is only so much one person can do. There is also the fact that one person can't maintain a very large layout or in some cases complete it. You don't want to be working for years on benchwork and laying track and never get around to scenery, do you? One of the problems many modellers have is that they shoot too big. Don't go down that route, especially not with your first layout. A wise choice would be to start small but build in such a way that expansion is possible. And of course, size figures into space and money.

As you can tell, when it comes to model railroading there are a wide range of variables to consider in choosing how you are going to model alone. I am the sort of person who kind of likes things to come together as they go along so I don't tend to go into detailed planning and just let things evolve. Of course you need some planning or you will get nowhere, and even the most well-planned person will ALWAYS find something that ends up changing in completed form. The best thing to do is conceptualize and begin working toward the result.