I downloaded the magazine on Monday,

but I've just started to read it.  I read this article by Lance Mindheim.  Great article!  For anyone who does not have the room to do a large model of a class one mainline, a more compact industrial switching layout might be a viable alternatitive. 

There is something else that Lance did not mention in his article on modern railroading.  There are numerous new shortlines and bridge lines started by entrepeneurs who have purchased branch lines abandoned by the class ones.  Many of these railroads would not be profitable as branch lines of class one railroads saddled with union work rules, but are viable for a small operator without a union to deal with.  I can think of a couple of examples off the top of my head, but there are many more that I either haven't thought of or don't know about.

Do you like Alco power?  The Arkansas & Misouri, and the Apache Railroad are two modern Railroads running Alco power that come to mind. 

A couple of interesting industrial railroads right here in the Los Angeles area would be the Los Angeles Junction Railway that is a subsidiary of the BNSF.  The entire railroad is contained within the Cities of Vernon and the City of Commerce.  The total area of the railroad is about 10 miles by 10 miles.  Both of those cities are over 75% industry.  There are no unit trains, no stack trains, the railroad switches industries just like was done  throughout the 20th century.  Vernon is an old city with a lot of old brick buildings, sheet metal buildings, and some more modern "tilt ups."  City of Commerce was built after WWII, and is mostly modern architecture, with some sheet metal buildings but mostly concrete tilt up or stucco construction.  The only "brick" buildings there would be cinder block.  In the 1980's into the 1990's the LAJ ran 4 Cf-7's painted in the Santa Fe blue and yellow warbonnet freight scheme.  Since sometime in the 1990's the Santa Fe sent the LPG units over to the LAJ.

The other interesting shortline in Los Angeles is the Pacific Harbor Line.  It used to be the Harbor Belt Line.  Until a few years ago they ran an assortment of older equipment and the railroad paid hommage to some of the classic railroad liveries.  They had an ex-SP low nose GP9 freshly painted in the black widow paint scheme.  They had a low nose SD 26 (I think) in Santa Fe zebra stripe, among other units.  I think about 5 years ago they began taking advantage of a program sponsored by the EPA & the Southern California Air Quality Management District to replace the fleet with mix of rebuilt diesels using modern low emmission diesel power plants and Gevos.  The new equipment is painted in the zebra stripe scheme.  

I don't know.  The whole

I don't know.  The whole appeal of the transition era for me is simple:  Americans, Atlantics, Moguls and Pacifics, Mikados and Connies on Mountains, Berkshires Challengers and Daylights...ya see??  The electric toaster box just doesn't do it!

But I do think the author overlooked one little detail against the transisiton era:  Just becauze the era has passed by does not mean you can't find the prototype anymore.  The rails may be gone, but the sites look much the same as those "abandon" sites in the modern era.  I'm willing to bet places haven't changed much in 150 years; there's always been areas overgrown, or tight or worndown.  The difference is we can't see precisely what happened, and we have a stigma against believing anything without seeing it first!

I was out in the streets of Witchitah Falls near the Railroad museum, and I discovered a nice little niche in backwoods America that at one point was downtown front yard America - it's all there, roughly intact, though parts are caving in.  Tracks are still in the street, just covered up with asphalt or in one case, the building was put right over them - they barely bothered to remove them!!

You may not be able to reproduce every single building and detail precisely as it was, but It leans positive modleing license to finishing the scene!

Good luck with the modern era, but I won't be giving up my little steamers any time soon!  Though a 50 ton 0-6-0 isn't exactly "Little!"

Hmm

I don't think he said that. He said as time goes by, it becomes harder. Thats true.

He made a point to say that his article was aimed at people who were ambivelant. Not people who were happy with their era as you clearly are.

I think he makes a very strong case. The 70s era layout I was designing was well informed by use of google maps and structures that still exist.

On the other hand, there is a certain joy I take in researching something that doesn't really exist anymore. That has been the draw of 1900s railroading to me. Thank goodness for Sanborn.. I just wish they covered all the things I wanted. It can be frustrating when they only show half a yard..

I still take his point and can see myself building a modern era layout someday. I think I would need to move somwhere near an appealing prototype for that to happen. Great article!

Chris

Benny, that may be true of the Midwest.

Unfortunately it is not true of most of the urban areas of California.  The real estate has gone up in value to such an extent that many of the old buildings are torn down and replaced with new construction.  Other old buildings have been remodeled into new uses and the building is completely different today from what it was 60 years ago.  Two lane roads from the 1950s are now 4-6 lanes, or in the case of the Santa Ana Canyon that was a 2 lane road until about 1960, it is now a 6 lane freeway.  I saw an article in a magazine a year or so ago about Route 66.  It has been called America's Road, but in the article the author tried to follow the old Route 66, and said it should now be known as "America's frontage road."  Most of it is missing completely.  What little is left outside of the cities is just bits and pieces of frontage road along the interstate.

  In addition there is an ongoing thread on the Santa Fe Yahoo group right now asking about the interior colors that Santa Fe used for the high level El Capitan cars.  Trying to model passenger train interiors in color is difficult today because most photography was in black and white.

  In addition many branch lines that were abandoned before WW2 had the rails pulled up in the scrap metal drives of the war.  Also old pictures of an industrial siding don't give an indication of what the typical traffic was on that siding, only what was caught in a "moment in time" when the picture was taken. 

There is certainly nothing wrong with modeling steam, but it isn't as easy as going out to photograph a current industrial area, or a current scene.

I don't think there could be

I don't think there could be anything better than getting out and actually seeing the real world, regardless of what era we are modeling - the number of oysters out there seems to be growing the more rare they become and the more often I go out.  Particularly when I see a building that is more than one, or covered by the signs of multiple owners over ages.  The derelict today was the New yesterday - and some of the older businesses today are at home on spurs laid years ago.  California is true - the realestate price of land has driven most things out.

I love Google maps - it has really helped me look at the route of the ATSF Peavine route out of Prescott, even though most of it is now obliterated.  Once you get to the canyons, though, form there to skull valley, there's the line of a roadbed!

I wish I could go out more - and there is one Warning and a Cuation that could be in included in your travels that you might not consider right off.  First of all, you might not encounter the nicest of people in these industrial areas - you have every lot of person running around.  A middle forties railfan carrying a huge expensive camera and distracted entirely by the railroad flavor of the environment makes a perfect target for those who like such opportunity.  It's also important to stay out of the roads and use caution when parking, as some of those drivers run around these places as if it's a general routine - and a misplaced car parked in the "wrong" place [which could include the spot that "looks" like a right place to park] could be a rather nasty surprise to their day - one with a well aimed curse and a yell at minimum, and a smashed car or injured railfan at worst.  My dad also taught me a very good lesson about the edge of roads - the places where there is a lot of grass is where the largest tirekillers lie!  So practice good Situational Awareness when you're out in that real world!

Not that I want to trash my current layout, but. . .

 I've been thinking myself of somday modeling a modern short line railroad like the Modoc Northern, a now defunct railroad that lasted only a year or so here in Northeastern California ending last year.  My present layout is the Southern Pacific, Mid 60s - mid 70s, in Los Angeles, sort of the the golden years of diesel power for first and second generaion.

Not that I want to trash my current layout, but would like to make a new modular switching layout for the Modoc Northern.  The MN used the old SP Modoc line trackage that ran from Kalamath Falls, OR to Alturas, CA.  One thing I like about doing a modern railroad is the better weathering look on freight cars, mainly because of no lead paint. 

Always enjoy reading another one of Lance's articles. 

The Modoc Northern is defunct... but the trackage isn't.

UP is running part of it, and Lake County has Frontier Rail running the section from Lakeview to Alturas.

http://www.craigsrailroadpages.com/modocnorthern/index.htm

Modern enough anyway

The day the UP took back the Modoc line from the Modoc Northern, they removed the company sign from UP property.  I ended up with the sign and it now hangs on the outside entrance to my train room.  Yes its a defunct railroad, but I really like the equipment and paint scheme.   Jeff, thanks for posting the link to the MN railroad so others can see a modern railroad with vintage equipment.

Bruce  Petty

Can't hardly disagree more with article's premises

Except for research ease, I don't agree with any of the article's major premises.  Anyway ...

Passing through Nevada last Friday, I shot the 1923-built railroad depot at Caliente (e.g. hot), Nevada. It is now a museum filled with local history:

Pretty impressive for a town with a high-point population of only 5,000 (now 1,100), eh?  (Sorry, I spent several days with a couple of Canadians last week.)

Were their names Bob & Doug?

Spoken...err written like a true hose head! [wink]

Were their names Bob & Doug?

No, Dave and Melissa from British Columbia, which could/should have been part of a 51-state USA.

You can have it!

Please take BC and all their "farmers", just give us Alaska in return!

Passanger Operation Details

I happened to be at a couple of active Amtrack stations the past two days, and noticed some details folks may want to include for their passanger stops in the modern era. Both of them have to do with accessablity, and both were present at each station.

1. yellow rumble strips for the visually impared. These are textured with a pattern of bumps, and about a foot wide. They lie at th edge of the platform, to warn the visually impared that they need to be careful though the change in texture.

2. wheelchair lifts. Probably due to the fact that they're not used often, the platforms I  visited had manually cranked ones on wheels, to be rolled out when needed. From a modeler's point of view, storing them could be interesting, as one station had a rubbermaid shed set back along the platform, another had it tucked under the deep eves of the former freight house.

Modeling the Modern Era

     I appreciate Lance's article as it reinforces some thoughts about why I do research the way we do at WC2scale. In my case the Wisconsin Central, I think we all have at some point run our trains across the "stage" in 70's model railroad lingo and learned that kept our attention for a while then leaving us mentally numb after repeating the same proceedure time after time. The discovery of the "local" "turn" "patrol"  as an alternative has come of age. With the onset of online research we can duplicate the prototype with the help of search engines as well as actual railroad workers and the discovery of zone track spots or clics whatever the railroad uses for terminology to spot cars at local industries. We have now come to model the switch job as much as the engines and cars involved in the particular moves. We have the ability to change things up as industries get cars at varying frequencies along the line. Sound and DCC and new design techniques allow us to get up and personal with our consists. The shelf layout is now an asset rather than seen as a liability. You can "have it all" with careful planning and proper care to detail. The jewel of the article may well be its well defined focus on the modeled area and finding out what really goes on over a long period of time rather than accepting what I saw there "yesterday."  Whatever scale we choose to model in benefits from our greatest intimacy with subject we try to model whether it be fantasy (George Sellios) or prototype (Pelle Soeberg) A strong vision produces better results every time. Lance has brought this out well with his new layout.Bob Menzies WC2scale moderator

I attended a clinic given by a friend.

It was his last clinic that he gave as he had gone to work for Athearn in quality control and now gets all of the model railroading he wants at work.  The clinic was titled "Diesel detailing below the walkways."  His main focus was on all of the stuff that you can see on a modern diesel below the walkways.  Any time he could get close enough to a locomotive that he wanted to model, he took very detailed close up photos all of the way around the locomotive if possible.  An Sd40-2 might involve 10 photos on each side in order to get a close up of every inch from front to rear, and that would just be focussed on the area below the walkways, he also took photos of the hoods on all 4 sides if possible.

After the clinic I asked him about we who model transition era.  Getting photos of a modern loco was relatively easy, but how about getting that type of photo coverage on an older unit like an Ft that has been traded in or scrapped and nothing exists except what pictures have been published.  Basically he said, "You're out of luck.  Just do the best you can."

Lance Mindheim is truely a great model railroader

I savor every opportunity I get to read and learn from Mr. Mindheim.  His attention to detail is spectacular and shines through in every photo displaying his work.  Even though I don't model in N scale, I always admired his old Monon layout.  I model in HO, in the modern era and am thrilled to see such an accomplished modeler bring to light the qualities and possibilities of modeling the current times.  Not that there is anything wrong with the transition era, but it's so refreshing to see an article relating to what's out there today.  His willingness to share his excellent modeling techniques are something that you shouldn't miss.  I suggest you go to his model railroading home page:  http://www.lancemindheim.com.  It has been a great resource of learing and inspiration for me.  The site contains some oustanding how-to articles relating to his "wall paper" technique that he uses for structures, signs, walls and even trucks, making ultra realistic roads and even general hobby projects such as wiring, track laying, etc.  There's also a lot of eye candy (photographs) displaying his layout in completed scenes as well as "in progress" photos.  I certainly hope to see much more of Lance's work in future issues of MRH!

Lance Mindheim

He is a great modeler ! He has really captured the South Florida scene on his layout to the "T" !! I know cause I live in South Florida and his modeling just capture the spirit of it.

This article changed my mind....

I was all lined up to model the 1950's until I read this article, and made me want to move up to 1984, mainly for the simple desire for a caboose.

As for Southern California and dead lines, you CAN find them still, but the buildings are rare. I can still point out PE lines in SoCal that have been abandoned since the 1950's, but they now look like a park.

As for cool prototypes, the LAJ and the PHL are great for modelers, the PHL had a zebra striped SD24 and one in C&NW paint as well as a tunnel motor

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/bb158/twister302/?action=view&current=PHL20004.jpg

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/bb158/twister302/?action=view&current=PHL20005.jpg

Good points to consider

 having just read this article i have to say i am considering a change of era. I have two of the authors books and am in the planning stages of my HO scale switching layout. i was considering transition era just because i really like first generation alco diesels. with this article i am now reconsidering updating at least to the 90's.