Great insights, Marty

Growing up in Southern and later Northern California, I took it for granted that people traded in cars when they wanted something new, or when major repairs might be needed.   Often, the expressed idea was that "It is getting too many miles so I needed a new car" was a cover up for "I really like the way some new model looks so I bought a new one!"  In fact when I worked as a mechanic for a  local trucking company in Southern California in 1976 we had one guy who used to come by who was a retired driver and friends with some of the mechanics who had his original 1934 Chevrolet sedan.  He bought it brand new in 1934 and never ever owned another car!

It wasn't until I moved to up state New York for a year in 1973 that I realized what winter, and road salt do to cars.

In the Southwest at least, perhaps much of the South from my observation when visiting inlaws in Florida, Most cars on the road will be 6 years old or newer, but a significant number will be from 7-10 years old, and up to 20-30 years old is not unusual.  In the Northeast, it seems everything rusts away and goes to the junk yard within 6 years of new.

Nice stuff

I'm planning to do a freelance line in Northern Maine (one the moving has been done) and this is still very useful.  There will be a distinct season (late summer turning into early fall) and, after seeing this, a specific year.  Even though it may well be modern times with steam and diesel two footers, the time will be more definite than I'd originally planned. 

Part of my problem is that I like so many different eras, and might solve it by including a railroad museum, but a working one.

But--whatever I end up finally doing, even if there are no trains on the line, the time will be identifiable.

Time Machine.

I have a book that I picked up back in the 1980's by Robert Sleicher (spelling?) titled "Build Your Next Model Railroad This Way."  The basic design of the railroad was a large "dog bone."  I think it was about 18 feet long in HO scale,but one of the features was what he called a "Time Machine" or something like that.  The central feature of the layout was a small town grain elevator on a siding as well as a loads in/empties out mine and power plant complex if I remember correctly.  He changed the time frame by making the structures and details interchangeable.  For a turn of the century (1900 not 2000), he used a wooden grain elevator, horse and wagon and various details that would be common in 1890-1910.  Obviously old time steam era locomotives and rolling stock.  If you wanted to be a little later than 1900, say 1910, he would use a model T truck to haul the farmer's grain to the silo.  Come forward to the 1930's and the elevator was metal, the locomotives were more modern 2-8-2 and the rolling stock was typical of the 1930's.  The farmer's truck was either a Model A or 1932 Ford.  Come forward in time to the 1970's or 1980's and the locomotive was a Gp38 or 40, the elevator was concrete, and of course the grain arrived from the farm in a modern truck.  I think there was a store or other small industry, maybe a lumber yard, and he had done three different versions of those details as well to reflect something being built in 1900, 1930 something, or the 1960's or later.  Every item fit the same foot print so that the pieces would interchange.  He could then operate the layout in whatever era he felt like at any time just by changing out the trains and a few details.

Budget

Another nice thing about narrowing our era is that it's great for our hobby budget.  In mid-2008, my layout's era was  a two-year period, mid-2004 to mid-2006, to allow me to run favorite equipment from throughout that period.  Then the IAIS's new GE's arrived, and it ballooned out to 2004-2008 so I could also accommodate those.  Besides the accuracy concerns Marty mentioned in his fine article, that opened me up to a LOT of buying...none of which actually increased my enjoyment of the hobby.  I was just buying for the fun of buying.

Later that year, in a fit of contentment, I decided that enough was enough.  I narrowed my era to a single season - Spring 2005 - and sold everything that didn't fit within that.  Even prototype changes that brought new traffic and locomotives only a couple months after my era were ignored.  The sales funded the installation of Tsunamis in what remained, so I ended up with a much smaller, easier-to-maintain roster that I enjoyed operating much more than before.  Four years later, I've never regretted the change.

Simple and effective

I actually considered

multi-era layout - but what seems to be an easy way to avoid making a decision ends up being a LOT of work to pull off effectively. And depending on the era range you choose, you issues would be really hard too avoid. Bob Scheichler, who's articles you remember, showed a town in 1890, 1920, 1950 etc...  but what about if you need to show paved vs. dirt roads? In my chosen area, New England, the hills were devoid of trees in the mid-19th century as the land was cleared for logging and farming. But by the mid 20th century the farms had left and the hills were covered with second-growth forests. It was just too much to realistically model on one layout and can be a lot more complicated than simply swapping out buildings. And, as for building 2-3 of every building, I don't know about you but I have enough trouble building ONE copy of each building!

Marty

You're welcome

Glad you found some useful ideas in the column!

Thanks Joe, The budgetary issue

is one I should have included - it's true that the focus can save you money - but be forewarned it can bite you in the butt. The CV had one 2-10-4 left on the roster in 1954 - and the brass models are really pricey. Of course, the money I saved not buying cars and locomotives from all kinds of eras provided the money to buy those brass engines!

double vision

I am kicking around the idea of shifting eras on my future layout, too, but only over a range of less than a decade, and even that is proving difficult.  Part of the problem is that one of the variables in my case is that a line might have been diesel/steam powered at the beginning of the decade, and electrified at the end.  Installing overhead is a one-shot deal, so you have to either put it in or not. 

One notion I came up with (crazy complicated, like most of my schemes) is to model the electrified version on one deck and the non-electric on another, and only use the one appropriate to the era being represented at a time.  That would mean reproducing the same scene on each deck, with suitable changes for the times.  It might create the opportunity for some more drastic changes in the scenes, like a grade separation replacing a level crossing with a bridge, etc.  How much space you are willing to make redundant on your layout is another question, and it would be quite a bit of extra work.  It would be kind of neat, though...

I chose a certain time for my layout.

I chose a certain time for my layout. Late summer of 1957. My railroad is a freelance line in southwestern Montana, which connects to both the Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road.

The reason I decided on this time is because as a kid during this time, I got to spend a lot of time riding in the cab of both railroads, having relatives working for both. Steam was on the way out, but still appeared from time to time and the colorful first generation diesels we becoming more numerous. I can vividly remember this time period and enjoyed it a lot.

One of the easiest ways to set a time period is the vehicles. Thankfully, in recent years, manufacturers and come out with numerous cars and trucks appropriate for this era. The type of buildings are also interesting. I am very careful of course when it comes to the rolling stock to make sure everything is for the right period too. Don't want to have modern equipment on the layout.

As a side note, the pickup I drive is 40 years old. Runs like a clock.

This was fantastic

I have been trying to place my model of the Seaboard Air Line in time for a while but for some reason had never considered putting everything on a grid as you did. As soon as I popped all the pertinent info into Excel along with what was going on in the local area and what type of locomotives I like it became immediately obvious that my modeling period should be late 1947 or early 1948. Now all I need to is to fix my mind on a season on that will be done.

No, I am not a prototype purist either, but I wanted things to be "basically" right. Nothing so glaring that a visitor or someone looking at pictures would shake their head. This will also allow me to focus my purchasing, building, and research.

Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the kind words,

I found putting the various dates on a chart really helped me narrow down my focus - and focus is necessary for developing enough inertia to keep going on the layout. 

Good luck!

Marty