My answer

I would choose 1958 to 1968 and go year by year. My location would remain a free lanced version of Wheeling WV. The time period in question coupled with free-lancing would allow me to keep businesses going past the times they closed. The revolving years would allow me to change equipment out so I could have my cake and eat it too. You see I have a fondness for Steam locomotives from the superpower times and Alco Centuries. I also like the EMD units from the Geeps to the beginning of the 645 engines, as well as the early GE units and FM units. I do not care for passenger trains and they were all gone in the early to middle 50s from my location.

Ultimately I suspect I will begin this route after I complete my 1959 version that I am currently working toward. The flexible decade could be something that only involves the change of vehicles and some rolling stock to pull off. I have considered other things thanks to the many things the rest of you have shared on these pages but as attractive as other eras and areas are my first choice has always been what is listed above. After all these years I am still happy with it.

Stevens Point - Plover, WI

I would go back to the late 50s along the Wisconsin River between these two places in my hometown area.  I would love seeing those red and grey Alcos of the Green Bay and Western and the black switchers and maroon and gold geeps of the Soo Line serving the three paper mills, numerous industries and a multiple of other commercial concerns and interchange.  The Green Bay had a yard in Plover they worked north from to Stevens Point and the Soo had a large yard in Stevens point that both would make for fiddle/ staging yards at each end to serve their lines.  Besides the commercial/industrial/urban views to model, there is much undeveloped right-of-way for scenic interest also.

I would keep the late 1969

I would keep the late 1969 era but I would be more specific with my location. Presently I am totally freelance west coast. I would switch that to be Richmond to Pittsburg CA 1969. I would include the ferry service to San Fran and try to get a much industry on the line as possible. Lots of tank car, chemical cars, Chief service. Got a plan, just need the reason to tear down what I already have!!!!!!

Now there is two really good

Now there is two really good examples of things to model. Sounds like it might be a worth while subject similar to the railroads you can model from print magazines in the past. Maybe if enough interest is generated pictures and articles might follow as well. Think how helpful these ideas might be to the new or undecided modeler. Sounds like gold on the first shovel into the ground.

Bob and Neil thanks for sharing I'll bet many folks might like to hear more about these locations I know I am interested.

I'm getting a chance to start

I'm getting a chance to start over. My new building is ready and I had a clean sheet of paper.

This time, instead of modeling diesels as I have on all of my layouts since the mid-1960s, I'm going to shoot for Colorado in the 1880s. Huge departure from my "comfort zone"... but I'm gonna' tackle it. I have a good start on rolling stock and locomotives for the Colorado layout, and once the weather here is too miserably hot for fun stuff outside, I intend to get started.

Andre

Andre have you come up with

Andre have you come up with any more specifics or are you still researching to determine what focus your effort is going to take? For example are you looking at standard gauge or narrow? Have you a favorite prototype that got you interested in this big change?

Thanks for sharing your adventure with the rest of us.

That is the point I am at

That is the point I am at. I've tried modern, as of 70's and 80's, and transition but it just bored me. I'm a steam guy, that and old diesels like RS-1's and boxcabs. On top of that I like small steam. If it is bigger than a 2-8-2, I admire it, but don't really want it.

My last layout came down in 2005. I have not started another one because of being busy with work and RL in general, but I'n getting ready to retire. My current plan is to have bench work started soon so when I do pull the plug I can dive right in.

This time though, thanks to Bachmann and other companies producing some really great steam engines, I am going 100% with early 1900's. This is really what I always wanted but the model steam tech was not there until the last ten or so years.

IF I started over again and

Tim sounds like a cool idea

Tim sounds like a cool idea for a layout. Have you narrowed it to a specific portion to model or will it be a free lanced line that sets out to capture the feel of the times and fits itself to your available space easier?

Lots of options

1930's EBT in On3 or On30.

MP in Nebraska in 1956.

PC in Phillie in 1974.

HBT in 1960.

KCT in 1960.

Gn18 steel mill tram.

Dan that sounds like quite an

Dan that sounds like quite an interesting concept. I recently watched a documentary on Boston's first underground system in the late 1800s and how the electric car came about. It was quite interesting and is available on netflix if you are interested. With the way commuter runs seem to go would you put loops on the end of your run so the trains could stage themselves? One thing I gleaned from the documentary is the underground went under existing streets so it would facilitate modeling the top and bottom levels if you could do suitably thin bench work. Sounds like a really neat way to have a double deck railroad in the minimum space possible and to combine different modeling subjects together. Very clever idea. Would you include a freight railroad on the upper level?

Advanced my time line

Interesting topic.

I would probably slide my time line up a couple of decades. I am modeling Western, PA mainly Conrail in the late 1970s. 

Often you read its a good idea to model a period from your life, luckily I think I was not around for Conrail in the late 1970s, If I was starting from scratch I might move up to the last years of Conrail and Western, PA in the late 1990s when I was track side quite often. 

1975...

Late Sumer, 1975, and the area West of Cincinnati to Aurora, Indiana. 

Wait... 

Randy

Dave, it sounds like you have

Dave, it sounds like you have a huge variety of choices there.

Lots of choices

​Everybody has 175 years of history across the entire world to choose from.  Everybody has a huge variety of choices.  Its a matter of what you choose.

Bessemer Bob it sounds like

Bessemer Bob it sounds like your time period will put you just before the big decline of the steel industry and the massive exodus out of Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. I remember that time period and how fast things started going down hill, If I recall the news reports regarding the time period in that decade Pittsburgh lost approximately 1/2 of its population due to the massive shut down of the steel industry. The same thing spread to other areas and the term rust belt was coined.

In my area it was not long after that rail service and then the rails began to go the way of the dodo.

Randy, it sounds like you

Randy, it sounds like you might have found your happy place.

1926

I would stick with 1926 for a modeling era. I am starting over again soon and am planning to model a different stretch of the B&O but in late 1926.

The freight car mix attracts me the most. There are plenty of wood sheathed cars in-service, with 36- and 40-foot lengths most prevalent. Steel-sheathed boxcars are gaining in popularity with thousands of Pennsy X29, B&O M-26, and NYC USRA-design boxcars produced since 1922. Fleets of ventilated boxcars and door-and-a-half automobile boxcars are common. 

All-steel mill gondolas are also coming into greater numbers among thousands of composite gondolas. It's still a few years until gons greater than 50-foot lengths come into regular service. 

Steam is king but super power is still to come. Many USRA locos remain with original appliances working alongside many older locos built in the 1895-1910 years. A few diesels are in use but are rare. 

Several railroads haven't yet folded or merged so there are more roadnames on the fleet. 

I might shift to a different region or railroad, but 1926 features a great mix of old and new on the rails. 

Eric

@Rob

Mississippi Central 1905 - 1930 or so.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/33280

The first blog is just me flexing my brain as I work out the kinks! LOL!

If I was to start over again

If I was to start over again I would stay with 1927. I fine more modern railroading to be boring in comparison. Much of what I like started to disappear duting the Great Depression and after WWII way too much of what I like disappeared fast. Today's railroading is jut boring as hell in comparison to the pre-Depression years. If I was to shift away from 1927 it would be farther back into time, . . . like the mid 1910s or even a little earlier.

A very serious consideration is that I have so many freight cars now for 1927 that it would be an expensive nightmare changing the year I model. I would have to do way too much work replacing and re-lettering them. Been there. Done that. Not going to do it again. You see, our friend Eric Hansmann and has very negatively affected me!!! He has me paying attention to such things as reweight and repack dates. While I am dead serious about staying with 1927, another reason is that I love that time period and there many models available that fit.

I model both the NYC and the PRR. Starting over would probably mean that I would dump one of them. It might take a coin toss to make the decision of which would remain and which would go.

As for location, that would be more difficult to decide on. It would still be in the Midwest area of Indiana/Michigan. I would for sure stay with a one-town layout, I would probably stay with Sturgis MI, but I would consider other towns.

The above said, there is a remote chance that I would make a major change and go to 1957 and model the Atlantic Coast Line. I was there twenty years ago and still live the ACL in the transition from purple to black diesels. Those were good times. The location would be Ocoee or Winter Garden FL on the citrus branch line that ran through there. The more I think about it, I would probably be another coin toss as to whether I would to 1927 or 1957. The appeal of the ACL citrus branch to Ocoee/Winter Garden is very appealing.

To summarize, . . . I don't know what I would do.  

Rob, you asked. 

Soo Line 1970's

I would model what I had the most fun railfanning and that is the Soo Line in either Michigan's Upper Peninsula or northern Wisconsin or perhaps even North Dakota.  White and red F's and Geep's.  Open depots with operators, friendly crews.  I got interested in it since Penn Central here at home was such a downer and early Conrail wasn't much better.  Later Conrail (all blue) was pretty good.

Robert

the Continental Connector

I just like Model Trains,...of all sorts....the scale miniaturization.

I'm particularly fond of steam engines, and particularly the large ones. I'm a fan of C&O, B&O, NW, etc, etc.

And as a kid of course I had the ubiquitous Santa Fe diesel engine,...those famous worldwide recognizable colors.

I had recently returned from Asia and was living in the Wash-Balt area when a company in Balt called Life Like made the bold move to really upgrade plastic trains to nice scale models. They introduced their Proto 2000 line. They introduced a whole line of detailed diesel locos, then they introduced that superb 2-8-8-2 steam engine.....WOW. They set a standard in plastic scale model trains that the others quickly followed. Bachmann, Athearn, etc all jumped on the band wagon to introduce their premium lines as well. Plastic detailing became an art that eventually was a rival to brass locos.

I was collecting a little of everything. I would buy some stuff that eventually got superseded by even better stuff, so I would attend the Great Scale Train Show in Balt and sell off older stuff and try to upgrade to the better stuff coming out. I would visit John Glabbs little brass shop in Laural, Md, and droll over the brass locos which I considered beyond my reach, but then look what was coming out in plastic a few months later.
 

By this time I had collected quite a few steam engines of various lines, and principle a number of diesels from Santa Fe.

So when it came to planning my new layout, how could I choose just one time frame, or location, if I wanted to collect and run all of those type trains? I wanted to run steam and diesel, and I wanted to run east coast and west coast lines.....on one layout??

I've decided my trains are going to run from the east coast to the west coast,...Balt to Calif. I'll call it the Continental Connector. Balt will be on the lower deck and Calif will be on the upper deck.
 

Since I am not a stickler on time frames I'll be able to run both modern and older style freight and passenger cars on my layout, and of course steam and diesels. I'm going to have lots of staging that will present any number of variations,...including a few European trains I've collected. Yes it won't be prototypical, but it will be fun. And I hope to get a considerable amount of industry in this space as well.

I will need a big dia helix to get those trains between decks, so to save on interior space, I have decided to place that helix structure external to the shed in which the layout is built. Most all the parts of the helix structure are built, and assembly will begin in the next two weeks. Withing 3days (working between spring rain storms here in FL) I hope to pour the concrete pad that will exist below the helix structure hung off the rear of the train shed.

Then the shelfing will begin inside the shed,...plywood and metal benchwork is all assembled.

If I was to start again there

If I was to start again there is a few areas I would go to

-0N30-  a coal railroad deep in some forested area

-S Scale New Zealand Railways

-1930-1940 coal railroad, kinda like the short 50 ton hoppers behind steam engines.

-GWR in England 1930-1940ish

Phil

Oh, this is a tough one

I model 1930's Colorado narrow gauge in HOn3 today.

But if I was to start fresh, I would probably build South African metre gauge in O gauge....

Time frame around 1920-1930.

District, the mine fields around Jo'burg.

Rolling material, Garratts and Mike's.

Wouldn't need many locomotives though, which is fortunate considering the scarcity of them in O gauge.

All trackwork would have to be hand laid. Sure, there's O gauge metre gauge track available, but not made to SA specifications.