We've discussed how to achieve a fleet look, a pseudo random
feel for freight trains on our model railroads in many different
ways on this steam era list.

I've noticed something about my growing freight car fleet.
Although I have researched appropriate B&O freight cars in
detail, found foreign freight cars and prototype ladings for my
B&O Pittsburgh theme, strove to keep lettering schemes simple
(freight cars became loud in the 1960's but not much before),
and found appropriate mixes of freight car types .....

.... I have discovered a bias in my stash. I like everything.
It is not acquired if I do not like it. For all practical
purposes, I am gardening. So my yard and trains have this
Better Homes and Gardens feel to them, a cultivated look, not
the grubby randomness of real yards. No surprises. No weeds.
No bad boys. Everything has a documented purpose, yet things
seem too orderly.

Example: I just got an Intermountain NKP covered hopper:
because NKP is a nearby connection, I wanted a detailed ACF
covered hopper for variety, and ... I liked it. The other five
road names were not good fits and I was indifferent to them.
This pattern repeats over and over. Especially now that freight
cars are routinely $35 each, I better like them!

I can get around this by swamping my foreign road favorite bias
with a sea of common B&O prototypes, I think. Yet I think there
is something amiss with my acquisitions approach.

Anybody else feel this way? I would invite some discussion on
this topic.