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likeability bias in model freight car selection

James Mischke <jmischke@...> #81879 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.
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jerryglow2 #81884 IMHO you need to study your interchange partners and patterns. It is less likely that a nearby road's cars would be on yours than a distant one. Not impossible but to me, less likely. Of course we all are PRR modelers regardless of what we call our railroad <G> but in my case that is VERY true as PRR interchanged with my modeled MP mainly in St Louis and many cars were subject of Dick Kulbs (and others') photos in Texas. Jerry Glow toggle quoted message Show quoted text --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@...> wrote: 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.
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ed_mines #81894 --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@...> wrote: Anybody else feel this way? I would invite some discussion on this topic. Yes. I think common cars like PRR X29s are under represented in favor of variety. Ed
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Tim O'Connor #81880 Poverty (or in my case, unemployment) helps to discipline ones purchases. Not that I recommend it, but it sures helps one say "no" to shiny baubles in the hobby store... I have met only one or two modelers in my life who never had more than one unbuilt kit on hand... they buy, build, and then repeat. That is tough to do in a world of "reservations" for every new item, and 6 month waiting periods for resin kits.. Tim O'Connor toggle quoted message Show quoted text 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.
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sparachuk <sparachuk@...> #81882 --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@...> wrote: James: I am in accord with what you are doing. It's too bad you feel there's something wrong with it, though. I like the idea of walking around my HO scale yard going "Oh, look! A B&O wagontop!" "Wow! An X-23!" "A CPR mini-box!" I can't see them anymore in real life so I can at least see them at home. Of course if you want to get some cars you hate I suppose that's up to you. But you'd probably love them, too. Stephan Parachuk Toronto 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 have discovered a bias in my stash. I like everything. It is not acquired if I do not like it.
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Andy Sperandeo <asperandeo@...> #81883 "Likeability bias"? Is that so much of a problem? It seems that most of us here have never met a freight car we didn't like. - Andy Andy Sperandeo Executive Editor Model Railroader magazine asperandeo@... 262-796-8776, ext. 461 FAX 262-796-1142
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jim_mischke <jmischke@...> #81887 Maybe its a growing orderliness I see in my HO scale fleet that is uncomfortable. Like a home flower garden. Each car has a purpose. And I like every single car. There is an underlying orderliness to real railroading too, it's just that I rarely glimpse all the themes in a real railroad yard. I am never privy to the waybills and wheel reports in real time. If I do see wheel reports, it is some deep research from a surviving wheel report in a 1950's era where I hadn;t been born yet. I was not there. So my experience with real railroad yards (grubby, seemingly random, some very ugly cars, full of surprises) is different than my own model rairoad yard (much cleaner, purposeful, fabulous cars everywhere, no surprises). Maybe I should swamp my railroad theme with PRR cars. Simple, grubby, common, random, no apparent purpose, bad boys..... :) toggle quoted message Show quoted text --- In STMFC@..., "sparachuk" <sparachuk@...> wrote: --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@> wrote: James: I am in accord with what you are doing. It's too bad you feel there's something wrong with it, though. I like the idea of walking around my HO scale yard going "Oh, look! A B&O wagontop!" "Wow! An X-23!" "A CPR mini-box!" I can't see them anymore in real life so I can at least see them at home. Of course if you want to get some cars you hate I suppose that's up to you. But you'd probably love them, too. Stephan Parachuk Toronto 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 have discovered a bias in my stash. I like everything. It is not acquired if I do not like it.
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rwitt_2000 #81890 Jerry Glow wrote: IMHO you need to study your interchange partners and patterns. It is less likely that a nearby road's cars would be on yours than a distant one. Not impossible but to me, less likely. Of course we all are PRR modelers regardless of what we call our railroad <G> but in my case that is VERY true as PRR interchanged with my modeled MP mainly in St Louis and many cars were subject of Dick Kulbs (and others') photos in Texas. I agree with Jerry although I would add that its the customers that determine the freight car traffic patterns. In each area industries determine the shipping patterns. As a counter to Jerry's assumption that interchange is more likely with "distant" railroads I provide the following example. In Madison Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Road served the University heating plant, but the coal contract was with mines in southern Illinois. So the coal came via the Illinois Central usually in their hoppers. The IC interchanged with the Milwaukee Road. The MILW took the hoppers, spotted them at the unloading facility in the coal storage yard for the heating plant. They were unloaded and returned empty to the IC. All this activity occurred within an area of one square city block. Bob Witt
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jerryglow2 #81891 I just had a friend over today who belongs to but does not monitor the list very often. I showed him how the ORER has interchange roads for every road listed so it's an easy matter to pick some that make sense. On the other hand, certain cars "got around" and are distinctive in any fleet. Jerry Glow toggle quoted message Show quoted text --- In STMFC@..., Andy Sperandeo <asperandeo@...> wrote: "Likeability bias"? Is that so much of a problem? It seems that most of us here have never met a freight car we didn't like. - Andy Andy Sperandeo Executive Editor Model Railroader magazine asperandeo@... 262-796-8776, ext. 461 FAX 262-796-1142 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Frederick Freitas <prrinvt@...> #81888 Jim, Jerry, list, My study of my modeling area, the PRR panhandle Divn in th Ohio River environment has shown that the most numerous interchange cars from nearby roads were hoppers for coal loading. Granted, this is a muliple steel mill location, so you almost expect it. The rest of the traffic is from across the states. There's eastern cars, such as NH, B&M, B&A going west /south west; and every roadname west of St Louis heading east. My bigest challenge currently is finding info abouot the FGE icing facilities in Wheeling and Benwwod, WV. I may have to invest in more FGEX reefers to balance the fleet. I whole heartedly agree with Tony, if you like it, then add it to your fleet. Just about one of everything went through a given point at sometime. I just had photo of a helium car show up on my modeled section of the PRR; so I'm off to fiind one of them for upgrading. Fred Freitas ________________________________ From: jerryglow2 <jerryglow@...> To: STMFC@... Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 8:33:35 AM Subject: [STMFC] Re: likeability bias in model freight car selection IMHO you need to study your interchange partners and patterns. It is less likely that a nearby road's cars would be on yours than a distant one. Not impossible but to me, less likely. Of course we all are PRR modelers regardless of what we call our railroad <G> but in my case that is VERY true as PRR interchanged with my modeled MP mainly in St Louis and many cars were subject of Dick Kulbs (and others') photos in Texas. Jerry Glow --- In STMFC@yahoogroups. com, James Mischke <jmischke@.. .> wrote: 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. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Tim O'Connor #81889 Maybe its a growing orderliness I see in my HO scale fleet that is uncomfortable. Like a home flower garden. Each car has a purpose. And I like every single car. There is an underlying orderliness to real railroading too, it's just that I rarely glimpse all the themes in a real railroad yard. I am never privy to the waybills and wheel reports in real time. If I do see wheel reports, it is some deep research from a surviving wheel report in a 1950's era where I hadn;t been born yet. I was not there. So my experience with real railroad yards (grubby, seemingly random, some very ugly cars, full of surprises) is different than my own model rairoad yard (much cleaner, purposeful, fabulous cars everywhere, no surprises). Maybe I should swamp my railroad theme with PRR cars. Simple, grubby, common, random, no apparent purpose, bad boys..... :) You can't have it all ways Jim. If you want disorder, join a club! Tim
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sparachuk <sparachuk@...> #81892 - You can't have it all ways Jim. If you want disorder, join a club! Tim Tim: Best answer so far! Stephan Parachuk Toronto
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jerryglow2 #81893 Not to discredit your approach but I've never been a "one of everything" modeler (or as I phrased it Noah's Arc divided by 2). I prefer more commonly seen items and absolutely love "the same but different" ie two similiar cars with minor detail variations. Jerry Glow toggle quoted message Show quoted text --- In STMFC@..., Frederick Freitas <prrinvt@...> wrote: Jim, Jerry, list, My study of my modeling area, the PRR panhandle Divn in th Ohio River environment has shown that the most numerous interchange cars from nearby roads were hoppers for coal loading. Granted, this is a muliple steel mill location, so you almost expect it. The rest of the traffic is from across the states. There's eastern cars, such as NH, B&M, B&A going west /south west; and every roadname west of St Louis heading east. My bigest challenge currently is finding info abouot the FGE icing facilities in Wheeling and Benwwod, WV. I may have to invest in more FGEX reefers to balance the fleet. I whole heartedly agree with Tony, if you like it, then add it to your fleet. Just about one of everything went through a given point at sometime. I just had photo of a helium car show up on my modeled section of the PRR; so I'm off to fiind one of them for upgrading. Fred Freitas
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Schuyler Larrabee #81896 toggle quoted message Show quoted text -----Original Message----- From: James Mischke 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. Jim, if it will help you feel better about this, I am >>certain<< that this list can help you out by specifying a collection of Truly Uglee Cars you will be >>required<< to obtain. It would be best if they are hard to come by so you would have to scratch-build them, so you would come to appreciate their ugliness all the more. If it were not, I believe, era-inappropriate for you, I'd personally nominate the box-on-flat-car sulphur cars used in Florida. As Tim said, membership in a club (even a good one) can expose you to things you'd rather not have seen . . . . SGL E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.1.441) Database version: 6.12530 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/
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SUVCWORR@... #81897 Jim, Perhaps as discussed on this list previously, you need to expand your fleet beyond the cars that are needed to serve your industries on a regular basis.? Add those cars that will only show up every 4 or 5 operating sessions and then those that will show up once or twice a year.? Using a random selector program for these "special" cars will usually result in one or two of them each operating session and to some extent remove that sameness with each session. Rich Orr toggle quoted message Show quoted text -----Original Message----- From: jim_mischke <jmischke@...> To: STMFC@... Sent: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 2:15 pm Subject: [STMFC] Re: likeability bias in model freight car selection Maybe its a growing orderliness I see in my HO scale fleet that is uncomfortable. Like a home flower garden. Each car has a purpose. And I like every single car. There is an underlying orderliness to real railroading too, it's just that I rarely glimpse all the themes in a real railroad yard. I am never privy to the waybills and wheel reports in real time. If I do see wheel reports, it is some deep research from a surviving wheel report in a 1950's era where I hadn;t been born yet. I was not there. So my experience with real railroad yards (grubby, seemingly random, some very ugly cars, full of surprises) is different than my own model rairoad yard (much cleaner, purposeful, fabulous cars everywhere, no surprises). Maybe I should swamp my railroad theme with PRR cars. Simple, grubby, common, random, no apparent purpose, bad boys..... :) --- In STMFC@..., "sparachuk" <sparachuk@...> wrote: --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@> wrote: James: I am in accord with what you are doing. It's too bad you feel there's something wrong with it, though. I like the idea of walking around my HO scale yard going "Oh, look! A B&O wagontop!" "Wow! An X-23!" "A CPR mini-box!" I can't see them anymore in real life so I can at least see them at home. Of course if you want to get some cars you hate I suppose that's up to you. But you'd probably love them, too. Stephan Parachuk Toronto 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 have discovered a bias in my stash. I like everything. It is not acquired if I do not like it. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links (Yahoo! ID required)
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destron@... #81901 Where might one find such a randomness generator? Frank Valoczy Vancouver, BC SUVCWORR@... wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text Jim, Perhaps as discussed on this list previously, you need to expand your fleet beyond the cars that are needed to serve your industries on a regular basis.? Add those cars that will only show up every 4 or 5 operating sessions and then those that will show up once or twice a year.? Using a random selector program for these "special" cars will usually result in one or two of them each operating session and to some extent remove that sameness with each session. Rich Orr -----Original Message----- From: jim_mischke <jmischke@...> To: STMFC@... Sent: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 2:15 pm Subject: [STMFC] Re: likeability bias in model freight car selection Maybe its a growing orderliness I see in my HO scale fleet that is uncomfortable. Like a home flower garden. Each car has a purpose. And I like every single car. There is an underlying orderliness to real railroading too, it's just that I rarely glimpse all the themes in a real railroad yard. I am never privy to the waybills and wheel reports in real time. If I do see wheel reports, it is some deep research from a surviving wheel report in a 1950's era where I hadn;t been born yet. I was not there. So my experience with real railroad yards (grubby, seemingly random, some very ugly cars, full of surprises) is different than my own model rairoad yard (much cleaner, purposeful, fabulous cars everywhere, no surprises). Maybe I should swamp my railroad theme with PRR cars. Simple, grubby, common, random, no apparent purpose, bad boys..... :) --- In STMFC@..., "sparachuk" <sparachuk@...> wrote: --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@> wrote: James: I am in accord with what you are doing. It's too bad you feel there's something wrong with it, though. I like the idea of walking around my HO scale yard going "Oh, look! A B&O wagontop!" "Wow! An X-23!" "A CPR mini-box!" I can't see them anymore in real life so I can at least see them at home. Of course if you want to get some cars you hate I suppose that's up to you. But you'd probably love them, too. Stephan Parachuk Toronto 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 have discovered a bias in my stash. I like everything. It is not acquired if I do not like it. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links (Yahoo! ID required) ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links !DSPAM:1291,4a27159b25631598212402!
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Steve Lucas <stevelucas3@...> #81899 There's a lot to be said for having one of everything as far as freight cars go. For me, the uglier the car, it seems the more likely I am to have it. (An HO F&C Lehigh Valley "wrong-way" boxcar comes to mind when mentioning ugly cars--I've yet to decal it over a year after building it. Yet a logbook out of the elevator that provided much of the traffic on my line show at least one of these cars loaded with grain.) Keep in mind that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". And if you model a proto-freelanced road, you can even have the STMFC equivalent of unicorns and griffins carrying your own line's reporting marks! :) Steve Lucas. toggle quoted message Show quoted text --- In STMFC@..., "jerryglow2" <jerryglow@...> wrote: Not to discredit your approach but I've never been a "one of everything" modeler (or as I phrased it Noah's Arc divided by 2). I prefer more commonly seen items and absolutely love "the same but different" ie two similiar cars with minor detail variations. Jerry Glow --- In STMFC@..., Frederick Freitas <prrinvt@> wrote: Jim, Jerry, list, My study of my modeling area, the PRR panhandle Divn in th Ohio River environment has shown that the most numerous interchange cars from nearby roads were hoppers for coal loading. Granted, this is a muliple steel mill location, so you almost expect it. The rest of the traffic is from across the states. There's eastern cars, such as NH, B&M, B&A going west /south west; and every roadname west of St Louis heading east. My bigest challenge currently is finding info abouot the FGE icing facilities in Wheeling and Benwwod, WV. I may have to invest in more FGEX reefers to balance the fleet. I whole heartedly agree with Tony, if you like it, then add it to your fleet. Just about one of everything went through a given point at sometime. I just had photo of a helium car show up on my modeled section of the PRR; so I'm off to fiind one of them for upgrading. Fred Freitas
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Jim Betz #81898 James, ===> You are -not- alone! Welcome to the club. Reading between the lines what I think you are saying is that you are concerned that your selection process will end up with "not enough variety" ... due to the fact that everything you buy is something that "strikes your fancy" - for one reason or another. And you are concerned that you may end up with a fleet of freight cars that all fit the premise of "eye candy" (to your eye) ... but don't necessarily represent an "appropriate" mix/variety for your layout. The first question you need to answer is "what is -appropriate- ... and who gets to decide the answer?". (Hopefully you will answer that with an enthusiastic "I do!".) Then you need to ask yourself "what are -my- goals for this layout (collection of freight cars)?". When you have those 'answers' then you can assess your current freight car fleet and answer the question "do these fit my goals?". And then you can decide if you need to "adjust" your freight car fleet ... or revisit the question of "what are -my- goals?" Many have stated on this group (and others) that having "a 'correct' mix of freight cars ... that are appropriate to the era(s?) and RR(s?) being modelled" ... is important. I agree with that ... sort of. I'd agree a lot more readily if that is changed to "having a freight car fleet that doesn't scream 'this is far too biased in ____ direction to be believable for the era(s?) and RR(s?) that are being represented' is what is important." What I'm saying is that it is a -lot- more important (to me) that the fleet not show a huge 'wrong' bias ... than that it represent some 'perfect' mix. After all - the perfect mix 'changed every day' ... Having stated all of those wiggle words ... I certainly ascribe to the idea that the closer you are to the 'perfect' mix the more realistic your layout will look. Well, actually maybe not. I know what makes a layout seem 'wrong' and I know when they seem 'right'. I guess I'm a kind of "I don't know nothing about Model Railroading - but I know what I like" kind of guy. G In fact, I believe that it was the experience of going to layouts where "almost all the cars were Pennsy (whatever RR you want to fill in)" that prompted the entire dialogue about "what was the freight car mix in the year ____" thing/research. I'm not saying that the research is wrong. I'm not even saying that if you decide that the mix shown in the research is what you want to do that you are wrong/misguided. I -am- saying that "as long as your freight car fleet doesn't show some -huge- bias that makes the visitor take notice of stuff such as "boy, there sure are a lot of ____ RR cars here" and then to say "seems like too many to me" ... that you've achieved most/all of the goals of doing/using the research on what the mix was on a particular RR in or on a particular era/decade/year/season/month/day. (So far I don't know of any one who has taken it more specific than that ... so far?) If your layout is targetted to the Yosemite Valley in the month of August of 1939 (sorry Jack - I just -had- to use your layout as an example ... too many people have pointed to you and said stuff like "there goes the father of the recent movement towards prototypical model railroading") ... then you have a very specific/narrow focus and you need to pay a lot of attention to the 'appropriateness' of your freight cars. If your layout is "somewhere on the SCL and sometime in the transition era" then you have a much broader brush to wield. And let's not forget to mention the guys who have changed their layout to represent something other than what they had at the time! I know some guys who have gone -much- more prototypical accurate ... and others who have decided to go just the opposite. Hey, I'm even willing to guess that Jack's YV even has a car or two on it that Jack admits is 'questionable'. But I think he'll probably add that the real reason for the question mark is due to the lack of available data/info and so he had to wing it on those cars. There's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing. And when I visit Jack's layout I instantly get a feeling of its "rightness". What I -do- hear guys saying is stuff like ... "just because you are modelling the NP in 1948 doesn't mean that it looks 'right' when 90% of the freight cars on the layout are NP". And, even more commonly, the "geez, that layout really ran great ... but I was kind of 'shocked' to see an ice reefer train pulled by a steamer meeting a stack train with a pair of GEVOs on the point." The choices are yours - and you can change them. Isn't this a -wonderful- hobby!!! For myself ... I started out with one RR (the GN), then I decided to expand that to 5 RRs (the BN and its 4 primary predecessors), then I cut it back to just the GN, then I added in two other "secondary interests" (the SP&S and the DM&IR). My primary era interest has remained 'in the transition era' thruout ... but that hasn't stopped me from breaking that 'rule' ... just about any time I wanted to. And enough so that I could pretty easily 'populate' a layout with one era today and a different era tomorrow ... such as the SP&S in 1948 one day and the GN in 1968 the next. I'm currently trying, rather UN-successfully to be honest, to cut back on my 'collection' (the hobby-shop-in-the-closet syndrome) and to get more "focused" on my core interests. I'm making a little progress on that - but hey, that new release of the 'blank gons' is just too nice to pass up! I remain ... weak-willed in San Jose ... Jim P.S. It's nice to know there are others out there like me! VBG
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Tim O'Connor #81900 I like all freight cars, but I especially like to have several versions of the same car that were around at the same time -- like a weathered original car, a repaint, and maybe a rebuild. To me that conveys more than anything how dynamic the business was, and it conveys a sense of the passage of time -- not just a snapshot of a single moment. This is especially fun as a late 50's - early 60's SP modeler, since SP began renumbering and repainting lots of cars after 1955, and acquired the T&NO in the early 60's. So there was just a huge mish-mosh of cars, reporting marks, and numbers belonging to just one railroad. Tim O'Connor toggle quoted message Show quoted text At 6/3/2009 10:21 PM Wednesday, you wrote: There's a lot to be said for having one of everything as far as freight cars go. For me, the uglier the car, it seems the more likely I am to have it. (An HO F&C Lehigh Valley "wrong-way" boxcar comes to mind when mentioning ugly cars--I've yet to decal it over a year after building it. Yet a logbook out of the elevator that provided much of the traffic on my line show at least one of these cars loaded with grain.) Keep in mind that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". And if you model a proto-freelanced road, you can even have the STMFC equivalent of unicorns and griffins carrying your own line's reporting marks! :) Steve Lucas.
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Doug Rhodes #81906 Hello Frank There is a random number generator function in Excel. Have a look at the help screens for it, where some of the examples will apply to this problem. Send me an email off-list if you'd like some help setting it up. Doug Rhodes toggle quoted message Show quoted text ----- Original Message ----- From: destron@... To: STMFC@... Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 5:41 PM Subject: Re: [STMFC] Re: likeability bias in model freight car selection Where might one find such a randomness generator? Frank Valoczy Vancouver, BC SUVCWORR@... wrote: > > Jim, > > > > Perhaps as discussed on this list previously, you need to expand your > fleet beyond the cars that are needed to serve your industries on a > regular basis.? Add those cars that will only show up every 4 or 5 > operating sessions and then those that will show up once or twice a year.? > Using a random selector program for these "special" cars will usually > result in one or two of them each operating session and to some extent > remove that sameness with each session. > > > > Rich Orr > > > -----Original Message----- > From: jim_mischke <jmischke@...> > To: STMFC@... > Sent: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 2:15 pm > Subject: [STMFC] Re: likeability bias in model freight car selection > > > > > > > Maybe its a growing orderliness I see in my HO scale fleet that is > uncomfortable. Like a home flower garden. Each car has a purpose. And I > like > every single car. > > There is an underlying orderliness to real railroading too, it's just that > I > rarely glimpse all the themes in a real railroad yard. I am never privy > to the > waybills and wheel reports in real time. If I do see wheel reports, it > is some > deep research from a surviving wheel report in a 1950's era where I hadn;t > been > born yet. I was not there. > > So my experience with real railroad yards (grubby, seemingly random, some > very > ugly cars, full of surprises) is different than my own model rairoad yard > (much > cleaner, purposeful, fabulous cars everywhere, no surprises). > > Maybe I should swamp my railroad theme with PRR cars. Simple, grubby, > common, > random, no apparent purpose, bad boys..... :) > > > > --- In STMFC@..., "sparachuk" <sparachuk@...> wrote: >> >> --- In STMFC@..., James Mischke <jmischke@> wrote: >> > >> James: I am in accord with what you are doing. It's too bad you feel >> there's > something wrong with it, though. I like the idea of walking around my HO > scale > yard going "Oh, look! A B&O wagontop!" "Wow! An X-23!" "A CPR mini-box!" I > can't > see them anymore in real life so I can at least see them at home. Of > course if > you want to get some cars you hate I suppose that's up to you. But you'd > probably love them, too. >> >> Stephan Parachuk >> Toronto >> > >> > >> > >> > 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 have discovered a bias in my stash. I like everything. >> > It is not acquired if I do not like it. >> > >> > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > (Yahoo! ID required) > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > !DSPAM:1291,4a27159b25631598212402! >
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