Woe is Us

Anyone who is familiar with steam locomotives and railroading back when steam was king of the hill knows that each railroad has a "character" all its own. Most PRR engines sported the squared off Belpaire firebox while Reading and other anthracite roads used the round and very large Wooten design. Each builder and railroad had their own standards of design. They were so different you could not mistake a Santa Fe locomotive for a Northern Pacific, a Southern, a New York Central or any other railroad...

Great Northern F Class 2-8-0 

Pennsylvania H Class 2-8-0

Reading I Class 2-8-0

The biggest exception to this individuality were locomotives built to the standardized designs of United States Railroad Administration. The USRA was a government agency that nationalized the railroads towards the end of World War I. Railroads like the Rutland, Baltimore & Ohio and Southern embraced the USRA "recommendations". These locomotives have a "family" resemblance with similar cabs, equipment arrangement, etc between types...

Rutland USRA H Class 2-8-2

Baltimore & Ohio Q Class 2-8-2

So what's my point?

Like many Pennsy modelers I spend a bit of time bemoaning the fact that there are very few, if any, PRR steam models.  Pennsylvania fans are not alone in this predicament. Most of the models available at this time are based on those USRA designs. This wasn't always the case. Once upon a time Bowser made a whole line of PRR equipment in HO...

Bowser Manufacturing Products

Minitrix had several models of Pennsy steam locomotives in N scale. Bachmann made a visually respectable copy of a Reading locomotive. This was also true of Mantua's HO scale models of Reading and Lehigh Valley prototypes...

TYCO/Mantua HO Scale 2-8-0

By today's standards these earlier locomotives left a lot to be desired but made a good basis for hobbyists to create better models.

Of course back then the model manufacturers were smaller operations. Varney, Mantua, Bowser and others worked in smaller lots using low temperature alloys. They had produced small parts during World War II for the war effort. Their manufacturing equipment was supplemented by the vast quantities of surplus machinery available after the war. The result was a quality product at rather low price, a boon to the model railroading hobby.

Time passes and two things happen...Plastic, perfected by the needs of the military, comes into vogue as a modeling material. During the same period diesels replace steam as the major power on the real railroads. Unlike steam, diesels are "cookie cutter" technology. For the most part they look exactly the same from railroad to railroad. The most obvious difference is paint schemes. For model manufacturers this means they no longer have to produce a specific mold for each railroad. One mold can make models of dozens of road names. One need only change the color schemes. Although the molds are now more expensive, bigger lots can be produced. More paint schemes means more customers. Producing locomotives and rolling stock models is more cost effective. The new production processes are a double edged sword. The molds and machinery are more costly. You have to sell a great many of each model to offset the cost of manufacturing. The more generic the model, the better the return on the investment. Diesels seem to readily lend themselves to this idea. Steam locomotives, on the other hand, do not. The USRA designs are the only "generic" steam prototypes available. The modelers end up with USRA locomotives lettered for roads that never owned any. Works fine with the trainset crowd but serious modelers have a different perspective. They tend to get a bit ornery.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Many of the model manufacturers are no longer small independents with family ownership. Those have been replaced by large companies that specialize in toys and replicas of all kinds. Since these producers deal in production runs unheard of in the "good old days" they have higher overhead. They cannot afford to produce anything that doesn't sell in very large quantities. This effects not only the physical shape of the product but also the color and lettering scheme.

So...For modelers of less popular roads, IE most of the fallen flags, this is bad news. If you model steam from the more individualistic railroads, or diesel from the more obscure roads you are out of luck. Diesel fans have it somewhat easier because they can just repaint and detail the beasties. A Southern Pacific F unit or Geep can be made to resemble a Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad locomotive...

Southern Pacific GP-9 #3418

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie GP-9 #559

On the other hand, it is not easy to reproduce most of the Delaware and Hudson's steamers using any of the models now available...

Delaware & Hudson 2-8-0 #1080

I don't think I even thought about this until I started doing research for the layout's new operating scheme. Now I have come away with a totally new perspective. Don't think there's a real solution for this. Not sure if some reincarnated Gordon Varney or Irv Athearn could survive in today's business climate. If I ever hit the lottery I'll give it a shot.

In the meantime diesel may be the balance of motive power on the layout's four track mainline.

Rebuttals are always welcome,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad