Mixing eras.

[closetgeek]

Hi all.

I'm just starting my 1st layout.  I'm not particularly set on modelling a specific location, but I do want British Rail Diesel, and with an industrial theme.

What's peoples thoughts on mixing locos from different era's?  I know some say that it doesn't matter and to do what you like the look of.  But I'm a little bit OCD and wan't to get it at-least a bit accurate.

My current era choices that I like the look of locos from are.

6 - 1967 - 1971
7 - 1971 - 1982
8 - 1982 - 1994

Would you expect to see many era 6 with 7, or maybe 7 with 8?

I really like era 8 as there seems to be quite a nice variation in rolling stock colour.  But I also love the 70's blue diesels.  I'm rather tempted by the Class 37 in Dutch Livery.

[Philip.]

Apply Rule 1 

[NeMo]

What's peoples thoughts on mixing locos from different era's?  I know some say that it doesn't matter and to do what you like the look of.  But I'm a little bit OCD and wan't to get it at-least a bit accurate.

There's nothing to stop you overlapping 6 with 7, or 7 with 8. You absolutely could see, for example, pre-TOPS numbered 'Westerns' running alongside TOPS-numbered 37s and 47s on the Western Region. Photo albums of particular places and times are especially useful here. As a rule of thumb, classes 'on the way out' might not be renumbered, while classes expected to last a long time would be quickly renumbered. There weren't a lot of E-numbered 86s running in 1977, for example! So you'd want to pin things down a bit.

7 and 8 overlapped a long time. Second-tier stuff like shunters stayed in BR blue for a long time, while front-line express locos and those hauling flagship freight services were repainted into sector liveries pretty quickly. Again, some photos of a place at a time of your interest will give you some clue. But from memory, in 1985 you could see about as much BR blue as early sector stuff (like InterCity and Railfreight) so that'd be a good year to pick. The Dutch livery was a bit later though, and while certainly alongside some BR blue stuff, not to the same degree.

Rolling stock is important here! In the 1970s a lot of freight stuff was bauxite, and most of the passenger stuff BR blue-grey. By the mid 80s though you're seeing a lot more sector liveries, and by the 90s, pretty much everything seemed to have been repainted.

Really, I can't stress too strongly the importance of photo albums here. Model a time and place you can see in a picture, and your OCD should be entirely pacified!

Cheers, NeMo

[njee20]

Do whatever's right for you!

Obviously there'll be overlap between consecutive eras - they didn't repaint everything at the end of 1971, so you can mix and match entirely prototypically.

Different people have different standards. I like to run largely prototypical trains - 2011 to present day, but there's a bit of modellers' licence in there - I have more coal trains than operated through my notional location, and locos in liveries that never coexisted etc.

Some people will run only stock which is wholly prototypical to the Thursday in July 1984 that their layout is set on, and will renumber coaching stock to ensure it's all 'right'.

Others are happy to run anything (the aforementioned "Rule 1"), and you'll have overhead electrics pulling mk1 coaches next to LNER steam locos on modern container wagons, do whatever is right for you!

[Jonas]

It's also worth adding to Nemo's excellent post above that the way freight was handled changed. Era 6 would include lots of 4 wheeled vans and mineral wagons, generally long trains although often mixed. Break vans a must. By the time you get up to era 8, almost all wagons were larger airbraked versions, brake vans effectively finished in revenue service and many trains formed of bulk traffic. You'll never see a triple grey 37 pulling a trim of bauxite box vans, or a blue western pulling railfreight red/grey long wheel base vans, for example.

So again I'll just reiterate Nemo's point - check photos. And check again. And have fun checking them!

[NeMo]

Jonas makes a solid point above about the types of things being hauled.

In a way, it probably matters less what locos you're running and more what they're pulling. If you have a pre-TOPS 'Western' and a Railfreight 56 on the same layout, that's probably fine, and neither would jar with vaguely late 70s, early 80s cars, stations and advertisement boards.

But the 'Western' should be hauling a train of bauxite, vacuum-braked 12T vans, while the 56 would be on the Railfreight-branded HAAs. Or something along these lines, anyway! Each train would be right, and look right on your layout, even if they'd be unlikely to actually run together at the precise point in time.

Cheers, NeMo

[closetgeek]

Really, I can't stress too strongly the importance of photo albums here. Model a time and place you can see in a picture, and your OCD should be entirely pacified!

Cheers, NeMo

I think this maybe a good plan.  I'm amazed at the amount of photos available.  I've spent hours just on various flickr groups.

And have fun checking them!

I'm certainly having that.   It's reminding me of my youth spent waving to drivers from a bridge on the West Coast mainline south of Rugby.  It was always more exciting if we saw an engineering or cargo train, something different to the passengers services.

[Skyline2uk]

Some excellent responses above, but as somebody who is also a bit OCD and who is an Era 8 modeller still researching / learning:

Era 8 sectors were not an over-night thing, especially on wagons. Whilst the class 56 at the front of the MGR train of hoppers might be triple grey "coal", the train of wagons themselves would most like have yellow, red and brown framed examples. I watched a video recently with just such a train and only counted 3 "sector" liveried hoppers (out of 36). Of course they were ALL filthy!

Some loco types (class 20 springs to mind) survived for a long time in Blue and / or grey and yellow with red stripe. I think 3 class 20s eventually had triple grey, but none that I have seen recieved the coal markings (might need correcting there)?

Main point is to enjoy both the hobby and the research.

Skyline2uk

[Invicta Alec]

Google Images is your friend!

I had exactly the same thoughts about mixing eras and spent hours looking at photos.
I actually made a spreadsheet with my locos in column A (I've only got 4 so no big deal) livery in the second column and earliest and latest dates of photos in the last two columns.

I'm happy with my research findings to see my blue/grey (era 7) classes 411 and 108 can sit happily next to my class 47 in NSE livery (era 8 ) hauling NSE coaches. Further checking revealed a photo with a 47 hauling a mixed rake of both liveries and the icing on the cake for me was a photo at Victoria dated 2003 with a 411 4CEP still in NSE livery.
My class 121 is in BR Green (era 6) and since a green one was only pulled out of service a little earlier this year it too does not give me OCD twinges.

I claim therefore my layout is dated 1987......'er.......give or take 
   

[PLD]

There's nothing wrong at all with having stock fro multiple eras - most of us probably do!

Assuming you have enough for each era, the alternative to mixing eras is that you run one era one day and another the next...

If you do mix trains from different eras though, I would always ensure that each individual train was a single consistent era - e.g. no EWS liveried loco pulling LMS liveried coaches.