How far can you stretch Rule 1?

[Dorsetmike]

Are there any opinions on this? Is there any limit, or should there be? Do you impose any limits for your own flights of fancy? Do you also concoct a believable reason for that stock to be in that location at that tme?

To me it means I can run a loco out of period and/or out of location. Taken to extremes that would mean one could run an HST on a 1920s GWR branch line, or an American "Big Boy" on the Settle and Carlisle, frankly I would suggest either of those scenarios qualify for "I don't mind a joke, but you know what you can do with a pantomime".

I tend to stick to either out of period OR out of place, not both; in the "out of place" category at the moment on my "SR in east Dorset 1930s" layout a GWR 1366 class dock pannier tank and a Sentinel Shunter, in the works a second Sentinel and an SR Z class 0-8-0T. I'm contemplating allowing an LMS 4P to come down the S&DJR, a few did in the 1920s, maybe more in other years.

The Sentinels got me thinking about Steam railcars, Langley do an LNER one which doesn't look anything like the sole SR one of 1933, however the Langley one might be "bashable" into one of the Drummond LSWR ones which didn't survive much past WW1 if that, so that if one of those came along it would only be out of period, not out of place.

Another possible use of Rule 1 could be to produce something that didn't quite get off the drawing board, for me say the Urie 4-8-0 heavy freight, or the Maunsell pacific.

My story for the 1366 is that it was borrowed from Weymouth  being evaluated to see if the design was suitable to replace the B4 dock tanks, and for the Sentinels at the time diesel shunters were being thought of for the Southern, but the Sentinels were available so were being trialled.

If I go for the Drummond railcars, the story there will be that Urie and later Maunsell sorted some of the problems so they lived on into the 30s.

Thinking further about the Drummond railcars does one bash a Langley Sentinel railcar or hack a Farish suburban? Either way It's probably be another Japanese chassis, Langley say a Tomytec has been fitted to one of their Sentinels.

[Newportnobby]

As I have mentioned in other posts, I don't subscribe to Rule 1
However, I just HAD to have the Blue Pullman and now have to justify it appearing in Oxfordshire.
Other than that, everything I have either did, or potentially could have, run in the era/location I am modelling.
Fair play to those who want to run what they want. That's their choice, but I have shunned many lovely looking locos simply because they would not have appeared in the area.

[MikeDunn]

At the end of the day - it's your model railway & you can do whatever you like.

If rivet-counters get upset with that - stuff 'em    They can go pretend to be the Controller on their 2-trains-an-hour exact replica of somewhere the rest of us don't care about 

If this hobby isn't fun - why bother 

[PostModN66]

Rule 2:

You can apply rule 1 as strictly or loosely as you wish.  It's your railway!

Jon 

[guest311]

Rule 2:

You can apply rule 1 as strictly or loosely as you wish.  It's your railway!

Jon

here here.

[Mr chapman]

I work with a bit of stretching here and there. My layout based on kent coast is set in the 60's with steam still heading crack express trains up to 67. In reality electrification did away with most steam workings. Also I run a pannier on a local. There were a few allocated to folkestone to replace the R1's but as far as im aware they were only used to move empty coaching stock. But who's to say if there was a failure and the pannier was sitting in the shed it wouldn't be called into action.

[Jack]

How long is your piece of elastic?   

At the end of the day - it's your model railway & you can do whatever you like.

If rivet-counters get upset with that - stuff 'em    They can go pretend to be the Controller on their 2-trains-an-hour exact replica of somewhere the rest of us don't care about 

If this hobby isn't fun - why bother

Well said that man!!

[NTrain]

You mean, like, there are RULES.............................

When I had my test track, I won't call it a layout, I woud run UK outline, American, Japanese, Continental..... I even ran a fantasy single car EMU based on DLR

When I joined a club, several years ago, they were building a pre Beeching station and line. I took my American p42 and Superliner double decker coaches on the first night.................

[Pete Mc]

As it stands,I did not need to use the rule 1 scenario as all the loco's on my layout would have all made journeys along the east coast mainline,even the western region hst sets.

That was until I got a Warship and Western.As I said in my posting on the Dapol class 52 Western thread,how could I justify running them,then Mick (Newportnobby) said they ran from oxford to Cambridge,or somewhere like that anyway and travelled up the east coast mainline for a bit.

This is all the justification I needed,either that or there is a small hydraulic repair shop within my depot.Either way it justifies me having these two loco's on my fleet.

I am at a later date,going to add to my class 24/25 fleet which currently stands at 1 class 24,just because I like them and they sound great with dcc sound fitted.

If at some point,my layout goes out onto the local exhibition circuit,this is how I'll accomodate them but for now they are there for my enjoyment.

Pete

[Bealman]

Yep, interesting discussion... I think that the wording of rule 1 speaks for itself, though. Run what you want. However, like NPN, I do try to remain faithful to my time period (50s - early 60s) and will not be purchasing stock outside of that timeframe even though there's some mouthwatering stuff out there.

I get around running stock from different regions by giving each scene on my layout a different regional flavour, but the time period stays fixed. I picked up this idea from American mags.

George

[Sprintex]

Are there any opinions on this? Is there any limit, or should there be?

Ask Petercharlesfagg, he's the greatest advocate of Rule 1 we have I think

At the end of the day - it's your model railway & you can do whatever you like.

If rivet-counters get upset with that - stuff 'em    They can go pretend to be the Controller on their 2-trains-an-hour exact replica of somewhere the rest of us don't care about 

If this hobby isn't fun - why bother 

That pretty much sums it up If you want to stick faithfully to a region/era then that's OK, but then so is running a US loco pulling a selection of European wagons and coaches with an HST power car on the back if that makes you happy

With my current layout I'm sticking reasonably closely with passenger stock, freight is a bit more freelance within era but no idea if the actual wagons ever travelled on the ECML. The next layout however will run whatever takes my fancy as it will be purely designed to show off full length trains in a scenic setting, be they steam/diesel/electric and not necessarily one country


Paul

[Bealman]

Agree - ask Petercharlesfagg... he is indeed the forum's advocate on the subject! 

Thoughts, there, Pcf? 

George

[Pengi]

My fantasy layout is where the great trains of the world (IMHO) can run so Rule 1 has to apply because it is unlikely that a Nozomi 500, Thalys and Voyager would run on the same tracks. Also I've not put up any overhead wires or third rail - in my fantasy land, all my EMUs have a special power system that allows them to run without either

I do have one rule and that is because my layout is in a modern setting so I can only allow one or possibly two 'heritage' trains such as the Blue Pullman.

[alibuchan]

I tend to have kept to locos that run now to be honest.

But there is always the fantasy repaint that could happen. Like the desert sand Western, (someone paid for champion to be painted and renumbered for a tour!).

But at the end of the day if you want to run it do as you want. It's only when you go out to shows that the issue will be picked at.

Alistair

[GrahamB]

I prefer the "prototype for everything" route.

By example, Southbridge has an "Down Platform Starting No 2" Signal from Platform 3. That allows longer trains to draw forwards towards the main line, foul of the branch pointwork before coming to a stand. At one show a person who claimed to be a signalling engineer claimed you could not have such an arrangement.

I explained I was a volunteer Signalman on a heritage railway and we did have such an arrangement to ensure the rear of a train did not stop foul of the level crossing. I also produced a photograph which showed just such an arrangement at an ex GWR station!