What Era do you model?

[Newportnobby]

, mixing up maroon and blue/grey Mk1 coaching stock in a train being hauled by a BR green 'Hymek'. It's all good, and it's all realistic.

Cheers, NeMo

Phew!
Guilty as charged, m'lud

[railsquid]

As ever, my personal opinions - I don't anticipate everyone will agree.

Indeed, I disagree; I think you're splitting hairs unnecessarily.

Of course there are lots of exceptions. I well remember seeing Class 15s at Marylebone in BR green circa 1985. Admittedly they were non-mobile train heating machines, but nonetheless, they were one of many BR green locos still kicking about well beyond 1968. I think I'm right in saying there were even a couple of BR black shunters (complete with ferret-and-dartboard badge) working the Holyhead causeway!

Green class 08 shunting at Birmingham New Street in 1986? No problem 

(IIRC it was a retro-livery not the original; 08604 is still with us, happily).

[MikeDunn]

I tend to agree with NeMo ... the Era system does work; not perfectly, but enough so that they've not replaced it.

Re your beginner - surely it's quite unlikely that a beginner will have such a specific piece of modelling !  That's normally done after some time in ... and if what they originally had doesn't fit, they've enjoyed it & will either keep (for 'old times sake' or 'it was a present') or will sell to help fund a new loco in the period they've selected.

Your mileage obviously varies ... 

[D1042 Western Princess]

I think I'm right in saying there were even a couple of BR black shunters (complete with ferret-and-dartboard badge) working the Holyhead causeway!

I also think you're spot on about regional variation mattering at least as much time periods. After all, running LNER pacific 4468 'Mallard' on your GWR branchline might be correct in terms of 'era' but completely wrong in every other way that matters.

I understand your points entirely though, and obviously I'd have no argument with someone running a BR blue 'Western' alongside an early livery HST despite their different eras, or for that matter, mixing up maroon and blue/grey Mk1 coaching stock in a train being hauled by a BR green 'Hymek'. It's all good, and it's all realistic.

Cheers, NeMo

Thanks NeMo (in part anyway, even if we do disagree in others). I wouldn't call it 'splitting hairs' though, just pointing out a few of the more obvious faults with the system.
Yes, Westerns and HSTs did operate alongside each other and I well remember the Driver of D1013 Western Ranger saying "I'll be getting checked by him" to a group of enthusiasts at Paddington as an HST rolled out towards Bristol, and we were as we ran into Reading following an absolute corker of a run!
As to the Holyhead breakwater locos, spot on. Class 01s in BR black.

Greg.

[Geoff]

Well I started off with Era 3,4 and 5 but that went out of the window when I bought a Class 66 and a Class 58 so it looks like I have gone to Rule 1.

[NeMo]

Yes, Westerns and HSTs did operate alongside each other and I well remember the Driver of D1013 Western Ranger saying "I'll be getting checked by him" to a group of enthusiasts at Paddington as an HST rolled out towards Bristol, and we were as we ran into Reading following an absolute corker of a run!

Afraid I need some explanation. What does "I'll be getting checked by him" mean in this context? And who had the corker of a run (and why)? The HST or D1013?

You must get out of the habit of starting a story but not providing enough detail! Some of us train-geeks want to hear details! 

Cheers, NeMo

[Newportnobby]

My guess is the Western was forced to slow at some point as the slower moving HST hadn't cleared a section somewhere, so the Western was having the 'corker'

[D1042 Western Princess]

Yes, Westerns and HSTs did operate alongside each other and I well remember the Driver of D1013 Western Ranger saying "I'll be getting checked by him" to a group of enthusiasts at Paddington as an HST rolled out towards Bristol, and we were as we ran into Reading following an absolute corker of a run!

Afraid I need some explanation. What does "I'll be getting checked by him" mean in this context? And who had the corker of a run (and why)? The HST or D1013?

You must get out of the habit of starting a story but not providing enough detail! Some of us train-geeks want to hear details! 

Cheers, NeMo

Sometimes NeMo, you worry me  - do you really think I'd bash an HST  when a Western  was around ??

By 1976 many drivers had come to accept that if they had a Western they would also have at least a few enthusiasts aboard, and often the front coach (or two) would resemble an enthusiasts special!
Not all, but a significant number, would happily 'play along' and we were lucky to have had one of the best that day.
He was chatting happily to us when the HST pulled out and said (exact words now escape me but, effectively) "They should have let us go first, I'll be getting checked by him". The HST was the latest thing at that time.
If you ever experienced a Western lightly loaded and driven with gusto you'll also remember the way the g-force pushed you back in the seat and that's just what happened that day.
He must have wacked the thrash handle to full from a standing start and kept it there until we came out of Sonning Cutting, getting checked to a crawl at the gas works (New Junction) with the HST still on Platform 4 at Reading.
Start to stop, 26 minutes for the 36 miles (83 mph average). About the best run I ever had with one.
It's things like that which preservation can't (daren't) try to reproduce.

[steve836]

Whilst I agree that the Era system initiated by Bachman has its drawbacks it is in my opinion a useful tool.  It gives a shorthand way of expressing the time period we are mainly interested in, especially round Xmas and birthdays. I can tell my family that anything Midland region eras 4&5 will do. It gives them freedom to choose but ensures that anything they buy will be relevant. OK a maroon Duchess would have to operate under rule 1, but I would welcome one anyway!
It can prevent a few clangers like someone buying me a blue/grey coach when it would be ahead of its time, however one must remember that, generally, rolling stock and buildings lasted a very long time and local managers were not always bothered to update liveries, indeed some deliberately went the other way( Liverpool St. pilot for example).

[Ditape]

My main interest is 5/6 i.e. early diesel/BR blue but rule one applies and I have every thing from late steam to modern diesel and with the electrification of the Western Region no doubt some electric locos and stock will creep in.
If I like it I buy it or build it.

[PostModN66]

If you count eras 1-5 loosely as "steam" era and 6-9 as "diesel" era there are almost exactly the same number of responses in each as I write this.

Not sure what this means....has "Modern Image" (ugh!  ) overtaken "historic" (or whatever the opposite of modern is!)?

Cheers  Jon 

[sparky]

I know others will disagree and have already done so, but I think in most cases we model a time that fits with our fondest memories around our youthish....As an example a BR blue DMU  looks good to me as do other models from early era 7 .....I get no pleasure at all from the appearance of say a Class 69 or whatever the latest super powered diesels are but appreciate if you are into today's railways then modelling the latest generation of loco is for you....I think if we overlaid our ages with the era graph it would be a good fit...

[Rowlie]

When I switched to N I intended to stick with the contemporary scene only, somehow I have drifted and seem to have stock from era 3 on, I guess I must of followed rule 1 too closely. 

[Sprintex]

I know others will disagree and have already done so, but I think in most cases we model a time that fits with our fondest memories around our youthish....

I'm modelling a period that I never saw let alone used And if I was to model what I did see and use (very occasionally) in my youth it'd be all BR Blue - one of the dreariest periods to model from my point of view

(unlike certain others in this thread I appreciate some people DO like BR Blue, or have different preferences to mine, so good on you if you model BR Blue or anything else - it's what makes us railway modellers such an eclectic bunch )


Paul

[D1042 Western Princess]

I know others will disagree and have already done so, but I think in most cases we model a time that fits with our fondest memories around our youthish....

I'm modelling a period that I never saw let alone used And if I was to model what I did see and use (very occasionally) in my youth it'd be all BR Blue - one of the dreariest periods to model from my point of view

(unlike certain others in this thread I appreciate some people DO like BR Blue, or have different preferences to mine, so good on you if you model BR Blue or anything else - it's what makes us railway modellers such an eclectic bunch )


Paul

For once Paul we are in (almost) complete agreement, but I can not remember a time when it was "all BR Blue". It's a bit of a myth in reality.
Green, maroon and blue until the early 1970s, green and blue to the mid 1970s, then the white 'local authority' DMUs from the mid 1970s and so on.

I wonder why people talk about 'all blue' in a way they'd never describe an LMS layout (for example) as 'all maroon' (or 'Crimson Lake' to be pedantic) or Southern as 'all green'?

Has anyone any answer?