Unhappy Thread

[Graham]

Personally whilst I do model modern era so have a few diesels and electrics, I still appreciate steam era rolling stock and have a number of which, all of which I try to run every year on my home layout to ensure they are in full working condition. For the rest of the year they sit in a display cabinet.
For some reason I like running modern, but prefer to see Steam in a display cabinet.
Yes I am a bit strange like that.

[Bealman]

I do transition era so have almost equal amounts of steam and diseasels

Yep, one of the attractions of that period - you can run both.

[port perran]

My layout is based on 1958 to 66 or thereabouts. I have slightly more steam than diesel but not by much.
I also rather like modern image so have a growing fleet of new stuff.

[Dorsetmike]

I must admit that I did originally back in the late '70s when I started in N, I ran BR steam but by the '90s I was shifting back in time when along came Union Mills with a T9, 700 and 0395, Peco provided a B4 dock tank kit; Dapol did the M7 - I'd already done a hack job on a P Drummond Highland tank kit, I scratch built ex LSWR A12 "Jubilee" 0-4-2 and K10 4-4-0 from brass and using Union Mills tender drives, also hacked BHE N15 and Langley S15 SR 4-6-0 kits to make later versions of the classes, continuing the hacks 2 Scots became a Nelsons. The more recent Schools and Mogul were welcome additions
So it's not impossible to model grouping Southern.

[Papyrus]

My original philosophy was steam only but the slippery slope started with a class 31. I had a certain amount of affection for them as I used to see a lot around Cambridge in my trainspotting days, and in my opinion they were one of the few classes that looked vaguely well-proportioned and attractive. Since then I have gone further over to the dark side with a couple of 27s and a 37, with a class 105 DMU kit waiting to be built.

I suspect one reason for the relative popularity of diesels is that they are more robust and reliable with no motion to get damaged, and also easier and cheaper to manufacture. But certainly steamers are more interesting to watch at work on a layout.

Cheers,

Chris