Freelance 2015-1

[BR60103]

Reinhard,

I would hazard a guess that just about anything from the transition era up and including today's locos and freight cars would work on your layout with probably nothing more that a vehicle change to go with them.

I think there is a time when it becomes unlikely that the residual business done in those old buildings is still rail served. e.g. did BN run the last switch job in the West Bottoms KC MO, on it's last day with a SW1500. BNSF did never switch it again.

The Toronto Model Railway Club had a location in an old industrial area.
They were telling me that railway business there had fallen off, but during a truck drivers' strike, one of the businesses asked the railway to provide a few cars down the track. The railway quoted an enormous fee to put the track back in service after decades of no use.

If you move the era too far back, you may have to unblock some of those windows.