MRR Kitbash a loco contest

[ocalicreek]

If you are very creative, your freelance road can be more challenging than the most difficult prototypes, but it seems far to common for people to use free-lance or especially proto-freelance as a cover for a lack of creativity/modeling skills. I admire some of Dr. Wayne's creations, Sumptors, and various other people's work in the same way I admired John Allen's...most of the locomotives are not remotely stock, but they are free-lance. I really love that sort of thing. I love looking at a locomotive and instead of saying: That's a UP engine or that's a Pennsy engine, but rather that's a Delta Lines engine or that's a Port Kelsey engine.

Hopefully someday you'll be able to look at a locomotive and say, 'Yep, she's an Ocali Creek Railway engine - apart from the obvious gorgeous Southern Green paint scheme, just look at that high headlight, the placement of the lifting injectors outside the cab, and the other distinctive details." I agree, it is harder to create a credible freelanced road. John Armstrong lamented as much in his treatise on Operation and Planning.

I suppose that's why there are so many freelanced roads mostly based on a prototype. I may pull my paint scheme right off the Tweetsie, but most of the locomotive characteristics are just a conglomeration of features I admire most. I'm not modeling the N&W or the VGN 'in disguise' as the Ocali Creek Ry, rather, I take my inspiration from these roads (but not just these two).

I think the thing that holds together a freelanced line most is the story behind it. I won't tell the OCRy's story in detail here, but there is one and it serves to hold together the operational ideas, rolling stock choices, motive power choices, setting and era, and degree of whimsy & fun. Of course the only completed portion of the line is the switching area down on Murdock's Landing (my scenicked timesaver). But you won't find covered hoppers filled with silica for glass making or chemical tank cars, or ore jimmies filled with ore for processing at the Gern plant, because they don't run on that portion of the line. Eventually they will run somewhere on the system, but not there. They are part of the character of the railroad...someday.

Anyway, I don't mean to hijack this thread (sorry! :oops: ). And now, back to your regularly scheduled thread.

Personally, I don't see how upgrading the details on my 'J' would be considered kitbashing. Perhaps they are looking for a higher degree of modification, like turning the J into a K class 4-8-2?

Galen