08-15-2009, 11:00 AM
I think to get back to the original question, can you take prototype modeling any farther than Jack Burgess has taken his YVRR? He is modeling the railroad as it was on an August day in 1939. He has just done an article on kit bashing a Bachmann or IHC 4-4-0 as a stand in for a couple of locomotives on the YV until he has time to scratch build an exact replica! He held off on scratchbuilding some key structures until he had enough information to make the buildings exact replicas. I would not go to that extent to make a prototypical model railroad, but I admire what he has accomplished!