What Era, Railroads, & Locomotives are you set on?

[Chuck]

I have a switching layout set in Detroit in the 60's / early 70's, a fall setting (my fave time of the year). Some of it prototypical, but it is mostly a freelance layout in a prototypical setting. It is a bridge route with connections to GTW, DT&I, the H&S, and maybe another railroad, but I am not set on that yet. My layout is currently 30"x14' with a 25' extension along another wall (this part is still in planning stages). There are quite a few industries that may not be prototypical for the time period, but it is what I want. This is what I have planned so far: auto plant, chem plant, fuel distributor, scrap yard or two, team tracks, newspaper plant (Detroit Free Press), bottling plant, Stroh's Brewery (I know they did not have rail service), slaughter house/meat packing, coal yard, warehouses and other industries found in Detroit. I have a list of rail served industries in Detroit and what they received to aid in choosing industry and names to keep a "Detroit flavor." I prefer to use diesel switchers as the main motive power, but I get to use road power from the interchanged railroads (a little added bonus!). As far as rolling stock goes, I can run pretty much anything since it is a bridge route. I even figured out how to get a passenger run from the GTW to run across the layout using trackage rights!

Chuck