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

[doctorwayne]

......As stated in first post I have over the years collected a ridiculous variety of time and place relevent equipment. To make use of all of it I would have needed the following layouts:
Scottish 1960s
South West England 1960s
South West England 1980s
Southern England 2011
South African 1980s
Florida 1950s
Florida 1990s
Yep seven layouts, unfortunately I don't own a barn! I am now concentrating on Southern England 2011 and Florida 1990s. However I am not selling my 1950s Florida equipment, it is far too nice. Red and yellow FEC, Citrus coloured SAL and Purple and Silver ACL. I don't have room to run ten coaches and two E units, but one day I WILL!!!

Actually, you could probably combine your first two choices (and possibly the third) and also combine the last two. This would depend on the particular locale(s) you wish to model, of course, but if you could change out key structures to suit the various eras, along with vehicles, you might be able to enjoy more than one of your favourites within a limited space.

I had originally planned to model transition era and the mid-'70s, although I had more locos for the latter at that time. To shift the time frame, passenger stations would have been replaced with duplicates painted in MoW boxcar red, with most of the windows boarded-over, or eliminated completely, with only their foundations remaining. The footings for water towers would be evidence of an earlier era, and duplicates of many structures could be built, either as modernised versions of the original or as completely different structures but with footprints matching those of the earlier ones.
Bachmann's release of their ground-breaking 2-8-0 helped to put an end to that plan, as did Accurail's wide selection of steam-era rolling stock, and my layout's now firmly rooted in the late-'30s (with occasional forays into the '40s and '50s when a particular piece of rolling stock takes my fancy). I'm occasionally tempted by Stewart F-units and Century-series diesels, but the thought of having to acquire rolling stock to go with it quickly dampens that enthusiasm. I almost look forward to being forced to downsize what I have, although I'd be hard-pressed to make some of the decisions which that would entail.

Wayne