Especially if you are looking for higher end cars. You can sometimes get undecorated cars at the high end and decal them yourself, but in my experience the more delicate the car, the harder it is to work with an undec.
Chris does an excellent job with the freelance roads, and reaching out to those freelance modelers that many of us haven't heard of. Glad to have purchased a few of these cars.
I model a Prototype branch line (C&NW) but I have some classic freelance road's boxcars. I have a couple from John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid, one from Allen McClelland.'s V&O, one from Frank Ellison’s Delta Lines. I might even have from from Tony Koester's old road. They will for sure make trips to Wisconsin in 1959.
A milder friend of mine has a beautiful 3 tier no-lox layout of the small railroad known as the CV owned by CN. And we have a few boxcars from a freelance railroad that another one of has
Fictitious railroads can be a lot of fun, especially if you are modeling late era situations. For example, your railroad could be a short line based on a branch abandoned by a Class 1 line in the course of a merger, but still viable for a smaller operator. Such a short line might realistically run 2nd or 3rd hand power from fallen-flag lines, heavily weathered and patched out. With the revised per-diem regs, many short lines built per-diem car fleets far beyond their own traffic requirements, as a supplemental revenue stream. There are no end of possibilities beyond those afforded when modeling an actual prototype road. And it's fun to have rolling stock from other clubs and private lines on one's own pike, and vice-versa.
I would love to see them branch out with periods. At the moment they lean a little to heavily into the 1970s-onward so it would be nice to see some representation of these freelances that us steam-era guys can use. Rapido has made variations of the USRA boxcar so they could use that as a base
I think freelancing is fun, especially when you get to come up with a name and a paint scheme. Where I draw the line is when you start repainting everything, to the point where realism isn't even present. I would probably stop at a loco or 2 and maybe a couple cars. Here's my freelanced railroad: My railroad is called the Buffalo and South Wales ; it interchanges with CSX, the Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and mainly the Buffalo Central (another freelanced railroad made by the Model Railroad Club of Buffalo). It does switching for the BC and regularly runs trains over BC track. The B&SW owns a couple passenger cars (None repainted from their original railroads for railfanning purposes) for excursion trains from South Wales to Buffalo. It also owns several freight cars (Again, none repainted). Some of the freight cars they own are older stock, although modernized to comply with safety standards. The BC as a layout is a 4x8 HO scale layout, 1 line for unlimited running, and a spur that goes up the hill to serve 2-3 industries and a station. Sometimes, the B&SW will run freight for Buffalo & Pittsburgh (track owned by Norfolk Southern) all the way down to Arcade, NY to interchange with the Arcade and Attica railroad. That's all I've come up with so far, hope you like it
I model a fictional regional railroad and as such have a fleet of various rolling stock and locos paint in various schemes to depict the passage of time. I also have a few fictional roadnames floating around on the layout, and have kind of gone right down the middle by modeling a small fleet of fictional leasing cars decorated in a real world aggregates company and have decorated commercially available ethanol tanks with a fictional company's logo. Best of both worlds I guess.. proto-freelace
I have 5 cars of 4 different private name railroads and they are awesome cars from HomeShopsLLC. The Tangent cars are awesome but delicate. I started modeling free lance in 1/2020 and these fit into my Central Wisconsin scheme that CN sold to my RR. It’s fun and my own cars are in process and I have no problem running it on the formerly prototypically accurate layout.
I plan to do a follow-up video on the pros and cons of freelancing. It can be a lot of fun but I think people often underestimate the amount of mental work it takes if you really want to do it with a measure of accuracy.
Agree! Even a fictional RR has to be run like the real thing. The guys in the first group of cars from HomeShopsLLC have done a superb job with their fleets and layouts. I am so happy there were willing to share. I do look forward to your videos but it will be interesting to what you come up with on the next one
The cars are amazing. I picked up the arkansas valley, copper state, and the gulf shore car. They definitely exceeded my expectations. I talked to Chris at the rpm meet in St. Louis last month. There's some goodness heading our way. And as far as running them... it's your railroad, do as you please. I will have no problems running these on the layout. When I get there, that is. 🤣
Hello first time viewer. For me not really. All the road names through my modeling years is satisfying enough. I can't picture my own railroad just my layout. The cars you presented look great. The small delicate detailed pieces never tale a break from coming off these models. Wish they made were stronger. Good video. 👍✅
That’s for watching and I hope you’ll subscribe. The freelance road names aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. And yes, if you operate regularly and take cars on and off the layout with any frequency, the details do tend to take a beating.
@@ThePixelDepotLLC Onto my US Layout yes, onto my northern german layout, my roadname is a fictional RR under own Management based upon a former real existing Branchline of a private stockholder RR Comoany established in 1852 but became part of the state RR in 1936. That Branchline is still existing, today but is being operated by the state RR, only. Still a private RR won the right to operate the passenger service for the following ten years. Me I am modelling the year of 1908 and in my fiction it was a private stockholder company established in 1882 with an eastern extension across the trave river mouth with a RR Traject Ferry close to the coastal line of baltic eastsea. My fictional RR is doing the coupler test of the imperial prussian state RR of 1899 to 1909, too, to test the Krupp middlebuffer Coupler a more havier version of the US Janney Coupler. So I can use the kadee knuckle couplers. In addition I use some C.C.C.C. = Canda Cattle Car Company Livestock Palace Cars (built in 1888). In addition I do using two US American built Locos from ALCO of the year of 1904 as 2-6-0 Moguls fired with coal. Around the year of 1900 it were a comon practise of german imperial state RRs to operate imported US RR Engines or of Course RR Cars, too. The roayal bavarian state RR imported two 4-4-2 Atlantics and in addition two 2-8-0 compound Consolidations since 1898. The Royal Wuerttemberg RR importat some 4 axle passenger Cars in the early 1870's and used the Link & Pin Couplers until 1918 but find out a way to make the Link & Pin Coupler more safer by coupling procedures using a spring and washer plate to the coupler what holds the pin up and when the link pressing down the washer the Pin bolt comes down to couple the cars automaticly. Other RRs used US freight cars long before some freight cars came during WW I to belgium and france and found their way to german state RRs in period of time before and during WW II. In my cause I am using some US Locos and of course Cattle Cars in addition. a busy slaughterhouse requiring lot of Livestock (pigs and cattles). A daily wagon shipment of up to 45 cars with meat and canned products taking my RR busy by operating a marshalling yard.
I love it! I have several of the MR&T cars, and think it's great that these are being offered. I'm going to make a couple of TPD boxcars.... I think they'll be fine in a Rio Grande, SPSF, Turtle Creek Central, Farmrail, or Durango train. I'm even thinking of having a Joseph Parker passenger car.... That would be part of the Diet Coke passenger train.
I'm an N Scaler, and model the Orange Belt, a 60s road to primarily serve a Tropicana plant. I've relied on custom-made decals with mixed results. I'd LOVE to see an exchange where custom rolling stock could be swapped. (Hint) 😁
appreciate the video, personally i would try out some of these freelance railcar models to see how they would fit in with my current roster i would like to know how do you and your viewers feel about small independent rail switching companies, a discussion on this would be most helpful
I have my own fictional railroad myself. I was tired of people saying when I did a locomotive of a real railroad if it survived and all I heard was oh they didn't have this or that so I went with my own one and it's dedicated to them I call my railroad The ASS Lines or Atlantic Seaboard System lol
I've been known to do that myself, but more for informational purposes. Recently someone told me they were doing Chessie 1977, and they were painting up a GP35. Chessie 1977 IRL was a GP40-2, so I let them know, but also said "in case it matters to you." In the end, he didn't care and he's having fun, so no harm no foul!
My railroad is fictional and I like to "Patch" out reporting marks from other RR's. Then weather them to make them look worn. It would be nice to have cars painted in basic colors and details without reporting marks and us that have decals for their fictional RR's to add their own personal touch to them. Much like what Accrurail does.
The manufacturers are good on doing freelance ones..but they are also currently ignoring various past PROTOTYPICAL railroads. Stop and think of how many models RTR that are of the Frisco, CB&Q,NORTHER PACIFIC, WESTERN PACIFIC and vast others completely lacking in availability in wide range of rolling stick that ACTUALLY EXISTED. so yes I appreciate and actually have a freelance RR of my own, but at same time the companies should be offering the fallen flags of past in just as much effort they do in the current COLLOSAL giants present today.
Could you tell me what the name of that magnifier you are using to see the detail
Hi Red, that is a "Carson 5X MiniBrite LED Lighted Slide-Out Aspheric Magnifier". I got mine on Amazon: amzn.to/3wZNGpY
Hi Joe, you had me at the wizard of Monterey...
He did a lot for moving operations toward realism in the hobby and did a lot to legitimize freelance roads.
You should have way more subscribers.
I agee! 😉
If you are looking for unique cars this seems like the way to go!
Especially if you are looking for higher end cars. You can sometimes get undecorated cars at the high end and decal them yourself, but in my experience the more delicate the car, the harder it is to work with an undec.
Thanks Joe, for Sharing the video on Home shops. The car is great looking. I had to order some of the cars. Thanks again
Roy
Happy to share. And thanks for supporting Home Shops!
Chris does an excellent job with the freelance roads, and reaching out to those freelance modelers that many of us haven't heard of. Glad to have purchased a few of these cars.
I agree. I’m impressed with the lineup of road names he has coming up.
Such beautiful canvases 😜
I model a Prototype branch line (C&NW) but I have some classic freelance road's boxcars. I have a couple from John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid, one from Allen McClelland.'s V&O, one from Frank Ellison’s Delta Lines. I might even have from from Tony Koester's old road. They will for sure make trips to Wisconsin in 1959.
As you know I model Chessie, but those roads will make trips to Baltimore too.
A milder friend of mine has a beautiful 3 tier no-lox layout of the small railroad known as the CV owned by CN. And we have a few boxcars from a freelance railroad that another one of has
I’m familiar with the CV. It used to run through Palmer MA and had a small years there. Always nice to throw in the freelance cars though.
Fictitious railroads can be a lot of fun, especially if you are modeling late era situations. For example, your railroad could be a short line based on a branch abandoned by a Class 1 line in the course of a merger, but still viable for a smaller operator. Such a short line might realistically run 2nd or 3rd hand power from fallen-flag lines, heavily weathered and patched out. With the revised per-diem regs, many short lines built per-diem car fleets far beyond their own traffic requirements, as a supplemental revenue stream. There are no end of possibilities beyond those afforded when modeling an actual prototype road. And it's fun to have rolling stock from other clubs and private lines on one's own pike, and vice-versa.
Freelanced roads do definitely give you a lot of options for creativity!
I would love to see them branch out with periods. At the moment they lean a little to heavily into the 1970s-onward so it would be nice to see some representation of these freelances that us steam-era guys can use. Rapido has made variations of the USRA boxcar so they could use that as a base
Interesting topic. It makes all of the equipment one of a kind. Very nice.
Not quite one of a kind, but it certainly does provide some variety and a break from the “same old (prototype) roads.”
I like the Accurail cars done by Patrick Harris of Three Notch…
I’ll need to check that out!
Great review, I will check them out.
Awesome. They are nice-looking cars.
I think freelancing is fun, especially when you get to come up with a name and a paint scheme. Where I draw the line is when you start repainting everything, to the point where realism isn't even present. I would probably stop at a loco or 2 and maybe a couple cars.
Here's my freelanced railroad: My railroad is called the Buffalo and South Wales ; it interchanges with CSX, the Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and mainly the Buffalo Central (another freelanced railroad made by the Model Railroad Club of Buffalo). It does switching for the BC and regularly runs trains over BC track. The B&SW owns a couple passenger cars (None repainted from their original railroads for railfanning purposes) for excursion trains from South Wales to Buffalo. It also owns several freight cars (Again, none repainted). Some of the freight cars they own are older stock, although modernized to comply with safety standards. The BC as a layout is a 4x8 HO scale layout, 1 line for unlimited running, and a spur that goes up the hill to serve 2-3 industries and a station. Sometimes, the B&SW will run freight for Buffalo & Pittsburgh (track owned by Norfolk Southern) all the way down to Arcade, NY to interchange with the Arcade and Attica railroad.
That's all I've come up with so far, hope you like it
I freelance so i can run many different road names like up,sp,cp,cn,cr,ns and bnsf...now I'm looking at buffalo-Pittsburgh in my home town wny...
I model a fictional regional railroad and as such have a fleet of various rolling stock and locos paint in various schemes to depict the passage of time. I also have a few fictional roadnames floating around on the layout, and have kind of gone right down the middle by modeling a small fleet of fictional leasing cars decorated in a real world aggregates company and have decorated commercially available ethanol tanks with a fictional company's logo. Best of both worlds I guess.. proto-freelace
There are a ton of options as you’ve pointed out here. I’ve also kicked around renumbering some corn syrup cars in freelance leasing marks.
I have 5 cars of 4 different private name railroads and they are awesome cars from HomeShopsLLC. The Tangent cars are awesome but delicate. I started modeling free lance in 1/2020 and these fit into my Central Wisconsin scheme that CN sold to my RR. It’s fun and my own cars are in process and I have no problem running it on the formerly prototypically accurate layout.
I plan to do a follow-up video on the pros and cons of freelancing. It can be a lot of fun but I think people often underestimate the amount of mental work it takes if you really want to do it with a measure of accuracy.
Agree! Even a fictional RR has to be run like the real thing. The guys in the first group of cars from HomeShopsLLC have done a superb job with their fleets and layouts. I am so happy there were willing to share. I do look forward to your videos but it will be interesting to what you come up with on the next one
GOT A BUNCH OF BOX CARS AND HOPPERS DECORATED FOR MY OWN ROAD NAME. DID THEM MYSELF
Certainly is the cheaper way to go!
The cars are amazing. I picked up the arkansas valley, copper state, and the gulf shore car. They definitely exceeded my expectations. I talked to Chris at the rpm meet in St. Louis last month. There's some goodness heading our way.
And as far as running them... it's your railroad, do as you please. I will have no problems running these on the layout. When I get there, that is. 🤣
Yes. It sounds like we’ll have some nice choices soon!
Hello first time viewer. For me not really. All the road names through my modeling years is satisfying enough. I can't picture my own railroad just my layout. The cars you presented look great. The small delicate detailed pieces never tale a break from coming off these models. Wish they made were stronger. Good video. 👍✅
That’s for watching and I hope you’ll subscribe. The freelance road names aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. And yes, if you operate regularly and take cars on and off the layout with any frequency, the details do tend to take a beating.
I am using two cars from the G&D Lines onto my own fictional private roadname company but using prototype RR cars in addition.
Are the G&D cars the only other freelance cars you have (besides your own RR)?
@@ThePixelDepotLLC Onto my US Layout yes, onto my northern german layout, my roadname is a fictional RR under own Management based upon a former real existing Branchline of a private stockholder RR Comoany established in 1852 but became part of the state RR in 1936. That Branchline is still existing, today but is being operated by the state RR, only. Still a private RR won the right to operate the passenger service for the following ten years.
Me I am modelling the year of 1908 and in my fiction it was a private stockholder company established in 1882 with an eastern extension across the trave river mouth with a RR Traject Ferry close to the coastal line of baltic eastsea.
My fictional RR is doing the coupler test of the imperial prussian state RR of 1899 to 1909, too, to test the Krupp middlebuffer Coupler a more havier version of the US Janney Coupler.
So I can use the kadee knuckle couplers.
In addition I use some C.C.C.C. = Canda Cattle Car Company Livestock Palace Cars (built in 1888).
In addition I do using two US American built Locos from ALCO of the year of 1904 as 2-6-0 Moguls fired with coal.
Around the year of 1900 it were a comon practise of german imperial state RRs to operate imported US RR Engines or of Course RR Cars, too.
The roayal bavarian state RR imported two 4-4-2 Atlantics and in addition two 2-8-0 compound Consolidations since 1898. The Royal Wuerttemberg RR importat some 4 axle passenger Cars in the early 1870's and used the Link & Pin Couplers until 1918 but find out a way to make the Link & Pin Coupler more safer by coupling procedures using a spring and washer plate to the coupler what holds the pin up and when the link pressing down the washer the Pin bolt comes down to couple the cars automaticly.
Other RRs used US freight cars long before some freight cars came during WW I to belgium and france and found their way to german state RRs in period of time before and during WW II.
In my cause I am using some US Locos and of course Cattle Cars in addition.
a busy slaughterhouse requiring lot of Livestock (pigs and cattles).
A daily wagon shipment of up to 45 cars with meat and canned products taking my RR busy by operating a marshalling yard.
I love it! I have several of the MR&T cars, and think it's great that these are being offered. I'm going to make a couple of TPD boxcars.... I think they'll be fine in a Rio Grande, SPSF, Turtle Creek Central, Farmrail, or Durango train.
I'm even thinking of having a Joseph Parker passenger car.... That would be part of the Diet Coke passenger train.
I am honored, sir!
I'm an N Scaler, and model the Orange Belt, a 60s road to primarily serve a Tropicana plant. I've relied on custom-made decals with mixed results.
I'd LOVE to see an exchange where custom rolling stock could be swapped. (Hint) 😁
Kevin, can you email me at the address jparker at thepixeldepot dot com? I'd like to understand your idea better.
I could see with the small size of N Scale that trying to do decals could be tough.
appreciate the video, personally i would try out some of these freelance railcar models to see how they would fit in with my current roster i would like to know how do you and your viewers feel about small independent rail switching companies, a discussion on this would be most helpful
Noticed the walk way was bent too.
I did notice that afterward. 👍🏻
I have my own fictional railroad myself. I was tired of people saying when I did a locomotive of a real railroad if it survived and all I heard was oh they didn't have this or that so I went with my own one and it's dedicated to them I call my railroad The ASS Lines or Atlantic Seaboard System lol
I've been known to do that myself, but more for informational purposes. Recently someone told me they were doing Chessie 1977, and they were painting up a GP35. Chessie 1977 IRL was a GP40-2, so I let them know, but also said "in case it matters to you." In the end, he didn't care and he's having fun, so no harm no foul!
My railroad is fictional and I like to "Patch" out reporting marks from other RR's. Then weather them to make them look worn. It would be nice to have cars painted in basic colors and details without reporting marks and us that have decals for their fictional RR's to add their own personal touch to them. Much like what Accrurail does.
I do this too. Sometimes for fun and sometimes because the reporting marks don’t my make sense for my layout.
I picked up some locomotives at a flea market that I intend to patch. We bought ‘em used!
I wanted a Michigan Interstate car for a few years. The layout is based in Texas. Go figure. I got two cars a week or so ago.
Wait, the Michigan Interstate is based in… Texas?
@@ThePixelDepotLLC Yes. Former Michigan resident moved to Texas I think. McComas I think is the owner's name
I have no problem on running freelance cars.
I have a half dozen or so freelance cars for my freelance railroad. Thus far no one has asked about them.
As in, no one has noticed at all or as in they fit right in?
@@ThePixelDepotLLC They fit right in. They don't look out of place at all.
The manufacturers are good on doing freelance ones..but they are also currently ignoring various past PROTOTYPICAL railroads. Stop and think of how many models RTR that are of the Frisco, CB&Q,NORTHER PACIFIC, WESTERN PACIFIC and vast others completely lacking in availability in wide range of rolling stick that ACTUALLY EXISTED. so yes I appreciate and actually have a freelance RR of my own, but at same time the companies should be offering the fallen flags of past in just as much effort they do in the current COLLOSAL giants present today.