"fantasy" paint schemes on locomotives - Model Railroader Magazine

aiireland

Hello, What's everyones take on "fantasy" paint scemes.  I was looking at a Broadway Limited P5a BoxCab with Milwaukee Road paint (not a real milwakee road loco). But i'm thinking it might be close enough.  Also, would like to have a Big Boy one day, but not necessarily in UP.  Just wondering what others think. 

Wow, so were do we draw this fuzzy line? How accurate or inaccruate does a model need to be to pass the test?

Sure, a lot of them are clearly obvious to the informed, and the truly playful ones are generally clearly identified by the manufacturers as such.

If they can make money selling them what business is it of those who are not buying?

I've been at this a while just like many of others on here. But we have newer/younger people on here as well who don't know about the early days, generic models with every popular roadname painted on the side.

Whatever you want to call it, I'm a freelance/protolance modeler with my own fictional roadname, and I model three other actual prototype roads.

I won't lie, I model those other roads with a moderately high level of accuracy - BUT - compromises will be made - AND - history will be fudged a little here and there. After all those real roads have to blend into my fictional version of 1954.....

Again I will ask, where is the magical line?

Broadway Lmited is putting all sorts of fantasy paint schemes on locos, OK.

But they make locos that they would like you to take seriously that are not correct, or not as correct as they easily could have been.

They sell their "generic" USRA Heavy Pacific lettered as B&O P7 locomotives - and while the P7 was based largely on the USRA Heavy - BLI could not even change a few simple details that would have made it much closer - a trailing truck, a headlight and bell location?

Same is true of their B&O lettered USRA Light Mikados and Pacifics, so depending on your level of "picky", those are fantasy schemes too.

Personally, I don't have any interest in any of these more extreme/obvious fantasy schemes, I don't model those railroads.

But I have no problem with my generic Spectrum 2-8-0's lettered B&O and WESTERN MARYLAND - they are close enough.

I find it a bit offensive that some modelers would suggest that companies should not make fantasy paint schemes or even make generic models at all - let alone paint them in various road names. That term some use, "foobie", I hate that term. It does nothing good for this hobby.

ConCor and Bachmann have made holiday train schemes for decades - clearly some people like them.

Letter your BigBoy to any road you like.

Most of my locos are lettered for this road:

Everybody should decide their own "close enough" rules.

Sheldon