OldBogie posted:Much of doing model railroading is research, you get a lot of book and internet time. To help launch you into the past here's a link to an SP society page.
By the late 1930's the Pacific style 4-6-2 locomotives were falling back to either pretty flat country or secondary trains because they didn't make enough horsepower to maintain schedules in mountains and hilly country especially with the larger consists that were becoming common before and during WW II.
My childhood memories of taking the SP commuter trains between San Francisco and San Jose is of pretty somber trains but this was late WW II and immediately after so fancy orange paint schemes were replaced with black and gray.
http://espee.railfan.net/passenger.html
Bogie
I second the availability of research on that website. They are my go to site for the SP projects I have helped Golden Gate Depot on. Even if they don't have all the information, there is usually clues as to where to find it on another site.
However, I also agree, it's your railroad. Run what you like. I have a set of streamlined SP Daylight cars (18 total) that are scale 21" from K-Line. They are horribly inaccurate in color and car configuration, but so what? They look good behind my Williams scale GS4 Northern.
Have fun is the only requirement in this hobby!
