Railroad timeline, 1950-1989

Published: July 6, 2011

An Alco PA diesel and a Berkshire 2-8-4 steam locomotive meet on Tony Koester's HO scale Nickel Plate Road layout. Use this timeline to pick an era for your model railroad.

Photo by Tony Koester

Model Railroader executive editor Andy Sperandeo compiled this railroad timeline to help you choose an era for your model train layout. You can learn more about making your layout's era more specific in Tony Koester's article "How to choose a time frame" in the Model Railroader special issue How To Model Railroads of the 1950s.

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