Motive power

I make no bones about the fact that the RSA railroad will start off heavily influenced by John Olson's Jerome & Southwestern railroad, up to and including starting with the exact same track plan before eventually planning different additions and modules. Even when I eventually end up with three or four connected 4x8 looped modules, I expect that I'll mostly be doing operations by myself and very occasionally with someone else. I don't need a lot of motive power except for for variety and photo ops.

Which was true for the J&SW too. Based on the book, the content of which was originally Model Railroader articles, I figure that there's at most about half a dozen locomotives for the J&SW. The chapter on trains specifically mentions two: a Roundhouse Climax that is not powered and is only for photo ops, and the little diesel SW1500 switcher.

The rest of the locomotives are mostly mentioned in captions to the photos. I haven't noticed anything in any pictures that aren't at least mentioned once in such a caption. There's one other diesel, a little boxcab, which keeps a pretty low profile and isn't mentioned or pictured much. Then there's a 4-4-0 and a two truck Heisler that are shown more, especially the latter, which seems to be by far the most often shown (the SW1500 being the second). And finally a little 0-4-0 switcher is shown here and there.

That brings us to five powered locos and one unpowered one. I think this is a pretty decent number, even though my pike is intended to be quite a bit bigger eventually. I have no interest in any diesels at all, nor in unpowered decorative locomotives. I also really like geared steam. They fit the small railroad with sometimes steep grades and tight curves, even if logging will only feature on the last of the three modules. I've seen good standard gauge HO geared steam small locos that I'd like to get: a two truck Heisler, Climax and Shay each. Bachmann also offers 0-6-0s in a variety of color schemes. Although the engine itself is identical in all, there are three different tender types. I might get a Vandy and a short haul, and probably avoid the slope back. If I get a 4-4-0 too, which I might, that's six locomotives. Probably more than enough.

There's a book by Kalmbach on detailing and customizing steam locomotives, which I'll probably need. That will be especially important when it comes to distinguishing my two 0-6-0s so they feel plenty different. The others will all be different enough already.

I'm not sure about paint schemes. Mostly black, either with or without a silver front, seems to be pretty standard in America, but in the UK, colorful painted locomotives were common.