I'm currently struggling with business/shop names, some examples here.

Many years ago there was a whole list of tongue in cheek business names in MR, and I saw the list again maybe on this forum or on rec.models.railroad newsgroup. I'm sure someone has kept the list and will hopefully post it here for you. Some are downright corny, and some are more subtle..

The one I like is "Miracle Chair Company" - "If you get a good chair it's a Miracle".

A few that I remember - Goza Ganstha Grain Company, Splinter Lumber Co., Plaidd Paint Company, etc.

Of course my favorite railroad name is Big Fork & Diehl Railroad!

Bob Boudreau

QUOTE: Originally posted by ukguy R.Sole Cleaning Supplies [:D]

LOL

I've not had to come up with any names yet, though I do have one idea for how to do this - you could create names based on your initials or those of friends and family. LGB have offered stock for the fictional cement company "L G Beton" and the "Lake George and Boulder", should be possible to copy this, at least in part. Hope this helps!

Dewey, Cheatham, & Howe
Accountants / Attornies (you choose which profession has it coming)

Thanks guys, I searched the forums back over the last year but found very few names. A few more I came up with this afternoon are.

U.P. All-night Coffee House - (is it the "Union Pacific All Night Coffee House" or the "Up All Night Coffee House" hmmm)

Justin Thyme's Delivery Services

Still looking forward to modeling the pallets of toilet paper outside the R.Sole Cleaning Supplies building though.

Have fun & be safe.
Karl.

You could always do the Rock Ridge thing.

Howard Johnson's
Johnson & Johnson Attorneys at Law
Baskin Johnson's One Flavor Ice Cream
etc.

curl up and dye beauty parlor.

I. P. Freely Attorney at law.

Dig up some Three Stooges shorts. They are full of good business and people names.

ACME Manufacturing Co., (where the Wiley Coyote shops)...

QUOTE: Originally posted by ukguy Rhydes Motorcycles I think Rhydes could be too corny, maybe ?

Nobody else has answered your question yet so I'll take it on (big deal, huh?). No, I don't think Rhydes Motorcyles is too corny. Now Ruff Rhodes Mountain Bikes might be a bit extreme but Rhydes Motorcycles isn't bad.

And Kim's Cakes is a natural. Heck, that could even fall in the category of advertising her business and make the price of that model bakery tax deductable (I AM NOT A TAX ATTORNEY!!).

Chuck

Punny names and hidden meanings on the Santa Vaca and Santa Fe Rwy

Gondolas with scrap metal move in westbound through trains on my railroad from a scrap dealer named REESE EICKLE in the unmodeled city of Lost River on the east end of the land. The scrap yard of course is not modeled. But the name appears on the waybills.

Centerpiece of the Johnston small town scene on my East Texas layout is the WAYNE COUNTY COURTHOUSE on the courthouse square. Most counties in Texas are named for famous Texas heroes: early settlers or soliders in the Texas Revolution. For my ficticious Texas county, I figured I needed a ficticious Texas hero. It's named for John Wayne. Town of Johnston is named in memory of a model railroader friend who died 30 years ago.

Dixie Darlin peanut butter factory receives boxcars of bagged peanuts from SCHULTZ PEANUTS (named for the late creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy) Norton,TX (once built a small layout for the Norton Brothers) and NEW ACES FARMS (the English pronunciation of "Nueces", Spanish for nuts) Truesdale TX. Though Texas nuts are the main base, Dixie Darlin occasionally gets a shipment of Georgia peanuts for subtle taste blending. Those shipments come from KENNEDY-BUTLER ENTERPRISES (named for two of the three husbands of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind") Tara, GA.

One of the model railroaders in Corpus Christi is a rock-n-roll disc jockey in real life (if you can call that real life) with the "air name" J.J.STONE. Of course, when I built a gravel pit, I had to give his name to the operation.

Local peddler freights going through Johnston also carry traffic for SPELVIN, another town in the woods just down the line....and not modeled. But the cars going to Spelvin are modeled. That keeps the local from hauling only cars switched in the one modeled town, and it gives me an excuse to handle exotic cars for which I don't have modeled industries, like the sulphur cars or special covered hoppers for carbon black. Spelvin is a name from an old theatre tradition. When a theatre saved payroll costs by putting an actor in one role in the first act, and then having him double and play a different role in the second or third act, they would put a false name for one of the roles in the program to hide the fact. The traditional false name was "George Spelvin". Dates back as least as far as the 1930s, probably farther. An "actress" (?) in "adult" films of the 1960s used the name Georgina Spelvin, somewhat sullying the old tradition. I'm looking back at the original heritage from vaudeville days. My hidden staging track, besides its main role of representing the unmodeled big city at the end of the line, also doubles in the role of the smaller town along the way.

One of the industries at Spelvin is MCDONALD FARM SUPPLY, named not for the burger but for the old guy who had a farm in the song. E-I-E-I-O, and all that.



Boxcars and refrigerators cars with food products move in eastbound through trains going to a wholesale grocery warehouse at Lost River. The company has a chain of a stores in small towns in the low-lying delta country on the Texas-Louisiana border that appeals to low-income customers with groceries on credit. The name of the chain is BUY-OWE GROCERIES.
Pulpwood rack cars are picked up by local peddler freights in my modeled town of Johnston, bound east for a paper mill on the Louisiana border. The paper mill is the result of a business arrangement between an old Cajun family with one of those French names, and the Conde Nast Publishing Company. (Similar to the way Time Life has an interest in a paper mill at Evadale just on the Texas side of the border.) The mill (unmodeled) that receives the pulpwood is QUEAUX - NAST PAPER CO. You have to say it out loud to get it. But be careful where you say it out loud. Some Cajuns may mistake that corporate name for a colorful colloquialism which some will take affectionately, but others might take umbrage at it.


A steel fabrication yard that builds refinery vessels so big they take two heavy-duty flatcars to ship: TOTAL FABRICATION.

A chemical plant that ships smelly stuff in tankcars: EUREKA CHEMICALS

A siding where cars are left to interchange with the industrial railroad serving the port but it is actually only a dead end track: SOUTH TEXAS URBAN BELT ("S.T.U.B.")
One of the industries supposedly at STUB ships cowhides in old mostly obsolete Santa Fe wooden boxcars dedicated to that service because no other shipper will take them after they've been used for hides. The company is PLAINVIEW HIDE.
Big reels of cable wire are shipped via the STUBRR interchange to a distributor at the port: TYSON WIRE & CABLE.


See the Santa Vaca & Santa Fe Rwy at http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kennethanthony

Elevator company "Good to the last drop"

Funeral House "We are dying to serve you"

Cannery "Work until you get canned"

A. Duie Pyle warehouse (Prototypical for SE PA in the 50's-70's)
Brinnell Hard Candy Co.
Mohr's Scale Co.
Bemis -Epscotti Co.
Heisenberg Detective Agency.
Charles U. Farley Motor Sales, "Call me Chuck!"

Those with an engineering degree will understand why the above aren't funny.

Dave H.

Scotty's Lost Dutchman Mine / Mining Company - a book I read in grade school

Crook & Lawless - Attorney's at Law, "serving you next"

City Sewer - we take cr-p from everyone

Light'emup Explosives Company - not your average Match-Makers

Brother John's Fish N' Chips - from the Friar to the Pan

Rent-A-Dent - used cars

S.P.C.M.R.R. -Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Model RailRoaders, "it's a railroad, not a toy"

Hmmm....

Tounge-in-cheek names, whether for the railroad or businesses on it, get stale. They'll be there long after the humor wears away.

Not that I'm trying to talk you out of funny names. It's your railroad - do whatever you feel like. I just wanted to provide another consideration.

So how about the Wee Barium Funeral home for midgets?

I think this is a super cool idea!

Based on Brunton's post, why not strike up a balance so names don't become stale?

In developing a town, have maybe 2 or 3 businesses with tongue and cheek names. Make sure that they're not close to each other and have them next to businesses with ordinary names.

The ACME one especially has great potential as there are countless pictures of Wile.E.Coyote available. His picture could be etched on to a brick building or used for a business bill board.

I also like the Splinter Lumber Company. I might use that one on my new layout!

Peace and Thanks!

Years ago I belonged to a club which built an HO sized town with a wholesale paper supplier (Pickwick's Papers). We also had a farm oriented buisiness, Fee Cee's Fertilizer and several others of similar ilk that I can no longer recall. Don't forget the unusual last names that sometimes find their way into small town business names. In the city you might have something like "Superior Office Supply". In a rural area where there may be a bit less marketing savy you might find something like, "Finklediltz Office Supply". Frequently, instead of "Smith Chevrolet", car dealers will have names like, "Smith Motors" or "Smith Motor Company". Here in Kansas City, we have both Thoroughbred Ford and Extreme Ford. In a smaller town those businesses would bear the last name of the owners instead of "Thoroughbred" or "Extreme". Naming buisnesses on a layout can be fun. Enjoy it, and let us know what you decide on.

Cheers,

Ed

FWIW I would steer away from too many corny/humorous names. John Allen came to hate the "Gorre and Daphetid" name he gave his railroad (pronounced "Gory and Defeated") and just referred to it as the "GD Line". One humorous name on a layout is probably plenty.

You might want to look at the region you're modelling (assuming you're modelling the US). If you're modelling Wisconsin you'd see a lot of German names (a lot of German names show up in Texas too). Minnesota/North Dakota would be mainly Scandinavian. SW US would have more Spanish names. Can kinda help identify the area you're modelling.

BTW since somebody mentioned LGB - the Lake George & Boulder was the outdoor model railroad of Charles Small, in the early seventies he wrote an article for MR about his LGB layout in his backyard. He may have been the first LGB modeller in the US, he travelled a lot in his work and came across LGB stuff overseas. Since the locomotives and rolling stock were labelled "LGB" for Lehmann GrossBahn he had to come up with a RR name using those initials, hence "Lake George and Boulder" referring to Colorado and it's narrow guage railroads.

Well, here are some 'real' ones(honest):

Dusty Rhoades Paving(MN)

Sexhauer Feed & Seed(ND)

Jim Bernier

Sometimes reality is even funny. At one time at the old First National Bank of Griffin, Ga. There were three of the men on the Board of Directors with the names of Mr. Cheatum, Mr. Cummings, and Mr. Goins. So when we heard about this from one of our members who grew up there, the club created the law office of Cheatum, Cummin & Goin, specialists in taxes and torts.

How about ' Blair & Bush Chemical Co.,' that could raise a few eye brows. CPPedler

There is a Funeral Home in Buffalo NY that is known as Amigone. Another one in Silver Creek NY known as Hole Parker
Mike Dickinson

Thanks for the great input and responses guys, there will be approx 25 business/stores on the current layout. From the replies I have decided on 4-5 humorous names, 8-9 family/friend related and the rest will be just standard business names.
Keep em comin', I have a feelin some stores may change owners and hence names over time, and its always good to have a few great names in reserve for my next layout, once I fini***his 'learning' one.

Have fun & be safe.
Karl

Wow, everyone has had some great names.

Here is my cortobution. If you have a medical complex, Dr. Glassman - optometrist (really exists here in Cincinnati), Dr. Paine - dentist, Dr. McCracken - chiropractor and Dr. Hartman - cardiologist (not me, I am another optometrist).

Anyone familiar with the "Bob and Tom Show" will recognize the Frigamol Building (and Industries) and how about the "Norfolk and Waypal Railroad"

Great topic, keep 'em coming.

Jeff

[#oops] Oops, it pays to proofread. Cortobution? What is that? How about contribution. That looks better. [:I][:I]

Let's not overlook the law offices of Dewey, Screwim & Howe, the propane distribution company owned by Mr. Paast or the Planters' Funeral Home.

Dave (dwRavenstar)

QUOTE: Originally posted by wjstix BTW since somebody mentioned LGB - the Lake George & Boulder was the outdoor model railroad of Charles Small, in the early seventies he wrote an article for MR about his LGB layout in his backyard. He may have been the first LGB modeller in the US, he travelled a lot in his work and came across LGB stuff overseas. Since the locomotives and rolling stock were labelled "LGB" for Lehmann GrossBahn he had to come up with a RR name using those initials, hence "Lake George and Boulder" referring to Colorado and it's narrow guage railroads.

That's interesting - I was wondering how they'd hit on "Lake George & Boulder". I have a couple of their "Toytrain" flatcars lettered for this line (given to me by a friend in return for helping out on his trade stand at a train show a few years ago), they don't get much run time as they don't really suit the rest of my collection (German, Austrian and Swiss Metre Gauge), but they're handy for hauling loads I don't want anywhere near my more expensive stock (drinks, etc). Thanks for sharing the information!

I use actual business names or make them up, such as Mom's Pies, Elmo's Dry Goods, City Cafe, Road Runner Gas, etc. Just let go and use your imagination...