Hi gang. Do any of you model a make believe road that really never existed ?. I always try to stay close to reality but really have no room to talk because my layout is of a made up place of the transitional era of the mid 1950s. I also have one loco (a Mikado) and set of old school passenger cars that would never have run together that are very special to me that I enjoy running once in a while just for fun which is what it's all about - right...
Happy railroading.
Mark
I think you will find that there are many freelanced model railroads. Some folks have even had custom decal sets made and their own color scheme, others will use actual names, but have a made up branch, unlike anything on the prototype.
Running what you like is what model railroading is all about. If you want to pull double stacks with a 4-4-0 or have a modern loco pulling a string of 36' box cars, it's your railroad.
Saw an article on one model railroad operated as the prototype did on one day in history. Others do what they please, when they please.
Have fun,
Richard
Personally, no, I model the New Haven railroad which really existed from 1872 to 1968.
However, my club (the South Shore Model Railway Club) has had the East Coast Lines since the club was founded in 1938. We've never had a real explanation made official of what the ECL is, but here's the best I could come up with, based on our common interests in the Boston area, steel mills, eastern mountain scenery, and the like:
The East Coast Lines is the surviving incarnation of the real Philadelphia, Reading & New England Railroad that was assembled by Archibald A. McLeod of the Reading RR in 1891-1893. McLeod had managed to gain control over the L&HR, CNE, NY&NE and the B&M. He also tried to gain control of the Old Colony RR in Boston when J. P. Morgan pulled the rug out from under him and put paid to his ambitions...mainly because Morgan wanted the OCRR for his New Haven system.
Well, our ECL is based on "What if...McLeod's idea had succeeded?" At least to the point where the trunk line he assembled stayed together under a new name: the East Coast Lines. This way we can model Boston, a steel mill (Bethlehem), and some interesting terrain.
Oh dear, some of the biggest names in model railroading, the cover stories of many issues, are of fictional railroads. Virginian & Ohio, Allehghany Midland, Gorre & Daphetid, etc.
I model the New York Central, circa 1946-1950. However my layout depicts a fictional division, the "Dutchtown and Geismar" located in upstate New York. Dutchtown and Geismar are two actual rural communities - in Louisiana - where I grew up!
Well, I am following the Maryland & Pennsylvania. But I run cars for fictional roads like the Gorre & Daphetid.
Mostly, I try to keep the railroad equipment to what could be found in the early 1950's so no intermodal, Dash 8's etc.. That still allows a wide range of equipment - the Ma&Pa still had a 4-4-0 and truss rod cars from the early 1900's.
Paul
Plenty of people do freelance railroads including a lot of famous model railroaders. If your road name isn't too fancy you can letter cars and locomotives from alphabet sheets of decals. Or you can get custom decals made up. Consider modeling an exchange with a class one road. That way you can operate home road rolling stock and rolling stock from the class one road and have a good story to explain the mix.
The transition era, say 1945 to 1957, where steamers and diesels could be seen running side by side is a favorite with many modelers. Your old school passenger cars should not be a problem, they used to run the darndest mixes of old heavy weight cars and stainless streamlined cars right up until AmTrak time int the late 1970's. I clearly remember commuting into Boston on open platform wood truss rod coaches that would have looked right at home in a Western movie.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
My friend Alex gave me this roadname when we were in grade school, he told me his HO Scale layout was "freelanced" and called "Ferretguage Junction".
There is no area, place, or road, it's a completely fictional name.
I'm sure many of you guys out there have even wierder freelanced names.
My layout is a fictional freelanced railroad which I see as a composite of several real railroads that operated in the New York/New Jersey area, most notably the DL&W and the NYO&W. Had those railroads merged, their system map would look very much like the on I envision for my railroad. All the cities and towns on the modeled portion of the layout are completely fictional while the staging yards represent real places and interchanges with real railroads. I am currently constructing an equally fictional short line railroad that branches off of the main railroad.
Why not just model the DL&W or the NYO&W? Neither of these railroads had all the elements I wanted. The NYO&W had become a freight only railroad by the 1950s which is the era I wanted to model and I wanted lots of passenger traffic. It also dieselized early on and I wanted to run both steam and first generation diesels on my road. I considered the DL&W but I decided prototype modeling was not for me. I wanted the freedom to build what I wanted without concern for whether it actually existed.
My fictional Detroit Southern Corp. operates both the fictional Detroit Southern RR and the fictional Great Lakes Eastern RR.
Many modelers see rail modeling in different ways and all are just fine. For me, I find that the hobby is about limitless imagination and everything on my pike is mythical....but could have been. I'm now playing with toys from the Erie, NYC, PRR, CNJ, DL&W, LV, L&NE, and L&HR and some other NE roads as I had a first hand history with these railroads. Although I use prototype equipment, all else is made up.
John Allen once said........"No matter how bizzare your model may be, rest assured there was once a prototype for it" (Or somethng like that) I have found him to quite correct .
HZ
Yes.
.
The STRATTON & GILLETTE railroad is 100% made up.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
My Bunker Hill & Eastern is freelanced, but these days in am more intereted in MEC and BAR.
An 0-4-0T switcher
Boxcars showing a progression from as built through a couple of repaint designs
And some MOW equipment including a Russell snowplaw
I also have a Turtle Creek Central boxcar
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I guess I should have included the name of the town on my layout which is Redwood due to all of the redwood trees on it. And I'm glad to know I'm not the only one in the world with a made up layout. I would have literally driven myself insane if I had attempted to model the town I grew up in not to say I couldn't have done it but it would have taken a long time and would have been a lot of work. What I ended up with is a little community with all of the basic staple businesses and so forth. Everyone that's seen it seems to have liked it so I must be doing something right... As for my trains. I try to stay realistic and run them the way they should be - most of the time that is.
I model a made-up shortline whose track used to be Erie and DLW branch lines. It's pretend, but it's typically done in the northeast US.
I also pretend that Conrail has a shared use area thereabouts. Conrail still exists, but this shared use area won't be found on their website
Genesee Terminal, freelanced HO in Upstate NY ...hosting Loon Bay Transit Authority, run through Amtrak and CSX Intermodal
CP/D&H, N scale, somewhere on the Canadian Shield
My transit systems are the Moose Bay Transit Authority.
But, I interpreted the thread title differently. I do have names for all of my streets and roads, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
These are my most used freelanced railroads.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Hello all,
Definitely!
Buckskin is the name of the local creek that feeds into the Middle Fork of the South Platte River in the middle of our town.
I played around with different combinations:
Before deciding on the BS&P RR. I even took the liberty of separating Buck and Skin in the name.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
My railroad is a shortline connecting road. Since becoming a connecting road it has grwn from tiny to small. It operates in 1956 and gets its motive power from other RR castoffs. Not much of its own rolling stock but as new businesses pop up some is being added. Named for the two towns it serves and the stop "IN"between those two. The tunneling of the mountain helped the road survive.
By the way, one of the RRs that it serves is the Green Valley & Atlantic, the first freelance RR I had. The other is as yet unnamed.
Check out the name of my current road below......
Requiescat In Pace RR
God's Best & Happy Rails to You!
Bing (RIPRR The Route of the Buzzards)
The future: Dead Rail Society