LION models New York City Transit Authority.
Subway Trains! Lots of Subway Trains !!
Now once upon a time there were no cheap plastic subway cars, so my new layout was supposed to be a commuter railroad running in push-pull mode with ancient modified equippment.
Combines contained the HEP power plant, and so any (freight) locomotive could run the train. Contro stands "from other equipment" were set up in the "cab cars".
Nice, eh?
Then came the plastic subway cars, (I now have ten 6 car trains), and I reworked the layout to accomodate them.
Oh, on the bottom level I had some nice staging yards for regional trains, but I tore these out and installed a four-track subway mainline. Working there with only 12" of vertical space was difficult for me, but I had to do it.
Oricinally that level was completed before the second level went in.
It also turned ou, and I do not know why, that the subway trains could not make the same grades as the locomotives could, so more track was taken out and helixes were added between the second and thrid levels. That alos added two more stations to the west blob.
Bottom Line.... Your ideas will keep changing even as you build this railroad, so do not hesitate to rip things out an build them differently.
9x5 is nice, but 2 1/2 feet is a long reach over a train table, especially once the scenery goes in. Sure you can set up a scenic divider, and only keep scenic elements that are marginally outside of your reach.
LION has (The west blob) that is 18' x 6' wide. LION cannot reach the middle, but then him never intended to. It is dead space completely unseen from the outside. This is the inside of said blob...
And this is the west edge of the west-blob...
BTW... Room of LION is 24 x 27 feet with three levels along the east and south walls.
But if you want to know more about the lout of the LION, you can click on the link of him below.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
BroadwayLion Your ideas will keep changing even as you build this railroad, so do not hesitate to rip things out an build them differently.
.
This is so true.
No one should hesitate to correct a mistake.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I chose the New Haven RR to model because I am into my local history, and the NH used to run within line of sight of my home for over 75 years. What also helped is that my father is a model railroader and had a number of NH passenger cars when I was a kid. The black, orange & white scheme always appealed to me, and when I found out that the real NH cars ran right by my home, I was hooked.
So I model the NH, and the specific line I live near. But I also model the entire NH, which includes electric locos and branchlines that are no where near me. I also don't have an "era" other than pre-1969 (the date the NH disappeared into another railroad). I'm more of a NH universalist; all places at all times work for me. But when I built a layout, it was based only on my local area of the railroad.
As for advice, unless you come into it with a specific interest like I did, it may take you some time to find out what you really like.
Do you like steam or do you like stuff you see today?Do you like mountains, deserts, plains, swamps, or wooded hills with autumn colors? Coastal cities or rural farms?
Do you like little branch lines with 1 train a day, or do you want to model a 4-track right of way with multiple trains per hour?
I would suggest you think about what you really like, what sounds like the most fun to you, then come back here and post 'em. Then the forum can then suggest various railroads that fit your criteria.
Thanks for the idea
Sounds like you should model the pacific northwest. Seems to fit perfectly.
I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.
If you thought that in my post when I referred to the pacific NW that I was talking about a railroad, none under that name have ever existed to my knowledge. I was talking about that region of the US. If you would like a list of good pacific NW railroads, I can give you that...
Oh, my bad. I understand now. Thanks. You don't need to go through the trouble of listing any railroads, I can do that in my free time. Thanks though.
Have to say I'm a little puzzled about the question.........
As a kid in Chicago, it never occurred to me to go looking for a railroad to model. They were all around me, and I could pick what suited me - which turned out to be the Santa Fe and Illinois Central.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Well, I'll give a few starters anyway
Northern Pacific
Great Northern
Spokane, Portland, and Seattle
Milwaulkee Road
Burlington route
Burlington Northen
BNSF (kinda)
Of those, the ones that had/have my favorite paint schemes are Northern Pacific, BNSF, Burlington Northern, and Great Northern. Sorry to all of you fans of the other roads out there.
There's the Northwestern Pacific, the real one not my freelance railroad, it was an SP subsidiary, it was I want to say a Class III (3) or class II (2) in northern California, it has a pretty good baseline for what you might want to model.
Now if freelancing interests you, you could do the Pacific Northwestern railroad, if that's the route you go.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!