How Does where you grew up compare with what you model?

[ericsp]

I model the area where I grew up. However, I have used some "modeler's license".

[Anonymous]

i have live almost all my life in the silicon vally (only last year did i move to san luis obispo for college). in the san jose area SP was the main railroad running around there until the UP mearger. i've had seen my share of SP trains as a kid but never really got into them untill they were starting to become less common. now im a loyal SP fan. i also include in my modeling a bunch of other western railroads, BN, UP, WP, santa fe, rio grande, and a bit of amtrak too.

the area i model is roughly based around where i live. none of my layour is based right where i live but it is based in differnt parts of northern CA.

i also have two brothers that are into modeling but neither model local stuff. one is into rio grande and the other PRR. the one into PRR im geussing got it cause we go and visit family back east every year, and also see a lot of trains on those trips. the rio grande one i dont really knwo where he got it from...

[Anonymous]

Born and raised in NYC. I saw TONS of Long Island Railroad, Amtrak and NYC Subway but I am modeling freight right now.

[Anonymous]

I became interested in railroading just as Conrail was created. For some twenty years I was able to see the trains from the two different houses I lived in. I really liked to watch the big blue engines go by, although it was a treat when other railroad's motive power was in the consist. So, it would be hard to make a model railroad without it being Conrail.

My Mother is a coal miner's daughter from Robertsdale, Pa (Altoona area). Robertsdale was a mining company town on the East Broad Top Railroad, the narrow guage short line that brought coal from the Broad Mountain coal fields to the PRR. I've spent alot of time there.

So, I'm deciding on how to make a fictitious interchange between the two railroads that are from two different eras. Hey, its my railroad!

Jim

[Anonymous]

I model what I saw when I grew up. C&NW bi-level commuters, freights, and Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee interurbans (OK, they were gone 11 days before I was born...). I miss the sound of an E8/9 starting up with a 9-car train of loaded gallery coaches behind it.

[darth9x9]

I grew up all around the Baltimore area and saw B&O and Chessie quite a lot - hence my signature block. I went in the Army in '83 and missed the last years of Chessie. Had I known Chessie was going away, I would have delayed joining the Army for a year and video taped every possible Chessie and predessor piece that I could. Hindsight is 20:20. [:(]

[Anonymous]

Much of my youth was in CT in the late NH and PC years. I was as fascinated with the run down branchline in Manchester as much as the shoreline heavy passenger action. Summer beach trips to Rocky Neck ( tracks run through the beach) were a must!
However, trips to relatives at Croton NY with a clear view of the Hudson Line and letting me hang out at Harmon Station (and almost always returning late for dinner) along with the massiveness of the whole place nailed it for me.
That's why I model PC at Croton-Harmon circa 1969-72. The NH/PC in Connecticut would have been my second choice.

Rob

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole

I don't model the general vicinity but I do model the railroads that ran through my home town in Southern Illinois -- the Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific. I don't have a home layout where I could specialize in a specific geographic area, but must rely on a club layout.

I model the Missouri Pacific as well. I grew up in West Frankfort, IL. The MP had bought the C&EI in 1967. I was born in 1968. I was fortunate enough to have ridden mine runs in MP GP15-1's a few times in the early 1980's. The MP has always been my favorite railroad since then. I model the Joppa Subdivision in 1984.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Bath, Maine in the last few years of the [:D]MEC[:D](before Guilford[:(]), so this is exactly what I model. I figured that I'd be ahead of the game if I modelled something I've actually seen, and places that I've actually been to. It sure is nice to see the Harvest Gold and Pine Green roll through Bath again, even if it is only in 1:87th scale[:)].

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Ft.Atkinson Wi. Which had the C&NW rail line, But......I used to visit my Grandmother alot in my hometown of Ladysmith Wi. way back in the late 1960's & 1970's which had the SOO LINE tracks about 2 blocks away. I used to visit trackside quite often when ever there was a slight hint of a horn blowing. Boy what a variety of locomotives back then, Alot of F unit "Covered Wagons", High hoods, B units & a whole lot more. I even saw my very first steam engine being towed through. & on a warm summer night I'd ride a bicycle down to the train station & just sit & observe the surroundings. There's nothing like a few dimly lit lights, no mosquitos & it being so quiet that you could hear a conductor drop a lantern at 3 blocks away. & then the next minute a SOO Line F unit appears out of no where on the point & starts to hammer the diamond with its other units & freight in tow. After a few minutes of its passing you could here the horn in the distance getting fainter with kind of an erie ghostly feeling. & then it's quiet again as though a train had never come through. & now we have the WSOR bordering our back yard just outside Whitewater Wi.. So I model the SOO Line as my main theme & am trying to keep most of the layout around the mid 60's to the late 70's era, & I am also modeling the C&NW & WSOR. All when finished will be a rural Wisconsin setting with a smaller town flavor. Buildings will be the train stations in Ft. Atkinson & Ladysmith along with several bussineses from these two cities also.

[88gta350]

I model exactly where I grew up!

[Anonymous]

I grew up with our back porch 100 yards from the N&W mainline 40 miles east of Cincinnati,OH which in those pre-merger days was the western terminus of the N&W. I remember the J's bringing the Powhatan Arrow through my back field, class A's and later pevler blue diesels and cabooses. That beautiful late steam was a glory to behold. My cousins lived in Williamson, WV so I certainly got a huge dose of the N&W as a kid. Today I consider myself lucky to have been so close to the twilight of steam in America, although even as an avid railfan I was too young to realize what was playing out before my eyes. My modeling today centers on trying to recreate the N&W, but in the mountainous Pocahontas Division which I remember from many visits to family over in coal country.

[GN715]

Nice topic- fun to hear people tell of their youth. Made me think of my youth in Oakland CA where my friend and I saw only SP and WP. I remember visiting the SP Oakland engine yards and getting a short ride in an F7 cab (the old paint scheme I think, red and black seems "new" to me- man I'm old). I remember us going through the roundhouse and seeing a couple of 4-4-0s being worked on (they might even have been the Golden Spike engines). Another time I remember a chance view of a Geep pushing a GS4 Daylight through Fruitvale station.

But as a kid I always modeled the Great Northern. I now live in Southern California. I'm thinking of getting back into model railroading and I would probably model the GN again. But now I don't have to travel to see the prototype- through mergers the green and orange has traveled to me ;-) (BNSF through Tehachapi is less than 70 miles from here).

[Anonymous]

My youth was the desert country of California, Nevada and Arizona. Engines were blue, box cars were red, reefers were yellow, and cabeese were red. Landscape was flat as a fritter and covered in rocks or stickers. Industry and farming was a little thin so a sheet of plywood with a single point to point track would model that area. So I model PNW west of the Cascades which provides a lot more color in railroads and scenery.

[Anonymous]

I grw up near the UP mainline in Texas but I would have to say my biggest influence was my grandpa and how he would go on about the bigboy.
I am modeling Green River, WY late 40's early 50's gotta be steam for me!

[Anonymous]

How does it compare? Not at all - I grew up in NW England in the 70's - boring blue British Rail deisels and railcars everywhere.

I now model the Maine Central in the early 50s - strange how a lot of Brits seem to be drawn to New England roads - look at Ian Rice with Rocque Bluffs for example? Maybe we relate to the small towns and green scenery.[%-)]

[Anonymous]

I'm still growing up considering i'm only 14 but I live within a couple thousand feet of the ex Conrail mainline that runs from Selkirk to Boston.

As soon as I build my own layout it will definatley be Conrail.

[traingeek087]

Well, I was origionally thinking of 1969 Burlington Route, but where I live is the heavy haul of coal from the powder river basin. modeling 69 wouldn't have the full effect of where I live. There is over 30 coal trains that go through my hometown everyday. The coal boom started in 73, so I am modeling 1974-1975.


The top reasons why I model 1974-1975.

The rock Island was still around and changing to the blue then.
BN had all of it's predecessor paint schemes still around including CBQ, GN, NP, SPS.
Coal boom was taking off so new cars and locomotives were fresh out of the factory.
Old cars were used because of a shortage of new ones.
The SD40-2 was around.

[Anonymous]

I grew up watching the local shortline Hillsdale County Railroad in Michigan. The little railroad that could!!! And I now live right next to the same rails I use to watch so I get to watch Indiana Northeastern railroad go by each morning. The INER use's the same engines HCRC did which are GP 7's and 9's with INER picking up a couple of GP 30's.

So all of the layouts I have built have been shortlines with GP 9's for motive power. There's nothing better then playing or working on my layout only to hear the sounds of a distant train coming bye.

In fact ,Lionel Strang recently got a chance to play on the Indiana Northeastern railroad and you can read about it on the back page of the July issue.

[Anonymous]

I've lived about two miles south and west of the Bessemer and Lake Erie mainline almost my entire life. Where I model is, essentially, where I grew up but with different place names (say, Summit Jct instead of Meadville Jct, Thiel instead of Greenville, etc) and a different railroad: my Allegheny Mercer and Lake Erie. I didn't really want to do a full-on B&LE layout because I didn't think I'd be satisfied with only having SD38s and hoppers when I want AC4400CW and intermodal trains.

[Anonymous]

Well, let's put it this way - I model the Rock Island (and/or the IAIS and IMRL) in the Quad Cities area of IA and IL.

IF I modeled where I grew up, I would model the Gainesville-Midland RR.

(Anyone know were THAT RR was ???)

And have a LOT fewer locos !!!

- George

[Isambard]

Some would say that we model railroaders and rail fans never did grow up!
I grew up in the glory days of CPR steam in western Canada, including the Rockies, and still dream of steam powered trains there. The Grizzly Northern Railway is based on a steam era CPR subsidiary running through the Rockies.

[DMNolan]

I grew up in Clarksville, TN and live there now. The Tennesee Cetral and the L&N came through town. Now its RJCorman. My gradfather worked for the NC&StL and the L&N(FLS, SBD, CSX) in Nashville. I used to model the L&N, along with most other modelers in the area. I now model the Lehigh Valley and connecting RR's (CNJ, EL, PC RDG, LHR, D&H, PB&NE & Ironton). I started modeling the LV after a friend who modeled the LNE introduced me to anthracite railroading. I bought some books and did alot of research. I have visited the old LV on several trips and joind the Anthracite RR Historical Society. I enjoy modeling a diverse RR (loco types, paint schemes, lots of industry plus overhead traffic).

[Anonymous]

Hmm
Grew up in central to western Maryland,,Modeling the Western Maryland as it was when I was young and impressionable. I also model the Maryland Midland and the Entertainment Line in the 1980's, since I worked for the ETL then, when I was older yet still impressionable.
I would venture to say that most folks would model what they are most comfortable and familiar with. Right?

[Anonymous]

How does it compare? A lot.

I live near a single track main of the KCS, with modern EMD and GE engines, with a few Tunnel Motors, SD50's, and BNSF run thrus thrown in, pulling grain hoppers, 60' boxcars, and double stack/intermodal flatcars as the main rolling stock. No passenger trains at all, save for a few excursion trains.

I model the 1945-1950 period, with the CB&Q and CRI&P as the main roads, in SE Iowa, not west-central IL (where I live), with Superpower steam, mikados, and EMD and Alco streamlined diesels, many manufacturing companies, and a double track main with passenger service. (But I'm only modeling an industrial district thanks to the amount of room I got.)

[newhavenguy]

Well let's see. I grew up in Wehterdfield CT. The New Haven's Valley branch went right through my back yard. I got my first cab ride in an RS-3. Yes I'd say where I grew up influenced me and the railroad I model. I am modeling theNH's Valley branch from Old Saybrook to Hartford, CT and the Hartford /Springfield line from New Haven to Hartford.

[Anonymous]

"Grew up" being a relitive term...I model the Denver & Rio Grande Western division 6, Grand Junction to Salt Lake City, UT. I was raised in Spanish Fork, Ut, and have since lived in lots of different places. But my heart still belongs to Spanish Fork Canyon and the tight curves of the Rio Grande and the UTAH RAILWAY. Both of which ran the doulbe track from Helper to Provo.
Very senic and very nice to model.
Paul H. Liddiard

[sparkingbolt]

I grew up in Coos Bay Oregon, from '70 to 89. Moved to Bend, in Central Oregon. Now I model (a small portion of) the "Bay Area" in the mid '60s, and will feature a few specific prototype buildings, and of course SP trains dominate.

Even to this day many of the buildings along the waterfront have changed very little, and some not at all since the '60s Others are long gone. I wish I'd gotten pix of the SP freight station before they demolished it..... Dan

[Big_Boy_4005]

No contest for me, I model where I live and grew up. Local modeling makes research easy.