My home town was Enid Oklahoma, probably around 36,000 when I was growing up. Had a Rock Island north/south main line, a Frisco east/west mainline, a branch line, going southwest, and the Santa Fe Enid district, from Guthrie to Kiowa KS., big grain hauling route. My dad was one of the switch engine engineers for Santa Fe in Enid. All the lines are still in operation today, although under different names now. UP replaced Rock, BNSF replaced Frisco and Santa Fe, and Grainbelt/Farmrail slipped in on the branch lines. Wheat harvest, last of May through June was a big deal as Enid was third largest in US in storage capacity, plus there was a Champlin refinery.
After college I came to the Kansas City area via Topeka Ks in the 60's and Kansas City metro from 1970 to the present. Won't even begin to talk about railroads around KC.
Bob
My little burg has one line going through it. It was a branch of the old B&O and most recently was part of the Ohio Central system. Last year, it was announced the Ohio Central was being sold to another railroad whose name I can't remember. The sale was contingent on state approval. It will be interesting to see if the line survives. A portion of it about 10 miles to the north was abandoned a few years ago and there was talk of abandoning the whole branch until the state provided some money to improve the track. The only purpose of the branch is to serve a few grain elevators. At most, one train a day will go up and back down the line.
Good thread. It was interesting to see that there was already a post about where I currently live (Holland, MI), with CSX tracks running north, south and east, as well as spurs. I recently discovered that we have a wye right in the middle of town. It's not obvious because it's tucked inbetween the north and south parts of town and is bisected by a river and wetlands, but the wye stands out on Google Earth. Our local switcher derailed twice recently in the center of my primary commute artery (by the old Chris Craft plant) which resulted in the road being torn up for a month to replace the sharply radiused spur crossing the road.
I model south west St. Louis, MO, where my wife and I grew up. My inlaws lived until recently in Oakland, MO (St. Louis suburb) right next to the BNSF main. At that point, the UP main is only 1/4 mile north of BNSF. Both are double tracked, with the UP getting about twice as much traffic as BNSF(about 1-2 trains per hour for UP, I think). The UP also hosts Amtrack, which runs through St. Louis city, makes a local stop at Kirkwood, and on to points west. The Kirkwood station (former Mopac) is a nicely preserved stone structure and is still used for it's original purpose.
I now live just south of Cleveland, where we have NS, CSX, W&LE and Newburgh and South Shore.
I grew up in Toledo, OH where we had the Toledo Terminal, Detroit & Toledo Shoreline, Detroit, Toledo and Ironton, Wabash, Nickle Plate Road, C&O, B&O, NYC, PRR, Ann Arbor, Ohio Pulic Service, Toledo, Angola & Western. The Toledo Terminal is the perfect Model Railroad, it is an oval that connects with all the above railroads.
I also lived in Denver with the BN, DRGW, ATSFand Up and Alaska with the ARR.
Regards
Rick
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Ok, I have had the NYC, PRR and CIRwy here in Anderson IN. That changed and became the PR and CI and then the Conrail and CIW (Central Indiana & Western). Now it's the CSX, NS and CIW. Hmmm, I guess that you could say that the railroads are fairly healthy here. :-)
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
super cheif n how many people here have train line that goes in and out of there town.(not including little passenger lines) my town has like 1 main line going in and out it. hopefully one day i plan to do a module on my down town part with the movie theater as the main focus(n scale)
how many people here have train line that goes in and out of there town.(not including little passenger lines)
my town has like 1 main line going in and out it. hopefully one day i plan to do a module on my down town part with the movie theater as the main focus(n scale)
Like, down main street where the road is shared by automobiles and trucks with pedestrian sidewalks shops and all?
Because of the research I needed to do so I can be reasonably authentic with the location my model railway will run through I do know that railroad tracks in the middle of the road appeared in St Petersburg and Tarpon Springs, Florida. I like this feature and I plan on including the SAL curbside depot as part of my layout. It's an interesting modeling opportunity.
Bruce
The line in and out my town is still standing there... Montmorency Subdivision of the Quebec Railway Light and Power. Almost everything that could remember there was railroad activities there was wiped out by our "dear" Canadian National: the station, the sidings, the stone crushers, the 3 littles wharves, the mile post and the flag stop. I was living on a hill about 1.5 miles from the track and could only see the train with a cheap telescope in a curve about 5 miles further. I enjoyed when the train was passing by the school during recreation times. It's crazy how this not so far away time miss me (1986 to 1993), when seeing a train was a big event and the guy in the caboose did wave the hand. When we lost our caboose, it's like if the wailway died a little bit, losing a part of its inhabitant. There was aout 4 trains back then, with 60 to 100 cars pulled by a pair of M420.
And yes, I do dream of building the village with it's interurban cars, electric box cabs and pilgrims trains i when I get the place. When I got 18 back in college, I bought myself a C424 from Atlas and kitbashed it in a M420. At the time, you could find nothing on the market and had to do many pieces.
Matt
Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.
http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com
http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com
NS yard, multimodal (container) facility, and Amtrak station in the city of Charlotte, NC, where I live now.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=35.240451~-80.820739&style=a&lvl=15&tilt=-90&dir=358.99867937325&alt=2694.8170160763&cam=35.240451~-80.820739&scene=21382234&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1
Lackawanna, later Erie Lackawanna, yard in downtown Binghamton, NY. The city where I was born and raised.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=42.104803~-75.903203&style=a&lvl=17&tilt=-38.3002405599971&dir=359.775559442653&alt=1245.01509831846&cam=42.090503~-75.902718&scene=24184316&phx=-0.573550211998335&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1
D&H Yard right at the Binghamton city line.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=42.087093~-75.847698&style=h&lvl=15&tilt=-89.9999800136714&dir=9.59262226416392&alt=3127.75420688838&cam=42.087093~-75.847698&scene=24184502&phx=0.157740533859856&phy=0.157330050193871&phscl=1.45883898304845&encType=1
Callicoon, NY in the Catskills. A town I used to live in. Erie, later Erie Lackawanna, double track main line right through the center of town.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=41.764159~-75.065665&style=a&lvl=17&tilt=-41.8211062436264&dir=9.47618792620671&alt=1247.12837256119&cam=41.754813~-75.058367&scene=26597013&phx=0.276753840876913&phy=-0.433866780437853&phscl=4.89778819368446&encType=1
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Little town of Sodus, MI, there were 2 lines, first was an interurban/streetcar line, Benton Harbor St Joseph & Light, ran north/south to my west near the river, long abandoned, bikeriding I found a spike nailed into a post near where it ran. Further north it crossed the road, and after abandonement it was just paved over the ties minus rail, time went the ties rotted and lefted a lumpy drive over them. Rumor is a local Campsite operation had some of the carbodies as rentals to live in, but now it has built housing, but that business is gone now.
2nd is the Michigan Central branch I believe that ran from South Bend to BH/SJ, abandoned several years now, some of it bike trailed I think. This line unique where down in Niles there was a triple overpass, of it, the MC (amtrak now) main, and the Northern Indiana interurban which had a branch to Benton Harbor. There is a pic of this in one of the books I have around here, searched online if any, none yet.
Isn't the concept of a railroad to go from one town to another, as in connecting various settlements, it would seem strange for a railroad to get close to a town then skirt around and avoid going near the town.
The idea of a train going in a town and then out of town again sounds actually quite practical.
Unfortuantely i dont... since i go to college elsewhere i dont get much time back home. i might after spring break though.
Chessie HO and SP N in Collegehttp://collegerailroad.blogspot.com/
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
If you are going to be in the callaway gardens area then to really see alot of rail action take hwy 27 north to Lagrange GA which becomes Hamilton Road in LaGrange and at the light where 27 turns to your right at the junction of hwy 219 (whitesville Rd) go straight across and the main line will be approx 1/8 mile ahead, just as you cross the tracks there is the old depot parking lot on your right. This is just before the Altlanta to Montgomery and the Manchester to Montgomery lines split to go to Bham Al. I have railfanned there many many times and have seen as many as 30 trains during daylight hours.
Have fun & be safe
loco4501
I'm right on the northeast corridor and near the Trenton N.J./ Morrisville Pa. stations and train yrds. Commuter lines of Jersey as well as a double decker (though I don't know where it serves). To Philly commuters and of course Amtrak and the Acela go sprinting by. The train yrd located on the Pa. side is quite a site at night; trains lined up, lights aglow, side by side of about 10 or more sets of rails and maybe in strings of 4-8 cars. All just waiting for the AM rush to begin.
Plenty of frieght and my favorite of those is the Staley plant cars. Staley processes corn syrup and I see quite often soft drink tanker trucks, (such as Coke), hauling away from the yrd. The Staley cars will cause some traffic jams as they traverse through Morrisville crossing 3 city roadways.
Must be quite a switching task getting everyone to where their going.
cooltech
I grew up with the ACY in my backyard in Akron, Ohio but there is ONLY the Blue Line running to Los Angeles in Long Beach, CA!
ARVADA Co. I've got the BNSF Golden sub (ex Colorado and Southern) to my immediate south (less than 1/2 a block) and the UP (ex Rio Grande) to my north maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a mile. both are busy. Golden sub serve Coors and I've seen Geeps on up to SD70aces. occasionaly they still use a caboose.
When I was growing up from the late 40s and into the 70s, Lorain Oh had the Nickle Plate running East-West and the B & O running North - South, with an interchange right in downtown. I grew up watching passenger trains pulled by E units, and freights pulled by 2-8-4s at least till about 1958 or 1960,then being replaced mostly by Alco RS-11s. Although it seems the 0-6-0 was the predominant switcher for model railroading, the Lorain B & O yards were serviced by L 1 or 2 0-8-0s shunting carloads of Taconite for the local steel plant or for EM-1 Yellowstones to take South, after those big guys dropped strings of coal hoppers for loading onto ore boats by way of the lifting rotary dumper. In fact, until about 1961 or so, the B&O even had a car shop with a Bucyrus-Erie 200 t crane and supporting cars. South of town there was a roundhouse with at least 10 or 12 stalls and an elevated covered coaling dock. And the Steel Plant, which is still in business, has it's own Lake Terminal railroad with a number of EMD switchers and a couple oddball units interchanging mostly with what is now the Norfolk Southern. The former B & O yards are now a small Chessie stub that doesn't even make it to the former NKP, Now NS mainline. The former double tracked NKP used to cross the river on a gantleted swing bridge, but it is now single track with a center lift bridge.
It's also a shame that beautification efforts now have created a ridge that blocks the dumping of the slag ladles along one edge of the steel plant property. That used to be something to see. But, seems there are a lot of influential people are ashamed of the area's blue collar heritage.
And I still remember the day I went to the B&O yards to take pictures of the EM-1 2-8-8-4s, only to see some strange looking somethings. An A-B-A lashup, Baldwin RF-16s. Over the next couple years, the tac and coal loads were handled by Q class 2-8-2s, S-1 2-10-2s, I think a couple 4-8-2s, and switching eventually was handled by a couple SD-9s and GP-7s. Even one evening I was surprised to see a U class 0-10-0.
And in the mid 70s, one of the city parks got in the first 0-6-0s I had ever seen for display, and the nearby Avon Lake power plant replaced their fireless steam 0-6-0 with a diesel. The fireless is appparently now on display in Bellview, Oh.Sorry for rampling. Senior Moment. (or half hour)
Located on the former West Shore Line of the New York Central RR. Conrail, for a while, now CSX freight only. Single track (down from 3). At least 30 trains a day.
westshorefan (nearing the end of the line!)
Here I am in Sioux City, IA with a population of about 90,000. We have 3 main lines through here. The BNSF is the main one, UP second and the CN(IC-ICG-GT, etc). There are better than 20 trains a day in and out hauling coal, ethanol, and of course, grain.
Dick
Town I live in is Kansas City KS, which has the BNSF transcon and the UP main. both have major yards, BNSF has the Argentine diesel shops.
Kansas City MO of course has the same plus ICE, KCS, NS, and some little short line/switching lines. Think I am leaving one out, but we do have a lot of activity. Oh, forgot Amtrak also, coming in on UP lines, and also on the BNSF.
Holland, MI has a line (CSX) running pretty much through the middle of town coming from the Chicago area to the south and going to the NE to Grand Rapids. Another line goes north to Muskegon and beyond which has heavy welded rail until just north of West Olive where the coal trains ( West Olive Turn) go off to the power plant at PortSheldon. North of that spur, it's still jointed rail up through Grand Haven and Muskegon. There is also a relatively short line going pretty much parallel to M-40 to Hamilton where it now dead ends. This line used to go all the way to Allegan. The last service on this line was to Hamilton Farm Bureau and I'm uncertain as to whether they still use the railroad.
We also have several spurs in town which served various industries at one time and still do some. One used to serve the Chris Craft Boats plant and a chemical plant across from the boat plant, another still serves the Heinz Pickle Factory, and a short one off that spur serves Padnos Iron and Metal, which also has it's own switcher, not sure , but I think it's an old GE.
The power plant at Port Sheldon hads it's own switchers, 2 GEs and one cow and calf set (I think, could be a slug).
It's hard to get pictures of any of those switchers as the facilities are fenced in and they are very security concious.
We also have the Padnos Transportation Center downtown which utilizes the old depot which I believe was originally built by the Pere Marquette railroad which serves MAX(our local bus line), Indian Trails Bus Line, local taxi service, and Amtrak's Pere Marquette which runs between Grand Rapids and Chicago.
Needless to say, 100 car unit coal trains are not very popular with local drivers, especially where a tight curve necessitates slow operation across one of the busier streets LOL .
There is also a small yard right at the confluence of those lines and spurs, called Waverly Yard, just north of town.
Phoenix ,AZ
BNSF with a fairly good size container operation.
I live in Ft Wayne Indiana. It doesnt matter which way you travel out of Town you will hit a RR track At one time we had the NKP,Wabash, PRR, NYC, the Union Belt, and all of there subs. Like the GR&I, FFtW&W. I can rmrmber going with Grandma to pick Grandpa up at work and watching the Wabash flying by the parking lot back in 64'. Hummm the good old days.
Now its all NS with a sprinkling of C FtW and E with a little of CSX . KB
Iow Inerstate RR on the ex Rock Island RR tracks going through Walcott Ia.
Single track now. other track is a siding now.