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Do you stick with one railroad?

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Posted by scoutII on Thursday, August 25, 2011 5:59 PM

Myself from Rochester, but I lean towards -  50's - B&O, BR&P, WM

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Posted by sandusky on Thursday, August 25, 2011 4:01 PM

Boy, that would sure make it easy. I grew up in Buffalo, so NYC/PC, EL/N&W and C&O/B&O are my main foci (?) I did read in one of the mags years ago that to be convincing, about 80% of your rolling stock ought to be your home road. I try to stick with that with the above railroads (on my layout).

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Posted by hcc25rl on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 9:13 PM

Wolfie and I agree, grainger RR's rule!

Jimmy

Jimmy

ROUTE ROCK!

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Posted by cats think well of me on Sunday, August 21, 2011 5:52 PM

I like most railroads, modern or vintage, numerous eras appeal to me as do multiple places (and not just in the U.S. of A) that said, though I live in an area with plenty of hardcore Pennsylvania and Reading fans I'm sticking by my longtime railroad love, the Norfolk And Western of the 1950s. If it's an N&W model I'll want it at some point and have worked to acquire a good collection of relatively accurate N&W models since the beginning of this year when I rediscovered model railroading.

Alvie

 

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Posted by gear-jammer on Saturday, August 20, 2011 8:31 AM

We mainly run NP, GN, Weyerhaeuser, UP, & a local private RR.  You would see any of them in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1950's.

Sue

Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.

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Posted by CP5415 on Thursday, August 18, 2011 8:26 PM

Stourbridge Lion

My planned HO & N layouts would be mostly based on a D&H Roster but placed in a Rocky Mountain setting.  Basically mixing D&RGW with D&H with a wide range of era and you end up with the D&H Western Division Wink

Oooooooooo! Liking that!!!!

I too have a liking for all eras & my locomotive roster reflects that.

So I'm killing three birds with one stone & modeling basically NOW, but having my version of the CPR very enthusiastic about excursions. I'm modeling the "Railway Museum of New England"  (my idea & yes they happen to have several western railroads locomotives) & modeling a museum allows me to run anything on the track! As an excursion. They may also lease power too!

Gordon

Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!

 K1a - all the way

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Posted by Stourbridge Lion on Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:46 PM

My planned HO & N layouts would be mostly based on a D&H Roster but placed in a Rocky Mountain setting.  Basically mixing D&RGW with D&H with a wide range of era and you end up with the D&H Western Division Wink

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  • From: Clearlake, California. USA
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Posted by Lake on Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:41 PM

dehusman

 

 Lake:
  I picked mine, the UP in west Texas 1995 or so just so I could have more then one railroads engines or rolling stock at any one time.

 

 

 

Well that didn't get you much.  1995 UP in W Texas would only get you the ATSF if you included Sweetwater or the SP if you included El Paso. 

Pretty much anyplace east or north of Texas would double or triple the number of railroads you would interact with.

 

Let me rephrase this. As UP merged with or had bought up around this time or a little later SP, MoPac, CNW it lets me have those engines on my protolanced branch between San Antonio, San Angelo, Big Spring and north to Lubbock.

Ken G Price   My N-Scale Layout

Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR

N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.

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Posted by Lake on Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:40 PM

dehusman

 

 Lake:
  I picked mine, the UP in west Texas 1995 or so just so I could have more then one railroads engines or rolling stock at any one time.

 

 

 

Well that didn't get you much.  1995 UP in W Texas would only get you the ATSF if you included Sweetwater or the SP if you included El Paso. 

Pretty much anyplace east or north of Texas would double or triple the number of railroads you would interact with.

 

Let me rephrase this. As UP merged with or had bought up around this time or a little later SP, MoPac, CNW it lets me have those engines on my protolanced branch between San Antonio, San Angelo, Big Spring and north to Lubbock.

Ken G Price   My N-Scale Layout

Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR

N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.

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Posted by Geep Fan on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 7:46 PM

Construction will start soon on my railroad but i currently have CNW, BN, Burlington and UP locomotives. Potentially you might see any of the railroads that operated in my town in the 1960's - late seventies and that could also include the Wabash, Rock Island and Milwaukee Road. My railroad will be a shelf railroad that i hope to be able to change era by the vehicles and locomotives and the road. 

 

Corey

Railroading In Council Bluffs

http://www.rrincb.com/

Visit my caricature carving website:

http://iowacarver.tripod.com/

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Posted by dehusman on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 6:24 PM

Lake
  I picked mine, the UP in west Texas 1995 or so just so I could have more then one railroads engines or rolling stock at any one time.

Well that didn't get you much.  1995 UP in W Texas would only get you the ATSF if you included Sweetwater or the SP if you included El Paso. 

Pretty much anyplace east or north of Texas would double or triple the number of railroads you would interact with.

Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

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Posted by rogertra on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 5:35 PM

Lake

 

 rogertra:

 

Why do i stick with one railroad?

It's simple.

Because I have a model railroad, not a toy train set!

 

 

So I would gather that this means that no other railroad crosses, interchanges has run through power on your railroad or ever has. I do know that it is possible depending on the era or location.

I picked mine, the UP in west Texas 1995 or so just so I could have more then one railroads engines or rolling stock at any one time.

Guess I misunderstood the question.  My comment was aimed at those people who have no real theme.  They just run anything, from anywhere, from any era.  Fine if they like it as it's their railroad but as I wrote, I have a model railroad not a toy train set.

Yes, I did run interchange and on the GER  you could daily see power from the NYC  at Granville Junction and the Rutland Road at Berger Yard.  Sometimes power from the CPR and CNR would show up in Granville Junction but it was rare.  However, any foreign power and cabooses would only run to and from the appropriate interchange trackage and would not do any switching.  Power would be turned if required and the GER yard switcher would place the foreign caboose onto the rear of the outbound interchange train which would depart shortly thereafter.

Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com

For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/

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Posted by Sailormatlac on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 4:49 PM

CN since 1986! Lighty thinned with CP... and some experimental QRL&P. Lots of other railroads are really interesting, but at some point, you've got to make choice and turn toward what has the deeper root in your RR experience.

 

Matt

Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.

http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com

http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com

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Posted by Lake on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 4:27 PM

rogertra

Why do i stick with one railroad?

It's simple.

Because I have a model railroad, not a toy train set!

So I would gather that this means that no other railroad crosses, interchanges has run through power on your railroad or ever has. I do know that it is possible depending on the era or location.

I picked mine, the UP in west Texas 1995 or so just so I could have more then one railroads engines or rolling stock at any one time.

Ken G Price   My N-Scale Layout

Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR

N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Clearlake, California. USA
  • 869 posts
Posted by Lake on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 4:27 PM

rogertra

Why do i stick with one railroad?

It's simple.

Because I have a model railroad, not a toy train set!

So I would gather that this means that no other railroad crosses, interchanges has run through power on your railroad or ever has.

I picked mine, the UP in west Texas 1995 or so just so I could have more then one railroads engines or rolling stock at any one time.

Ken G Price   My N-Scale Layout

Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR

N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Shawnigan Lake, BC
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Posted by rogertra on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 4:13 PM

Why do i stick with one railroad?

It's simple.

Because I have a model railroad, not a toy train set!

Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com

For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/

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Posted by HaroldA on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 9:25 AM
The area of the UP of Michigan that I model has been fortunate to go through several mergers over the last few years. So I have taken some poetic license and have motive power from the SOO, LS&I, M&LS and a couple waiting to be repainted into one of those roads. In previous summers when I have been there trout fishing I have taken pictures of the various cars and use that info to select my rolling stock. I had once thought of confining myself to specifc RR but for me this more interest and makes some of the equipment easier to find.

There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....

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Posted by leighant on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 9:58 AM
greg1950 wrote the following post on Monday, August 15, 2011
Are you going to be modeling Galveston in N scale or HO?

 

Greg, your post did not make clear WHOSE layout ytou were asking about.  I could not find any mention of Galveston in the previous 20 or so posts. 

I am building a Galveston layout in N,  (The truth of the "am building" depends on how much time I spend working on my History Masters Thesis.. and the "theses" I write on trains.com forums, instr4ead of building the layout!)

I have written a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG thread about the design of the Galveston layout which you might be able to access at:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=88991&highlight=island+seaport

See my pictures at:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/2660

 

I really enjoyed your Houston and Sealy N layout.  I gave you an N scale scratchbuilt structure for your layout and built a duplicate for my own layout.

When a corner of my model appeared in a photo of your layout in Great Model Railroads, that was for me like what Andy Warhol called everyone's "15 minutes of fame."

 

This was the prototype, about 1980.  Yes, it's gone now.

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Posted by galaxy on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 6:01 AM

I play with a few. Ok, many.

I loosely model the B&O and all it's incarnates- C&O, CHESSIE,CSX.

I also fell absolutely in love with the 1:1 Pennsy Locos on static dispay at the Railroad Museum of PA in Strasburg, PA.

SO I conjured up the idea that the B&O lets Pennsy run on its tracks with trackage rights.

Then I found out accidentally in research that the B&O DID indeed allow the PA RR to use some of it's tracks with trackage rights, so I am NOT far off the mark!

I also run the D&H as those are mine and My Other Half's initials! So we do that for fun.

I have a friend who first bought a NS train set to get into teh hobby, then decide to go with Canadian Pacific because those are HIS initials!

-G .

Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.

 HO and N Scale.

After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:50 AM

I have never seen a railroad with nothing but that railroad's locomotives and rolling stock.

As for me, I mix and match various roadnames.

But if I get around to building my dream layout, I will concentrate on Santa Fe, my favorite.

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by Todd McWilliam on Monday, August 15, 2011 11:43 PM

I model the Chicago Northwestern in 1980-83.  I have UP power for pool power since the two railroads worked so close together.  I have alot of private name grain hoppers and CNW rolling stock.

 

Todd

Chicago & North Western Railway/Iowa Northern
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Posted by BamaCSX83 on Monday, August 15, 2011 11:17 PM

The layout that I'm going to start building soon is going to be the CSX Dothan Subdivision, running from Montgomery, AL, to Thomasville, GA.  Given that information I know my "main line" power has to be CSX with a little UP or BNSF thrown in for run-through freights.  However, given the length of the sub division, I also have interchange with the following railroads at the following locations:

Hyundai Motors (SW900 in their yard) at Hope Hull, AL

Conecuh Valley RR (GP38s, two of them) at Troy, AL

The Equity Group (feed mill with in-house GP7u) at Banks/Pronto, AL

Wiregrass Central RR (GP40s and GP38s two of each) at Waterford, AL

Pilgrims Pride (feed mill with in-house S2) at Pinckard, AL

Bayline RR (GP40s, GP38s, several) at Grimes, AL

Bayline RR (same as above) at Dothan, AL

Chattahoochee Industrial RR (SW1500s, GP38s) at Saffold, GA

CSX Bainbridge Subdivision at Bainbridge, GA

So yeah....I've got a few locomotives to gather up, but for the most, it will be CSX locomotives, with all of the assorted rolling stock that I see on the tracks daily, some I know I can buy out right, some I'll have to paint....

So yeah, I do kinda stick with one railroad, but I also know that I'll have to model the interchanges.

 

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Posted by jacon12 on Monday, August 15, 2011 4:19 PM

I have my own layout but also am a member of a modular club so maybe I have the best of both worlds.  My layout has 22 inch R curves so I tend to stick with the smaller steam and early diesels towing short passenger and freight cars.. like 40 footers.  Mostly Southern Rwy and associated railroads.

The club, on the other hand, has a very large modular layout with 33 inch R curves so I bring out the big steam and modern diesels and more modern cars.  Most of those are Norfolk Southern, NW like the large Class A 2-6-6-4 behind me in the photo below.... with a sprinkling of other roads.

At first I ran the big stuff on my home layout, and still do on occasion, but over the years I came to think more and more about how much better the smaller units behaved and looked on my 85 feet of mainline with it's mostly #4 turnouts.  So in the past few years I've found myself sticking with Mikados and Consolidations (even 4-4-0's), RS 3's and other early 4 axle diesels.

It's surprising how much bigger your layout becomes when running smaller locos and rolling stock..  Big Smile

Jarrell

 HO Scale DCC Modeler of 1950, give or take 30 years.
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Posted by caldreamer on Monday, August 15, 2011 3:26 PM

I hve my own railrod (the Goldn State Railroad), so the answer is yes.  We do buy most of our locomotives second hand, so we have a number of road names which aare patched for the GSRR until they can get into the pint shop.

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Posted by floridaflyer on Monday, August 15, 2011 2:58 PM

Right now I run lines that were important at the transition time in Pa. PRR, RDG and LV  with a bit of CNJ are what I am using, with rolling stock primarily from those lines  mixed with mainly  other eastern  seaboard lines

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Posted by greg1950 on Monday, August 15, 2011 10:05 AM

Hi.

 

Are you going to be modeling Galveston in N scale or HO?

 

Greg Johnson

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Posted by Allegheny2-6-6-6 on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:48 PM

 When I run my transition era equipment mainly steam locomotives with a few early diesel road switchers RS2's &3's I run everything from PRR, N&W, Southern, B&O, Clinchfield, Reading and the Erie pretty much anything you would have seen running the rails of the mountains of Appalachia up to the coal fields of Pennsylvania  over to the cost of NJ PRR country. When I want to run my modern equipment it's primarily N/S. Not being the quintessential rivet counter but this would sort of make sense in the real world or as much as I want to know about the real world. The N&W merged with the Southern to become N/S and what was once the B&O is now CSX which has partnered up with NS so it sorta kinda makes sense and if not I'll just rewrite the history of my fictional railroad then it will all be true cause I said so.......

Just my 2 cents worth, I spent the rest on trains. If you choked a Smurf what color would he turn?
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Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 5:42 PM

I mix it up pretty well, but with a predominance of ATSF.  

If I ever focused on a single railroad, it would be Santa Fe All The Way !

Alton Junction

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Posted by the North East Rail Modeler on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 5:37 PM

What I do is, if there is a railroad paint scheme I like, I consider 2 questions:

1. is the railroad in the general area of where I set my layout?

2. If not, would it ruin the charicter of the paint scheme if my railroad "bought"the locomotive?

  If the answer to question 1 is yes, then my job is easy, just buy the locomotive, weather it, and place it on the tracks.

If the answer to #1 is no, but #2 is yes, then all I have to do is paint out the railroad's reporting numbers. The railroad's name can be painted out too, but I mostly just paint out the numbers as to retain as much of the paint scheme's original charicter. I have seen photos of struggling shortlines that just painted out the numbers and stenciled on their road numbers and reporting marks, so it's prototypical, up untill almost every locomotive has been "patched out", then I ask myself "Wait a minute; this short line is struggling to make ends meet, so how did it aquire all of these locomotives?" When it gets to that point, I "resale" some of the locomotives to my friends or sell them for profit at a yardsale or local indoor flea-market.

However, it's not unprototypical to see locomotives on the opposite side of the contenent of where they should be. (a perfict example is a CSX freaght train I saw when my father and I were rail-fanning in Folkston. that train had only Union Pacific locomotives, and it would have been unknown that it was even being ran by a CSX crew if it wasn't for the railroad scanner in that pavillian that was set up by the tracks)

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