Special Trains

[Anonymous]

Does anyone here have a "Special Train", such as a passenger train named after someone special to you? Or is your layout named after someone? [:)]

[FThunder11]

All my trains are special, because they're mine!!

[Anonymous]

I name all of the places on my layout for my friens and family..one of the towns is named for my church. I ahve not thought of a special train, good idea.

[eastcoast]

Yes. My layout is full of family history.
I even have a "Limited" Edition in our name.

[leighant]

The town of Johnston, Texas on my East Texas District of the Santa Vaca and Santa Fe is named for Roland Johnston, a model railroader buddy who passed away in 1973.
Town of Johnston: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aad.jpg

The sign in the front of Johnston First Methodist Church has the name of a minister who was created as a ficticious character in an autobiographic novel I was writing when I was in college. The building was kitbashed to loosely resemble the church where my father and mother were married.
First Methodist Church: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aah.jpg

The "station" of Turkeyneck (named place, not a depot) is named for Turkeyneck Island where I used to play as a boy a la Tom Sawyer. The island was formed by cutting off a crooked turkeyneck shaped bend in Buffalo Bayou to make navigation easier. An "uninhabited" island two miles east of the middle of downtown Houston. Turkeyneck is the location of J J STONE gravel works, named for the "radio personality name" of a DJ modeler friend.

Most of my place names are loose geographic references that suggest similarity to particular places, but not exact actual names that require me to model a prototype exactly.
By the way, when I first saw your topic about "special trains", I thought about something different than trains named for people. I thought of special runs in addition to the regular schedule such as political campaign trains, special event excursions, trains chartered for school class trips and football games.
As far as a train named for a person, I have a cousin named Nancy Hanks and there was a real train named Nancy Hanks but it was named for a historical person I believe.

[darth9x9]

Trains themselves are often named in tribute of someone special but very frequently towns, places, and industries are. Take for example the FCSME that is featured in GMR 2005. On page 78 of the track plan, inside the upper right corner you will find a park named after deceased member Pete Scofield. Also, Howard Zane names most of his towns (Model Railroader Feb 2004) after his family members, family pets, and those who have dramatically contributed to building his layout.

[mcouvillion]

I'm putting together a realistic representation of the "Zipper", the SP overnight merchandise freight that ran between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was powered by a Daylight GS-4 (until 1953), had the black SP Overnight boxcars, and ran at passenger-train speeds. I have an old Lionel HO GS-4, a Walthers bay-window caboose, and 28 (so far) overnight boxcars with different numbers.

Mark C.