What made you choose your rr company to model?

[cacole]

I grew up in the days of steam, very near both an Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific roundhouse and main lines, so I model those two lines primarily, but any steam engine will do. I also like the Chicago & Eastern Illinois and Wabash because I frequently also saw their trains. After settling in Arizona after retiring from the U.S. Army, I began to model SP, UP, Cotton Belt, and other Western lines, too.

[Anonymous]

The Santa Fe Warbonnet

[Anonymous]

Mostly locality. I model a proto-freelance version of the short line that was the only railroad in the immediate vicinity of where I grew up. I say "proto-freelance" because this line (the Washington & Old Dominion) swtiched from steam - to electric - to diesel. Since my interest is steam, I choose to imagine that the switch to electric never occurred and operate realistic small steam (the line actually did have two small consolidations for some years).

I also have sessions in which all the motive power is from one of my two favorite Class I roads (N&W and Western Maryland). The N&W is very believable: the W&OD line was very nearly purchased (when owned by a predecessor company) by the predecessor company of the N&W. The WM is more of a stretch but the Gould interests did consider an extension to the Washington market.

[SecretWeapon]

I grew up next to EL's PVL. in NJ.[:D]

[ksax73]

My Grandmother, My Grandmother, My Grandmother. Love her to death!

She hates to fly and always took cross-country trips by rail via Amtrak. She always told me about her experiences and promissed to take me with her when I turned 10 (I was 3 at the time).

She kept her promise and i was drawn to Amtrak and how it operated. I also appreciated the diversity of its equipment. I've always had an attraction for the utility of passenger service.

Anyway, my countless experiences have led to my modeling Amtrak. Because the space I have is limited and the different equipment needed to represent different regions of the USA, I had no room for the large number of freight equipment. When my layout expands, i will begin to model CSX, NFS, Conrail, and BNSF. I'll also consider UP as well. Basically all the host railroads that the trains I've taken will influence what rr company I model, but it all revolves around Amtrak.

[rockythegoat]

Back when I was a pup, one of the model rail mags had an Athearn ad for their rotary plow and it was in Great Northern markings.

Ever since then, "Freight Goes Great, When It Goes Great Northern!" [:D]

The RMC series back in the late 80's on modern rail logging ops, got me hooked on them. And, the "Fundy Nothern" articles have always helped this along, as the theme is similar.

[simon1966]

I started with an Atlas train set. I chose one with an S2 switcher painted for the Burlington route. It was the Blackbird scheme and I thought it looked good. I also imagined modelling the wooded hills of New England, incorrectly assuming that the RR was named for Burlington VT. So dim witty here eventually figured out where the Burlington route was from, joined the BRHS and have never looked back. Now I am firmly modelling the mid west!!

[Anonymous]

The first time I saw a UP loco was an SD90MAC parked in Chicago. We were driving by. I said, Oh man Union Pacific is my new favorite railroad!! Then I saw UP steam, and I was hooked!

[Anonymous]

I model an independent short line that interchanges with the C.N.R. (because I worked for them), the C.P.R. (just because they are there) and the O.N.R. (since part of the name of my line comes from an incident that happened at Washagami, Ontario - a C.N. siding not too far from North Bay (home of the O.N.R.). So, I guess you could say that my "Washagami & Northland" was directly influenced by that incident.[:D]
Norman

[PennsyHoosier]

I grew up by C&NW. I still like it, but don' t model it (yet?). I live by an old Pere Marquette line, which I massage into my layout. However, my love has always been Pennsylvania, both state and railroad. That's what I model.

[Anonymous]

I would have to Choose CP because CP is one of the reasons Canada is what it is today and because i grew watching Canadian Pacific to CPRail System to Canadian Pacific Railway again and always found there paint scheme was really nice to show its Canadian Background

[Paul3]

I model the New Haven. Why?

Probably because, like most New Englanders, I am a tad parochial in what I like and dislike. The old poster that shows the Bostonian's view of the world which shows Boston up front and Worcester (about 50 miles west) about on par with Los Angeles is not that far off. IOW, if it ain't local, I ain't interested.

Keeping that in mind, I would want to model southern New England (where I'm from) in some era, and I live right next to the NEC, A.K.A. the New Haven's Shore Line Route.

That leaves me with the past or the present. The past has a grand memory around here. The old RR's had class and style, multiple paint schemes running in the same train, so many different makes and models it makes your head spin. They had fast first class passenger trains, mile-long freights, and locals all over the place. In the past, New Engand was the industrial heartland of the USA, and the RR's moved the goods.

Today, the industry went south, west and overseas. The only long frieght trains around here are Autoracks, an occasional stack job / TOFC, and some general freight, and none of that is anywhere near me (it's in Worcester). The only freight I see are a once a day local freight. For passengers, I get the Acela, the Regional jobs, and the MBTA commuter fleet.

In 1953, there were a dozen mainline freights between Boston and New York City on the Shore Line. Today, there are zero. In the 1960's, there were multiple sleepers available to New York or Washington, D.C. Today, there are zero.

In short, I don't model the present beause it is intolerably dull, so that means I must model the past. That translates into the New Haven, as they owned the rails out here from 1893 to 1969. After that, it's been a downhill slide ever since.

Paul A. Cutler III
*****************
Weather Or No Go New Haven
*****************

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, a Canadian Pacific city if ever there was one. I lived but a block from the main line heading west so 2-10-4 Selkirks were a daily sight. Just at the end of steam, when I was 20, I moved to Vancouver and discovered the CP's lines in southern British Columbia. Now, 50 years later, my fictional N Scale Klahowya Subdivision of the CPR is designed to reflect CP and GN/BN action in the fifties, sixties and seventies in the West Kootenay. it's great what you can do with sufficient hidden staging tracks. Pay the pike a visit at http://homepage.mac.com/pblake/webpages/klahowya.html.

[CP5415]

Having grown up looking out my bedroom window being able to see Canadian Pacific's Agincourt marshalling yard hump in action & having my dad take me to railfan from the parking lot in the yard when I was young, I rapidly grew fond of the CPR.
Another item that made me want to model the CPR is after reading about the history of the CPR & how it was an integral part of the history of Canada kinda makes it special to me.
After all, I AM CANADIAN!

Gordon

[88gta350]

I love the area I grew up in, and when I decided to model I thought a PRR route through the area would be good. During research I found out the valley I lived in did have it's own line that was abandonded in the early '40's. Because I prefer modern railroading over the steam era, I decided to bring that line (Kishacoquillas Valley Railroad) into the present day. It's still a short line, but instead of 0-6-0's and 2-4-0's it has GP9's and GP30's, etc... I've changed the name to Indian Valley Railroad, mainly because I didn't want to try and letter everything with Kishacoquillas!

You can check out the website in my signature.

[Jacktal]

I purchase western railroad companies locos,mainly Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific.It may sound like a strange mix,maybe so,but I like unique locos and many of them were exclusively(or nearly) UP owned prototypes(like DDA40X's,Veranda's,etc).
You can get a good variety of models with UP colors and still be prototypical without investing in custom painting and so on.

Being canadian,I wanted a canadian company on my layout also.I chose CP for their colors but mainly because it would make sense to see a CP loco parked alongside a UP consist,being both western companies.I have no knowledge yet as to how it goes in the west parts of U.S. and Canada(I live in eastern Canada),but I suppose this is a familiar occurence.

[PistolPete]

BN for me. When I got back into RailRoading after 20 years out I was at a show I saw some BN rolling stock and liked the way they looked. I have since added UP and SF for
my interchange switching. I also do some MEC, BAR or any thing local to the state of Maine.

[Anonymous]

Exposure to one railroad! When I was ages 3 to 12 we lived across from the Lehigh Valley mainline in Cranford, NJ. Since dad kew his son loved trains he would take the long way to Grandmoms house in Hazleton, Pa via Lehighton Pa., a major LV yard. Upon arrival at grandmoms in Hazleton there was the LV Hazleton branch. Then a visit to my other grandmom and she lived next to the LV's banch in Jeddo, Pa.

I grew up thinking there were only two railroads. LV and a smaller rr named the CNJ.

[Anonymous]

My first rememberance of a train was a string Chessie System engines along Broadway in Buffalo, NY (Bison Yard?). Some 25 years later when I got back into the hobby, I saw an Athearn GP-35 at the LHS and the rest they say is history. For me, Chessie came first, then B&O, then C&O and WM. I started with the merger railroad and worked backwards.

I guess its the first one you see that always holds a special place.

[n2mopac]

I chose BNSF (switched from former MoPac layout) for two reasons. First, though I had no attraction to ATSF or BN previously, I lived in a BNSF town immediately after the merger and quickly fell in love with the Heritage and Heritage II paint schemes. But more importantly, I lived in the area that I model (Saginaw, TX) and found that the industrial area along the Wichita Falls sub just above North Yard simply begged to be modeled. It has a great variety of industries in a very condensed about of real estate right along the main, including a Trinity Ind. plant that builds covered hoppers. I siimply had to be done.

Ron

[Anonymous]

I've been in and out of different roads, first C&O (I grew up near the old Pere Marquette line in Michigan), then the NYC (it served the Rouge steel mill in Dearborn which I wanted to model someday), then B&O (after having moved to Maryland and got my drivers license and done lots of serious railfanning on that road), now I might do some freelancing so I can model some of my favorite prototypes (incl. SD38-2's) that were never used by ANY of those lines.

[locomutt]

I grew up in eastern Ky.,mainly around the C & O;and actually lived in both Raceland and
Russell.(car shops and mainyard)and of course not to far from Huntington,WVa.
I tried modelling the C & O,but it was to hard for me to stay totally prototype. So I
decided to model a free-lance railroad. Coal hauling,set it the area of E.Ky.,and
western WVa. Time span in the 1950s-1960s era. I can run 4 axle locos that I like,
that might not have been in use on my favorite road. I've been doing this for over
40 years and still enjoy it.(wrong;I LOVE IT!)[:D][:D]

I model in "O" Sacle now,since about 1975,but started in HO. My very first
"train set" was an Athearn "Hustler eng;Western Pacific box,a flat;and a
Santa Fe caboose. (the Hustler had rubber band drive!)[:D]

[jdolan]

I model the ATSF because I grew up along It's tracks in rural Illinois. I knew more about it and it's equipment.

[Anonymous]

I grew up liking Chessie, I thought it was the coolest paint scheme. Then I started sub - contracting on CSX right of ways, and I liked them as well, so I model the merger!

[Anonymous]

Well, the first loco I bought was an Athearn SP SD9, followed by an Amtrak SW7, then an EMD Demo GP60. The next two additions were an A/B set of Proto C-Liners in NYC paint - at this point, I decided that modelling a museum was the only way to justify my fleet! I've since been adding more locos, mainly those I like the look of. I do try to operate locos that are owned by real museums, like my FP7 in Milwaukee Road paint - this will eventally be numbered to match the real example owned by the Illinois RR Museum.

[Fergmiester]

I have an affinity for steam. Unfortunately the only affordable steam available is either generic, USRA or US class 1stuff, No Canadian as our market is a small one. So after doing some reading and looking at what was available and what I liked I decided to go freelanced and based it on the local geography. The Musquodoboit, Eastern Shore & Sydney is based on the Sydney and Louisburg RR of Cape Breton but with a predominent C&O roster.

[orsonroy]

Being the som of a railfan, I'm addicted to big steam. But my dad's a 1960s LV/E-L fan, anmd I'm a 1930-1955 midwestern steam fan. Mostly, I've spent dozens of hours chasing and riding behind NKP steam (759, 765, 587), so that's where my modeling interests lay. I model central Illinois because that's where the NKP ran in my home state, and I've spent loads of time down there. And finally, since I have a deep love of history and decided to recearch and model this area prototypically, I've grown fond of the "unknown" railroads of the region, specifically the C&IM, TP&W and P&PU, all of which play major roles on my layout.

[jhugart]

It chose me!

When I was younger, I liked the C&O trains I saw when visiting my grandparents in West Virginia.

When I got older, I liked the look of the C&NW colors on commuter cars, and thought that would be fun.

Passenger trains always appealed to me, so Amtrak was an option.

But when I went with my wife on her family's fishing trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan, there were railroad tracks you had to cross to get from the cabins to the lake. And there was this huge building on a distant hilltop that turned out to be the old rockhouse for a copper mine. And there was this neat bridge connecting Houghton and Hancock: a double-deck lift bridge, tracks on the bottom, roadway on the top.

As I investigated everything, I learned more about it -- the copper industry in the area, when trains ran, how local trolleys moved people from home to work and play, when the mines ran into trouble.

I started imagining what it would be like if the mines had continued to do well, and if the Great Lakes had been too perilous to move ore, so that the railroads really prospered, well into the 1960s.

So now my sketches and plans for the layout modules all center on the key elements of this region (the yard, the downtown warehouse area, the mine workings, a nearby timber town, and possibly a smelter for the mine). There have been a number of railroads that started and operated and failed in this area...the Soo Line was the last to actually operate trains there.

But in my plans, a company called the Keweenaw and Superior acquired control of a lot of little roads and became known as "the Copper Line" throughout the region of the UP, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.

And once I get the basement improvements done, and finish my son's little layout (so we get all our modelling skills), I'll start work on the yard module for the K&SRR.

[vsmith]

The freelanced Borracho Spring RR is loosly based on the Arizona Copper Co mining RR and several RR photos documented in Gerald Best's book "Mexican Narrow Gauge". I wanted to try and catch some feel of a small tram line built before the sdvent of the auto still running thru a small desert town in the 50's.