What are you familiar with? What do you like? These are all very specific, personal choices. The very first thing to do is ignore model railroads and pay attention to the real thing. Settle on favorite eras, locales, railroads, and types of operation. This will answer your questions. The answer could be Great Northern in the Cascades in 1900; Florida East Coast to the Keys in the 1920's; Amtrak's Corridor in the modern era; Soo Line across the Northern Prairies in the late steam era; B&O in the coal fields of WV in WWII; T&P hustling freight across Texas in the 1950's; an obscure shortline in the South (just about any era); SP hauling commuters in and out of San Francisco in the 1950's. Chances are it will be none of these, but something totally different.
But these are questions that can't be answered by anybody but you, and the answers will only come by making yourself as familiar as possible with as many different kinds of railroad operations as possible.
Tom
If you want a freelance roadname, you have a few options. As mentioned, you can pick a region and name the line after a city, geographical feature, or other regional icon. You can also research old fallen flag names and "resurrect the brand." You can get away with some freelancing with that approach, such the modern Wheeling and Lake Erie which uses an old railroad name, and took another old railroad's paint scheme to complete its image.
BTW it's still not 100% clear in the original post if you mean you're trying to come up with a fictional / freelance roadname, or if by 'roadname' you mean you're trying to decide which real railroad to model?
If it's a real railroad, I would look at which one has the most equipment available in your scale and timeframe. If you want to model the steam or transition era, there are a fair number of Santa Fe, Pennsylvania, Union Pacific, New York Central, and Norfolk & Western steam engines available at reasonable prices. If you want to model another railroad, you may be limited to buying expensive brass engines - unless they owned a lot of USRA or USRA-copy steam engines.
It's easier in the diesel era. Steam engines were kind of "tailor made" for each railroad by the builders, so each railroads engines were different. Diesels are more like buying an automobile or truck - you pick a particular model that suits your needs, then go down a list of options available (one headlight or two? dynamic brakes or no?) so one railroad's GP-9 wasn't that different from anothers - other than paint and lettering.
There is always the John Allen route...the Gorre & Daphetid RR.
Bear "It's all about having fun."
You can't go wrong with Santa Fe. There's no end of locomotives and rolling stock out there at fairly reasonable prices...
Samuel48 I have always freelanced and had various roadnames on the layout.
I have always freelanced and had various roadnames on the layout.
If a real railroad doesn't appeal (PRR, B&O, C&O, Norfolk and Western, etc) you can certainly make one up that sounds realistic.
Delmarva lines.
Maryland East Coast
Baltimore and Atlantic
Salisbury Lines
Wilmington and Cape Charles Railway
Rehoboth Railroad
Delaware and Western
Tidewater Eastern Railway
Blackwater Central
"The Blue Crab Route"
And so on. Most anyplace with "& Atlantic".
Would urge you not to make it a joke or pun. Those are fun at first, but get tiring. At least to me.
I grew up in Maryland and I miss going to the crab shack.
RobertSchuknechtHow about the Maryland Eastern Shore Railroad?
Nooooo ! Too many great names on the Eastern Shore.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
If I based on layout landscape where I am. I'll get bored easily with a lot of desert sand, hot sun. I grew up with the last years of Southern Pacific/Cotton Belt before the UP merger.
The trains that are my favorite are Amtrak, New York Central, Conrail, SP.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
My road is the BNSF, running from Richmond, California to Klamath Falls, Oregon. I have engines painted in all three road schemes, ATSF, BN and BNSF. I do not run prototype, as I have locomotives that none of the three roads had. I like them, so I have painted them in one of the three road colors. For example, I have three Kato SD9043MAC's painted in BNSF, and four Con Cor U50B's painted in BN, GN and BNSF colors., but all fall under the BNSF umbrella of railorads.
Samuel48 So what I am thinking is modeling the area I am from. Back in the day, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, PRR used to have a rail line serving the Eastern Shore and various towns.
So what I am thinking is modeling the area I am from. Back in the day, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, PRR used to have a rail line serving the Eastern Shore and various towns.
You could freelance!
Come up with your own road name and just use that! That allows a greater bit of freedom allowing you to choose what power and equipment appears on the road. Just putting that out there.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
There are hundreds and hundreds of railroads that have folded. A little historical research should find many, many names of extinct railroads in the area you are interested in.That's how I found "Bayfield Transfer Railway." Or I could have used "Ashland, Odanah and Iron River," or about a dozen others just in that geographical area.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
Initial questions to ask to help determine road name...
If you can answer those questions then you can narrow down the choices pretty significantly.
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
If you like variety, model an area or state you like. IE: If you modeled the southern part of PA, you could have the PRR, B&O, Western Maryland, Reading, C&O, NYC, plus any fictional railroad you like. If your towns and area are generic enough, you could run trains from the western part of the country too. On my generic PA tracks, it's not unusual to see the Great Northern, Western Pacific, or the CB&Q. I even have the East Broad Top running diesels.
Fictional railroads like the Blacklog, South Penn, and Tuscarora show up at any time or place.
It's your railroad, have fun.
hornblower I also liked the idea of modeling the area where I live. I was even more fortunate to find a very interesting fallen flag in my area. Although the prototype fallen flag did not survive beyond 1900, my layout also models a "what if" scenario that assumes my fallen flag survived into the late 1950's. This allows me to model my fallen flag plus three other railroads the ran through the area at that time.
I also liked the idea of modeling the area where I live. I was even more fortunate to find a very interesting fallen flag in my area. Although the prototype fallen flag did not survive beyond 1900, my layout also models a "what if" scenario that assumes my fallen flag survived into the late 1950's. This allows me to model my fallen flag plus three other railroads the ran through the area at that time.
Sounds very similar to what I want to do! Hopefully you can see it, but in my research, I found this photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dreckschleuder/16414385527 It was neat to see, because Ive lived on the Shore all my life, and been through this town countless times. Really cool to see what it was! Would be even better if it still exsited though!!!
I have another question for everyone. If I should start another thread, please feel free to let me know. Im new on these forums, so don't be afraid to set me straight lol.
What are some modern big industries that would use a lot of other smaller industries? For example, I was thinking of having a big bakery on the layout. This would need flour, sugar, oil, etc etc. All to be shipped by rail, which could originate from other industries on the layout. But other then a bakery, what would use multible industries to create a product? Steel, auto, and bakery is all I can think of, and research is a pain for this topic. Little to no results at all. Lastly, remember this is not prototypical; so even if a business would normally ship/recieve via truck, I could make it work by rail as it is "fictional" anyway.
Samuel48So what I am thinking is modeling the area I am from.
Hornblower
Mine is the Maricopa & Gila River RR set in 1950's Pinal county Arizona. It is partially owned by the ATSF, and the M&GR owns one locomotive and one caboose. The other locomotives are ATSF.
You can have a short line that grants trackage rights to other railroads, which give you the freedom to run foreign power and through freights, and even do some interchange as they "run through" your layout. You can also have switchers painted and decalled for your own home road.
My town is called "Moose Bay" and is located somewhere in Milwaukee Road territory. All my main line freight traffic is Milwaukee. It's mostly late-transition era with 4-axle diesels, but I have steam equipment and older rolling stock, too, so when I swap out the vehicles for older ones, I can run something like the 1930s.
My subways and trollies belong to the Moose Bay Transit Authority, keeping that local. I never put road names on my passenger cars, so they can belong to whatever engine is pulling them.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Nowadays you can run just about anything you want. There are leased locomotives seen everywhere. The only caveat is the foreign locos generally do not head the train. But, I have seen it Though.
Besides, it's a hobby, and is meant to be fun. Run whatever you want and you don't have to justify it. It just depends on how true to prototype you wish to be.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Thanks for the replies everyone!
And yes, the rail name; as in the name on the loco. example, BNSF, NS, SF, etc etc
So what I am thinking is modeling the area I am from. Back in the day, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, PRR used to have a rail line serving the Eastern Shore and various towns. I can and have traveled, biked, kayaked, and walked on a bunch of the parts of this line (decommisioned) since I was a kid. I already have modeled one of the trestles, and most of my geographical scenery will be based on this region.
Essentially, I am thinking of modeling a (fictional of course) "what if" scenario. Also, because I prefer a modern modeled railroad. This would allow me to run NS, and even CSX if I wanted. Changing some of my rooster over shouldn't be too much hassle this way either.
Nevertheless, I do have a Santa Fe passenger train (with a bunch of coaches and such). Which is also close to my heart and a awesome scheme. So maybe that will be a "museum" train that runs.
Might I suggest simply searching through vintage railroad pictures. Find either a road name that sounds good to your ears OR a color scheme that catches your eye. Read up on the histories of your favorites and see which one grabs your imagination!
Samuel48 Now that I am starting a new layout, and want to model a little better, I am thinking of switching all to one roadname. While I am not particularly modeling one area, scene, or rail line(s), I would prefer to have all the same (or nearly all) roadnames. Most likely, everyone will say it is up to you, and what you want. Which I do get completly. But what I am asking is, how do you decide on a roadname? Any tips to help me decide?
Now that I am starting a new layout, and want to model a little better, I am thinking of switching all to one roadname. While I am not particularly modeling one area, scene, or rail line(s), I would prefer to have all the same (or nearly all) roadnames.
Most likely, everyone will say it is up to you, and what you want. Which I do get completly. But what I am asking is, how do you decide on a roadname? Any tips to help me decide?
It is up to you, and the down side to asking us is you will get suggestions as to what we like most likely.
Since you asked, my favorite is D&RGW - roster after about 1968 was all EMD - so it's a fairly short list of types of diesels. It was a bridge route so you can have just about any road name in your freight train that is appropriate for the time period you model.
Snicker snack.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Samuel48Btw, talking about the locomotive roadnames, not frieght
You lost me right there. Do you mean the name for your railroad or a train, like the Capitol Limited or the California Zephyr?
If railroad, you have a collection of engines in time and in place not usually seen together. I made the same mistake starting out. You have to come up with a geographical area you want to model. From there find the name of a river, mountain or local name for the area and use that.
My own freelance is Potomac and Northern. It sounds western MD and PA and that's my area of interest.
Hey everyone,
Working on building my third layout (second "big" one), and am having a little trouble deciding on what roadname I want to model.
I have always freelanced and had various roadnames on the layout. Btw, talking about the locomotive roadnames, not frieght - I know they get mixed and such with shipping. Right now, I have a Sante Fe war bonet passenger train, then various other locos ranging from a CSX SD-40, to a BNSF GP 40, and even a PRR 2-10-0.
Thanks in advance!