Do you, when building a home road or proto freelance line, develope a back story, for the railroad or where various engines came from? Mine is proto freelanced off an excursion line I rode as a young boy. The Logansport & Eel River owned what was left of the PRR Butler Branch in Logansport, Indiana(about 1.5 miles of track) and ran excursions each summer for the towns "Iron Horse Festival" using ex BC&G 2-8-0 #13 remade into a PRR looking engine. The freelance part comes from modeling the Butler Branch as if it had survived long enough to be reborn as a small shortline, serving grain elevator in Columbia City. The excursion and old No1 is factored into my back story, but with the addition of a struggling freight service. The steamer has its back story as it really did exhist(she is now at the age of steam roundhouse in Ohio). For my lines single diesel, via contacts thru the TP&W(where the excursions were run) we aquired a ratty GP35 from the Cleburn shops dead line, delived DIC(dead in consist) by the TP&W. She went thru one rebuilt while on the ATSF, sporting roof top AC, 3 chime horn above the headlight and Prime 8901 beacon above the firemans number board. Wearing more rust than blue bonnet color, she was shoved into our pole barn style engine house with old No1 and for a few weeks, our pride and joy has to sit outdoors(single stall shop) while shop forces did a crash coarse on the GP35, with a quick dark tuscan paint job and yellow stripe(like the L&I engines sport today). The year is 1988, so no ditch lights yet. And you should have seen the railfan crowds as the first 2 weeks freight service had to be run with steam as the shop struggled to get the diesel thru FRA inspections. The shop manage is stil not happy about the crap in the rafters and the black stain on the ceiling from the crap that came out of the stack when the prime move was first started. Both models are older Overland Models brass, the diesel will be the first into my paint shop, then the steamer(much more to take apart to paint(sprung drivers, side rods and valve gear ect). Lets hear your back stories behind your railway and its motive power. Mike the Aspie
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
The STRATTON AND GILLETTE buys all its equipment new.
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The SGRR dieselized early, so EMD F units make up the bulk of the fleet. There are a couple EMD SD and GP locomotives around, but SD7s and GP9s are the oldest hood units.
The remaining steam locomotives are not the newest or most advanced, they are the most reliable and easy to maintain. Thus, almost the entire remaining locomotives in the steam roster are USRA designs.
I could go way on... but there is no reason to get into too much detail. I have been refining the SGRR story for more than 30 years.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
A bit I guess. My "St.Paul Route" is based on two real 19th century railroads that were bought by larger railroads - coincidentally, both in 1900. In my world, the two stayed separate and merged with each other. So that gives me some background to work with regarding engines, cars, train make-up etc., but moving the timeframe forward into the transition era.
As with many free-lancers, the USRA steam engine designs are a great help, as the USRA engines and later copies were used by so many railroads. For diesels, I've stayed pretty much gone with typical EMD engines (F-units, GPs, switchers) but have thrown in a few oddballs from Fairbanks Morse and Baldwin reflecting real engines that I saw as a kid.
This is an interesting topic, Mike. My Erie RR layout is set in the early 1950s in Paterson, NJ. Growing up in one of the neighboring towns, I rode the Erie before it merged with the Lackawanna with my late father, and rode the Erie-Lackawanna after the merger. The Erie main ran right behind my home that was just six houses away from the town's station. Paterson was still a manufacturing city that had both the Erie, DL&W, and NYS&W running through it. My layout is based on a large, open area at the end of Mill Street near the Passaic River. I used this space to model a fictional freight transfer yard with the DL&W (actually the Boonton Branch passenger route to the northwest) I wanted to include typical industries that I remember such as a textile mill (Paterson was once known as "Silk City" because of the many mills) and get that gritty factory look. Freight motive power at that time consisted of ALCO RS3s, GP7s, EMD SW7s among the many that I saw as a boy and I'll be using them on my layout.
Russ
Modeling the early '50s Erie in Paterson, NJ. Here's the link to my railroad postcard collection: https://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/
I developed a backstory for my line, at least I was in the process of it a while back but I got busy and it got moved to the wayside.
Simply put the NWP-SWP was kinda a USRA/Conrail type deal, WWI had just ended and the countries economy was in full swing, the railroads heavily worn from wartime traffic were struggling to keep up with the new non war traffic flowing over their worn out trackage.
Not so simply...
The NWP-SWP was signed into existence in the summer of 1920, it gave priority train movement and power/equipment sharing across its entire system.
In 1926 the system was privatized having made strong profits since 1922, in 1933 as part of the "New Deal" the system went back into government control due to falling profits due to the depression, it remained under government control through WWII, in 1946 the Allies being victorious on all fronts and the world at peace for the time being the system was once again returned to private ownership, the war once again took its toll on the system but with the economy booming again and temporarily trimming services to low profit markets the system was back to it's full potential.
My "history" for the line wraps up around 1990 which is the soft limit for the era I model, which currently is 1960-1980.
Motive power on the system varies from steam to diesel to electric to turbines, all the major mountain passes in the system were electrified in the roaring 20s, diesel was brought onto the roster at the close of WWII, steam lasted till the early 60s with many "modernized" locomotives still being economically feasible to operate, diesels became the dominant motive power in the 50s and stayed chief until the fuel crunch in the 70s, the electrified territories were expanded to cope with rising fuel prices. Diesel and electrics dominate the roster as of the late 80s. Turbines were tested and used throughout the last half of the century, they found a resurgence in testing in the late 80s but no conclusive results were found.
The system also has a major "superpower" program resulting in 5000hp+ units being used systemwide.
I suppose if I were to plan into the modern era as in the past 15 years the NWP-SWP would be going mostly electric and any diesels would be Tier 4 compliant with many rebuilds of older units converting them to electric or T4 compliance.
That's about it for the general whirlwind tour of the NWP-SWP history.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
My Slate Creek Rail was formed to switch the Slate Creek Industrial Park and its sister road Summerset Railway was formed to switch the Lakeside Industrial Park.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Lone Wolf California is a fictional town located on Wolf Mountain on which my railroad passes over on it's way between the costal valley and the inland desert. It is named after the only wolf left in California. Sadly they have all been hunted to extinction just like California’s grizzly bears. Before it merged with the Santa Fe system in the early 1970s, The Lone Wolf Railroad was a shortline which served the local logging industry and some mining interests in the desert. The mill closed in the 80s and was replaced with urban development. The mines are still flourishing from the mineral rich desert.