Well, half my layout will be a mining site (undecided location, possibly Southern Illinois) far from where I grew up.
But the other half is based on where I live now (West Side of Chicgao) emphasizing the lines where I grew up (town of West Chicago). I'm a slave to nostalgia and love of Chicago.
Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad for Chicago Trainspotting and Budget Model Railroading.
Many of us probably model aspects of our home towns without even realizing it. The memories we have of our youth will always be with us, and shape what we do every day. Certain images are burned into our brains. As modelers, we remember them and they often appear in our models.
In a nearby town, there was a Railway Express Depot. I never went there, but I always remembered it and just looked at it as we drove by. Decades later, when I was creating a passenger consist for my own railroad, I ended up with a pair of express reefers in Railway Express livery. I ended up with the Branchline Munnsville Depot kit, which converted nicely to a Railway Express facility.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
No I don't model my hometown in Tucson, Arizona. I did like the Cotton Belt and Southern Pacific locomotives though.
My interest is Conrail, New York Central, and my fictional G.N.O. Railway.
It's sounds better modeling the east side than modeling desert, rocks, brushes and cactus.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I model a freelanced regional anthracite hauler c. 1920-ish, that has its home base in Carbondale, PA... where my father was born and raised. Plans are to include a compressed representation of the downtown on the layout.
Jim
Hello All,
I grew up in Long Beach, CA.
The Santa Fe ran through areas of the city towards the port. It also served the Boeing plant at the airport along with other industries surrounding the plant.
On the west side is Santa Fe Boulevard that runs parallel to the 710 freeway.
Nearby is the city of Hawthorne known for its refineries.
I now live in a small town in the Colorado Rockies.
My pike is based on coal mining in Colorado rather than the industries I grew up near.
Also, on a 4'x8' there is little room for a port or a refinery complex.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
I grew up in South London so all I saw was Southern electrics so the same experience as you. Hence, I have modelled freelance US outline all my modelling life!
Long Haired DavidA.K.A. David Penningtonmain man on the Sunset and North Eastern R.R.http://www.gmrblog.co.ukfrom the UK
I live on an Island nine miles long, three miles wide, split almost in half by a long cove. The closest thing to a railroad we have is trackage that was laid in the 1880s in a large feldspar quarry that would move the product down to vessels that carried the feldspar to New York to be made into china. There are three fishing villiages, and several clam flats, and one state park that has two sand beaches, one mile in length, and the other 1/2 mile in length. We had one shipyard where schooners were made for the coastal trade, and for rum running..
So....no, nothing to model.
I have a very eclectic collection that I run on my trackage. 1860s, to 1970s. Mostly run steam, change vehicles when the mood strikes me, per era, everything else is generic. Most pleased when engine is cast, and comes back to the starting point with the same amount of cars it left with.
Grew up in Brownsville Texas, Grandfather was Yard Master for the Missouri Pacific, intoduced to steam in the mid-1940s. Wasn't fond of cactus then, still not.
herrinchoker
Another Air Force brat with lots of choices in home town if I wanted. However, I may have already been a bit jaded when I took up model ralroading at age 14. I'd seen a lot of railroads, but all of the sudden I ended up near the end of a stone belt branch of the Monon, back home in Inidiana b/c the USAF was sending Dad to get his MBA at IU. Back in those days, you had to be far more enterprising - and I wasn't quite there yet.
And I got narrowgauge fever and I, too, liked Colorado. But you had to handklay the track. In a state of confusion , I became distracted by trucks and women for a few years and became inactive in the hobby. I kept reading MR then about the time I decided to come back I found the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette and HOn3 flex track along with Shinohara turnouts and I ended up where I am today. I model a little Monon, but mostly it's the Rio Grande and it's deriative RRs on narrow gauge rails.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I did not model my home town UNTIL LifeLike Proto2000 released the very Chicago & North Western switchers that my best friend and I watched almost every summer day work the local industries. It was like flipping a switch and decades of Pennsylvania Railroad modeling (and acquisition of books and research materials) ended in an instant.
Dave Nelson
I grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, but model the late '30s using real place names from southern and southwestern Ontario.Most of the industries are also named for real ones, but I was never all that interested in modelling them after their prototypes.My railroad is freelanced, but also able to host the real railroads which operated in my hometown, and they included Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo, and the New York Central.
Much of the layout is built around fond memories and recollections.
Wayne
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Remember the Brooklyn Terminal Railroad which handled the cross bay barge traffic, The South Brooklyn Railroad and the Long Island Railroad. Grew up with American Flyer S gauge. Moved an number of times and had small layouts. When I worked for the government in California I modeld the SP. I had full access to their Santa Clara yard and rode with an engineer friend of mine in the cab of the FM Train Masters on the commuter runs and freights at night. Chased trains over Dommer summit from Colfax to Truckeee.. I now live in Pennsylvania, but I model the BNSF's Pikes Peak Sub which runs from Denver southe to Pueble Colorado. I love mountain railroading and think that they are the best run railroad and enjoy modeling them. I model the entire life the BNSF plus a few engines that they did/do not have just because I like them. For example I have U50B's, RSD15 Aligators and C430"s. Which are what Con Cor called C630's, but the actual size is within a few inches of a protoype C430.
I grew up on a Erie Lackawanna branchline in Northern New Jersey, but I model one of my favorite EL rainfanning spots - Scranton, PA in 1970. Used to love the pushers out of town, roaming around the shops and yard, and chasing trains on the Bloomsburg Branch. Taking the liberty of moving a steel mill complex for operational interest.
But it was my boyhood affection for the EL that certainly help drive my choice
ROBERT PETRICK'm hearing rumors that Burrito Brothers has closed down. The horror! Oh well, at least Al's Cubana is still in business. Now I'm getting a craving for a medianoche. Robert
There keeps being rumors that Leonardo's on University Avenue will be closing, but it was still open a few months ago.
That place is a time machine for me. I rode my bike there when I was 7-8 years old for a slice if Big Leo,I can still get it!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Trainman440Hi, was curious, does anyone model a prototype railroad that's not related to their hometown? If so, why?
Well, I don't really have a home down having grown up an Air Force kid. But I lived in Davis California from 6th grade into early college years and the RR that ran through town was the Southern Pacific. It is a favorate of mine to the present day, but for modeling purposes, inn the early 80's I drove to and through Colorado several times and the scenery there was awesome - and that was the D&RGW that traveled though it, not around it! I'm departing from many D&RGW modelers and choosing the west Colorado desert into eastern Utah - near Grand Junction.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
SeeYou190 I grew up in Gainesville, Florida. No mining, no through trains, no industry, no hills, no tunnels, no bridges, no rivers, and so on. University of Florida and Sonny's Barbeque. No, I do not model my hometown. -Kevin
I grew up in Gainesville, Florida.
No mining, no through trains, no industry, no hills, no tunnels, no bridges, no rivers, and so on.
University of Florida and Sonny's Barbeque.
No, I do not model my hometown.
I'm hearing rumors that Burrito Brothers has closed down. The horror!
Oh well, at least Al's Cubana is still in business.
Now I'm getting a craving for a medianoche.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
I saw the Ma & Pa cross the main drag in my suburban hometown exactly once before it became extinct. Baltimore had lots of trains, but my only experience until much later, when I prowled all over the industrial areas with a camera, was Penn Station.
I model a region a couple hours west of where I grew up.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Although I free-lance, I have chosen a couple of areas from southern coastal Oregon as the region where my free-lance lines are located. Coos Bay is the terminus for my standard gauge line running the southern route to the interior - smilar to the Oregon Pacific in its vision, but chose a better port. Port Orford is where the narrow gauge line reaches the sea to ship the famous Port Orford cedar to California and Japan.
I also model the year 1900 - the tail end of the logging schooner and narrow gauge era, but the beginning of knuckle couplers. The research for plausible free-lance is a lot of fun. I can borrow from similar railroads in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California but am not limited to a particular line.
I grew up in Northern Virginia - attended elementary school alongside the then-working tracks of the Washington & Old Dominion. I was home-ported in Coos Bay for 2 years - my only Oregon tie.
Fred W
Harrison The unusual thing is I model the late 1970's and early 80's, while I didn't start railfanning the area until about 8 years ago.
The unusual thing is I model the late 1970's and early 80's, while I didn't start railfanning the area until about 8 years ago.
Strange, but perhaps not so strange, because I too model an era way before I was born, 1970, more than 30 years before I was born. I think it's because I like the same railroads as my grandpa, and those railroads ceased to exist in 1971 (BN merger).
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
Well, I do model the "region" where I grew up and still live. I freelance and model interchanges with three major railroads of this region from the time period I model.
My "hometown" only had a small short line with one locomotive when I was growing up.......
The setting for my layout is fictional, but it represents geography about 50 to 100 miles west of where I live or grew up.
And it represents a time period three years before I was born.......
So while my inspiration is related to my life experience in this region, it is not driven by some desire to recreate something from my childhood.
Sheldon
My town on the plains would be a boring layout. The BNSF tracks come through our county in a straight line, and normally the trains don't even slow down.
RR Mel has inspired me to try something that does involve my hometown. He has scratchbuilt houses that he and his his kids live in. I would like to try that.
York1 John
Count me in for not doing that. I live in Northern VA, but model N&W in the early 1980s in Southern VA. Coal is king! Other industries in southern VA I model include grain, cement, and LPG/AA.
I model my home railroad town, the town I live in doesn't have a railroad, but is about 20 minutes from Plattsburgh, NY, where I model the D&H. The unusual thing is I model the late 1970's and early 80's, while I didn't start railfanning the area until about 8 years ago. (when I was old enough to actually enjoy trains). For some reason I find the 70's and 80's much more interesting the the present day.
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
I was born adn raised in Las Vegas but have never modeled the Union Pacific there. It would be fun and tempting but I just don't have the space. When I lived in Nevada I modeled the Tonopah & Tidewater RR in Goldfield Nevada circa 1915, which might count as a "sort" of home town.
I've tended to model somewhere close to where I am living. When I lived in Morgantown, I modeled the B&O and WM in Morgantown. Now I am modeling the Maryland Midland whcih is about 4 hours away.
Technically I don't. I'm from Easton. We had CNJ, LV, and L&HR. I model the Reading. NOW I live near the former Reading.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I do model my hometown - - - Chicago. As a lifelong Chicagoan, it is hard not too because so many different railroads, from the east, west, south, and even north, came into and out of Chicago.
Rich
Alton Junction
No.. Columbus,Ohio would be hard to model even around NYC's McKinley Ave yard,PRR's Cleveland Ave yard complex C&O's Parson Ave yard(by Buckeye Steel) or N&W's Joyce Avenue yard.
B&O's Port Columbus yard could be modeled since it was a small yard but you would need lots of nearby homes and businesess.
Even when I modeled NYC back in the mid 60s I built a generic ISL and simply called it NYC's Dorcy Ave industrial lead a fictitious name I made up on a whim with no known location.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I live overseas, so I have chosen to collect trains from the parts of the US I'm originally from because it reminds me of my "other" home! Since for the most part I would say Eastern Washington is my US home that means I model NP/GN SP&S. I was born in West Michigan so that means I am also partial to Pere Marquette/C&O, Grand Trunk, etc. But I don't have any models from where I have lived overseas because there either are no models available, or no prototype!
I mix it up. I model a seaport ISL based loosly on Coos Bay Or, where I grew up. I use real yellow dirt from that area for some banks and fill on my layout. Sort of a "could have been" extension of the bay. That puts me in SP territory and my trains reflect it. But the only scratchbuilt prototype based structures I have are from Bend Or, where I am now. Dan