I think I was born some 40 to 50 years too late. My hometown, Sioux Falls, South Dakota was served by five different railroads; Great Northern, Chicago & Northwestern, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road and the Rock Island. My favorites among these five would probably be the GN and the Milwaukee Road. Sioux Falls was never on the mainline of any of these roads, and I am too young to have remembered any steam power with any of these roads.
Some of my favorite roads would include the CB&Q, Northern Pacific, Canadian Pacific Railway, D&RGW and the Alaska Railroad. And I would encourage anyone who is contemplating a trip to Alaska to take a ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route, I did, and the scenery is absolutely spectacular!!
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
Conrail too...
LC
Pacific Electric Ry.
SLOCONDR
The Erie Lackawanna - those maroon, grey and yellow diesels coming through Ridgewood, NJ when I was a kid.
I didn't like Penn Central when I was little, but now I admit I miss them too... saw so many PC freights through Bergenfield, NJ.
Gotta put my vote in for the Pennsy, PRR, Pennsylvania. We started it all in the US!
Internationally, the French TGV owns. What a smoooooooooooth fasssssssssssst ride. 200mph never felt so good. We knocked out a 3.5 hour drive in 1 hr 20 minutes. Dijon to Paris. Way better then the Italian FS Ailitalia high speed hands down.
Tracking the William Henry Vanderbilt South Pennsylvania Railroad right of way along the Historic Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The Milwaukee Road all the way. Mostly for the electrics. And some plains modeling. But mostly electrics.
Hail the Box Cabs!!!!
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
The Elgin Joliet & Eastern followed by the GM&O.