My choice has been and is the Santa Fe, the real Santa Fe not that barf bucket BNSF railroad. Reasons?
My dad was a Santa Fe locomotive engineer in Oklahoma for 50 years (I model the Santa Fe in Oklahoma during the 1989/90 era.
I worked for Santa Fe in Oklahoma during the summer grain harvest which provided me funds to attend seminary, get an education/profession which my folks could not afford (private institution) and the three months each summer I worked for Santa Fe paid me enough to buy books, pay tuition, meet my other expenses (and I lived at home).
Santa Fe in Topeka gave me a job in the GOB when the church I pastored went belly up. I worked the 11 PM to 7 AM shift in RedBall which paid all my expenses, supported my wife, two kids and me.
Santa Fe also had me tested in the 60's and I went to IBM school and then went to Kansas City and joined the new EDP team for the Federal Reserve Bank, which in turn paid me an excellent salary for the next 28 years as I programmed, designed systems, taught employees classes for software and even gave me an excellent early retirement so that I was then able to pastor another church for another ten years drawing railroad retirement, my own pension plan and all.
So I guess I owe a good part of my living and world to Santa Fe and I think good thoughts about them. Especially since I could enjoy early retirement and build the Santa Fe in my basement.
Bob
Here's my answer to the original question, which may leave some people scratching there heads.
I live in Southern California (45+ years) and have lived in the west my entire life. My model railroad of choice has always been the Santa Fe, until now. I've now decided to dump the Santa Fe, and am now in the process of converting to the Boston and Maine, which is as far east as you can get and the Boston and Maine wasn't even a top tier railroad! I've thought about it for a long time, and I have several reasons, but that's the decision I've made.
schom I was asked a question last night about what are the top 25 railroads to model. It got me thinking about how the list has changed over the years. I wanted to see what people thought?
I was asked a question last night about what are the top 25 railroads to model. It got me thinking about how the list has changed over the years. I wanted to see what people thought?
I think that if I wanted an answer to that question, I would assemble the membership numbers for all the railroad historical societies. The top 25 of those would be my answer.
What would skew this a bit would be the effect of a poorly run society--you can imagine how that would work.
I might be misinterpreting the question, though. Read strictly, it's "what are the top 25 railroads to model?". That could easily be the ones that are the most fun compared to those that are the most boring. Taking the SP&S as an example, we have a railroad that ran BOTH NP and GN steam, ran lots and lots of Alcos, ran dome-equipped streamliners, had dome-equipped streamliners running on an adjacent railroad.......
Or perhaps it means the ones that are the most easily done--that would be based on the quantity of road-specific models available. Again taking the SP&S, there's an awful lot of SP&S brass steam engines available, a fair amount of the passenger cars needed have been done, freight cars, too.........
Is the SP&S in the top 25? Around here, it's #1.
Ed
My vote would be with the Mighty Pennsy. My Grandfather worked on it and it is part of my heritage. I never saw the PRR run since I was born in 68 and that is the year of the merger but of my 80+ engines 73 are the PRR!
rogerhensley In all of the conversations here, I never saw the NYC (New York Central) mentioned and only a couple of mentions of the PRR. My suggestions: NYC, PRR, PC, Monon, CR. That's all folks...
In all of the conversations here, I never saw the NYC (New York Central) mentioned and only a couple of mentions of the PRR.
My suggestions: NYC, PRR, PC, Monon, CR.
That's all folks...
Brother Hensley, methinks you failed to read my post...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Dog-gone-it, Northern Pacific came in 26th, just out of the running! Oh well, some gotta win, some gotta loose!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
This railroad should be #1 on the list.
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?railroad=Dubois%20County%20Railroad
(BTW: how do I activate a link?)
- Douglas
I don't know how you'd ever get to 25.
There's Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific .Maybe the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo; then GO Transit, & of course, the Hogwarts Express.
But I've never heard of any others...
(hee hee...)
tomikawaTT rogerhensley In all of the conversations here, I never saw the NYC (New York Central) mentioned and only a couple of mentions of the PRR. My suggestions: NYC, PRR, PC, Monon, CR. That's all folks... Brother Hensley, methinks you failed to read my post... Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I too mentioned the NYC - I guess my post was too long to actually be read.
Sheldon
two of my favorites are the mopac/t&p and the kansascity southern. tuxedoj
PRRT1MANMy vote would be with the Mighty Pennsy.
Two more reasons to like Pennsy:
Check out this neat picture of a Pennsy E8 running out of the West Gallitzin Tunnels in 2001. This picture is prototype inspiration for a model railroad's tunnel portals at the top of a helix -- High mountain railroading, railfanning, scenery, etc.
North East Rails also has a hard-to-find-anywhere 1950s picture of steam blowers at the East Gallitzin portals (note the PRR Truc-Train).
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Oops. Sorry about that. I missed the mention you made completely.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
Actually the Toledo Terminal Railroad is the best railroad to model. It served the 3rd largest rail center in the United States and due to the fact that the railroad is an oval makes it most prototypical for model railroaders. Also it conffered trackage rights to the PRR, NYC, NKP, WABASH, DT&I, D&TSL, C&O, B&O, Ann Arbor, W&LE, and TA&W. All these lines could be found on the Terminal Daily.
Rick J
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
The question posed by the OP is not "What is your favorite RR?" but "What are the 'Top 25 Railroads to model'?"
There's a big difference. What might be your and my "favorite" RR may not even be in the top 25. Although I don't model it, I like the AC&Y. However, you'll be pretty hard pressed to find much offerings in the AC&Y herald.
Any Top 25 Railroad list would most likely be comprised of those RRs the manufacturers deem as a "safe bet" and, thereby, will provide locomotive and rolling stock to meet an anticipated need and demand. But...a Top 25 list doesn't necessarily have to be confined to "availability" of product to be "Top 25". It could also include:
At best this list will be arbitrary. Given the availability of product though...Pennsy would probably win hands down, with UP a good second.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL And I am amazed at the lack of B&O prototypes among all this high detail, high accuracy RTR product. There has been some recent action in the B&O direction - wagon top box cars and caboose, Bachmann's EM-1, but for a railroad that had tremendous car and loco shops and produced a wealth of amazing railroad equipment, it not represented very well compared to the PRR or the UP.
And I am amazed at the lack of B&O prototypes among all this high detail, high accuracy RTR product. There has been some recent action in the B&O direction - wagon top box cars and caboose, Bachmann's EM-1, but for a railroad that had tremendous car and loco shops and produced a wealth of amazing railroad equipment, it not represented very well compared to the PRR or the UP.
You know, not even the B&O museum in Baltimore Maryland has a lot of B&O stuff. There's a lot more C&O! It makes me wonder if B&O did not care about preserving some of their heritage, or if it was muscled out by the post C&O merger. I mean there's L1's, H-8, H-6, Berks, and all kinds of C&O Passenger equipment. But there's only a few semi modern B&O cars. Most of the stuff is really old.
Back to the subject:
UP, SP, ATSF, C&O/Chessie, B&O, WM, NYC, N&W, Pennsy is without a doubt on the list.
I'm sure most of you know I lament quite often about the lack of C&O equipment. I guess the market is flooded with tons of old stock C&O stuff (as evidenced by ebay) but I still consider it rarity when it comes to modern tooled versions of these cars that are DCC ready and high on detail.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!