Place Name Significance

[TrainFreak409]

How many of y'all name places on your layout after something that has had some significance to your life? Or for people?

On the layout I build, I want to base a small town off of the town I lived in for twelve years of my sixteen year life. Sykesville is where I grew up, and on my layout, it will be Skyesville. I will also have a "replica" of the Sykesville and Patapsco Model Railroad Club, but this will be the Skyesville and Patapsico Model Railroad Club on my layout.

How about you? Do you name places on your layout after family? Friends? Anything that isn't prototypical?

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TrainFreak409
How many of y'all name places on your layout after something that has had some significance to your life? Or for people?

How about you? Do you name places on your layout after family? Friends? Anything that isn't prototypical?

Absolutely. On my first free-lance design almost everything was significant. I was a Sophomore in High School. The towns were named after scientists/inventors (Tesla, Voltaire, Faraday, etc.). The locomotive numbers were the line numbers (last four digits of the phone number) of the girls in my class. The train numbers were certain room numbers from the school. Passenger cars carried names from historical figures that were significant to me. As I recall automobile types, music groups, songs, and Star Trek themes were worked into it.

Today our club layout has industries that carry members names, and all observation cars carry the names of past Club Presidents.

[dharmon]

Yeah, the town on my layout is Castle Rock, Maine. If you read Stephen King, its the town where several of his novels take place. So why Castle Rock?????

Because in the book "Needful Things" the town get destroyed. I know that in a few years I'll be moving and the town will cease to exist.......it's days are numbered, it just doesn't know it yet.

[GDRMCo]

Well on my coming layout Townsville was the best placed I've lived at and Brisbane was where I went this year with the NT U14's Rugby Union team to play the QLD teams this year. So those two places are significant to me.
Mitchell

[dehusman]

The Schuylkill Valley Model Railroad Club was featured in Model Railroading earlier this year. I was a member there while it was being built. I named one of the towns "Hathaway" because when you got there you were hathaway around the layout.

Dave H.

[MisterBeasley]

My two subway stations are named Penny St. and Saint Anne Ave., after my wife and daughter. Annie is a pretty good kid, but she's no saint.

[cheese3]

The C. R. Owings mfg. Co. is named after my grandfather That I have mentioned in the coffee shop, I named it before he was having problems. If I showed it to him now he will like it but in a couple of hours he won't remember it but thats ok. I also plan to have Coopers Coal Co. Which is named after my great uncle because He loves trains and model railroading too. His layout is so cool...but thats a different subject.


Here is a pic where you can see the sign. This was on the old layout.



Now it has been painted. It is the red building on the left.

[Anonymous]

Sure thing. My daughter claimed one of the tunnels on my layout, smashed a bottle of Champagne on the portal and named it Sara Tunnel. She's 7 so I agreed since I didn't have a better name in mind anyway. My son (3) wanting to do what his sister had done, claimed a bridge in his own name, Benjamin Bridge. I named the chorded 18" long bridge that spans the center of my layout for my wife, Matriarch Bridge, and finally my best friends wife suggested that a water fall would look good in a certain spot on my layout. So I named the falls Margaret Falls after her.

I have yet to name the Freight Depot and Passenger Station, and have several more unbuilt stores and the like to build and place, but I'm sure those will get named after people and places in my life. I just makes it a little more personal.

Happy Model Railroading
Trevor

[Anonymous]

Most of the naming on my layout revolves back to my college days. In a sense the whole thing does, since it's set in genericish Upstate New York. The passenger station is 'Illium Depot' since I went to school in Troy. Likewise the newspaper office on the layout will be called 'S&W Publishing', named after Statler & Waldorf, a magazine I worked on in college. (Yes, the magazine was named for the muppets. [:D])
Still haven't named the river, which will be a semi-fictitous Hudson tributary, the port (fairly small and modest, really a barge unloading facility) or the power plant. Or the mountains. I guess being unmarried and without kids cuts back on potential names, eh? [;)]

[pcarrell]

The Autumn's Ridge Railway & Navigation Co. is named after my daughter (Autumn). Winndy Hollow is named after my wife (Winndy). The town of Andrews is a tip of the hat to John Allens town by the same name on his Gorre & Dephieted RR and is also named after my son, Andrew. So far thats about it. The rest of my names mean nothing really.

If you want to do this, I'd say that it's YOUR RR, go for it! [8D]

[steveblackledge]

My Railroad is called the Yarrow Valley Sub division of the BN, because i live in the Yarrow Valley

[TrainFreak409]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

Yeah, the town on my layout is Castle Rock, Maine. If you read Stephen King, its the town where several of his novels take place. So why Castle Rock?????

Because in the book "Needful Things" the town get destroyed. I know that in a few years I'll be moving and the town will cease to exist.......it's days are numbered, it just doesn't know it yet.

[:0]That's an interesting twist to this thread...[^]

[ukguy]

I just "bumped" one of my old related topics up to the front for you.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=34133

Have fun & be safe,
Karl.

[SilverSpike]

Towns:
On my layout I have plans to name the towns after some of the neighborhoods in our area, we live in Walnut Bend so the main town will be named that. We also live in an area known as Algiers, so another town will be named after it. The side of the river we live on is also known as the Westbank, so I have named another section of the layout after that.

Businesses:
On my layout plans I have named businesses after my wife, kids, and pets. Such as Mo Betta Coal is named after my wife Monique, and Ryan's Hardware after me, then there is Benn Station, the passenger station in Walnut Bend named after my son Benjamin, I also have Bryan Meat Packers after my other son Bryan. I have named my main yard as Paco Yard after one of our Chihuahua’s. Then there is Sparky Depot named after my mutt Sparky.

[Anonymous]

When I get my layout going I'm going to model the grade crossing where every almost Sunday my family would be stopped by a Chessie System/ SeaLand double stack train on our way to church. This is actually my first recollection of why I got into railroading as a job and hobby. I was impressed by the size and many different colors on the Chessie at that time, B&O and C&O blues, the WM, once in a while a Seaboard engine...GP-30's, mid train helpers, cabooses. Takes me back.

[Pruitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dehusman

The Schuylkill Valley Model Railroad Club was featured in Model Railroading earlier this year. I was a member there while it was being built. I named one of the towns "Hathaway" because when you got there you were hathaway around the layout.

Dave H.

Hey!

I was a member of the club too, back in the early 90s for a short while, until I moved. Small world!

[Pruitt]

The places and industries on my layout are named for the real ones along the line. The significance is that I grew up living in a few of the towns, and traveled to, or through, them all frequently. Big nostalgia trip, though the era is pre-me by about 20 years.

[Attaboy]

The layout I'm currently starting is just for the experience a probably won't have any names. The narrow gauge line I'm planning for the garage out back already has a name - Dagascagonda, Lycippus, and Euclid Railroad and Coal Company. The intitials, DLE, are in memory of my late father. I'm sure other personal names will figure into. I'm already considering towns named after my daughters.

[Anonymous]

I do [#ditto] One of the towns on my layout is my last name: Adamsville. My last name is Adams. Also, another one is my middle name: Scott Yard. My middle name is Scott.

[SilverSpike]

Hey Brunton, where do you find a big roll of sheet cork like that?

- Ryan

[Jetrock]

All the businesses on my layout are based on businesses that actually existed (or still exist) in the Sacramento, CA location I model--although not all were actually adjacent to the mainline, or were around when the railroad I model was still running. I'm a local-history freak and it seemed like a neat way to pay tribute to local businesses. I use old city guides for place-names, and when I can find ads I use those as source materials for signs.

[Anonymous]

My layout is CNW Janesville Sub. the subdivision is real. but my layout is fictious. the other town is rockville. a small town nestled on a Bluff. i haven't gotten around to naming any of the other industries yet.

[leighant]

I posted earlier in a business/industry names thread about names on my East Texas District of the Santa Vaca and Santa Fe Rwy (piney woods layout).
old layout picture: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aad.jpg

I am starting a new layout based on the Santa Fe at Galveston, Texas, but I am taking just enough liberties that I don't want to call it Galveston. It is both a condensation and “my own version” of a prototype, with many “names changed to protect the innocent”. Except in this case, they are changed to hide my guilt at not modeling specific places exactly. My end-of-the line island seaport on the Texas Gulf Coast will be “KARANKAWA”, named after the group of native Americans that lived in the area. There is a real Carancahua Bay in Texas, and an unicorporated Carancahua community but they are spelled differently.
trackplan: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/ael.jpg

The Santa Fe station and office building (now the Railroad Museum) is at the end of "The Strand" street, a downtown district of comercial buildings that survived in late-Victorian style because of the decline of the city at certain periods in its history. In the 1880s-1890s, it had been known as the "Wall Street of the South." I want at least half a block of that district, using DPM, Magnuson and European buildings to duplicate the Victorian commercial style. It will be named "EXCHANGE STREET" for its one-time financial and commodity market role.
Prototype view: ATSF station & The Strand, 1982
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aem.jpg
The real street in front of the station, perpendicular to The Strand is Rosenberg Ave or 25th. I want a railroad-related name. Perhaps it can be “SANTA VACA AVE” after the railroad name of my overall 30-foot square “dream railroad” I hope to build someday. The real-life Santa Fe has lots of towns with Spanish-flavored religious names, and my model train interest started with Christmas presents. The name Santa Vaca (“holy cow”) is the cow in the manger scene who gave up her feeding stall to provide a cradle for the Baby Jesus. Logo of the Santa Vaca andSanta Fe Rwy:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/abc.jpg

My passenger station and Santa Fe Railroad facilities would be on the front of one section of layout, and dockside trackage served by a port switching railroad along dock sheds towards the back of the scene, with a street scenically and visually separating the rail lines. Real street was Harbor View in 1950s, replaced by a new Harborside Drive. I’ll call mine just “HARBOR DRIVE”.
Old computer conceptual rendering:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/adp.jpg

The cargo sheds at the back of the scene will hide passenger staging tracks, and show the upper portion of ships above the cargo sheds, painted on the background. Some of the real port facilities were called Mallory Lines docks. I will use “MALLORY” as the town name of the staging tracks, the first place trains reach when they leave the model scene. Mallory would also be a tribute to pioneer modeler Paul Mallory.
Prototype view:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aeo.jpg

I expect to want to run more trains than I can find hidden staging for. I consider parked freight trains in the distance as less obvious than parked passenger trains, so I am planning open staging towards the back of the layout specifically for freight trains, on the far side of Harbor Drive so that the staging is visually and scenically part of the Port switching railroad. Since this makes this trackage a bit of an imposter, I am naming it “DEMARA YARD” for the title character in the 1960-something movie “The Great Imposter” played by Tony Curtis.

Galveston had a fantastic scene with four blocks of cotton warehouses in faintly classic style, along a major divided thoroughfare with rows of palm trees and oleanders down the boulevard. The warehouse facades bloomed with bougainvillea vines. I thought of it as “The Garden Warehouse District”, an unusually combination of industry and civic physical identity. The thoroughfare name “Broadway” is fine for real life, but to emphasize the sense of place, I am calling mine “ISLAND BOULEVARD.”
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aep.jpg

Another reason for renaming Broadway is that I want to use scenes from different points along the real Broadway on different streets of the layout. One section has rambling mansions which I will might fit on “GARDEN STREET”.
Besides Victorian homes not too different from IHC’s kits, Galveston has “Greek revival” style houses. To keep the “Greek” idea, those could go on “TEMPLE STREET”. Temple also recognizes a Santa Fe official, for whom the city of Temple, Texas is named.

Many colorful and “modelgenic” entertainment and beachfront type scenes are along Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard, on the Gulf side of the island, away from all the railroad lines. I plan to transplant many of these to the back side of the island, where the railroad and auto causeways from the mainland reach the island across a section of bay. This is no longer actually the Gulf seawall. This transplanted seawall area can be named “ROBERTS DRIVE” after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer who supervised construction of the seawall in the early part of the 20th century, and who also wrote “Roberts’ Rules of Order”, a feat of parliamentary engineering.
Old computer conceptual rendering. Seawall itself and boulevard would be just to lower right of where picture ends.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/abz.jpg

In the 1950s, the seawall had a “wide open” nightclub on a long pier out in the Gulf. The long walk on the pier gave nightclub personnel time to hide illegal gambling paraphernalia when law officers came to call. (I did say colorful, didn’t I?) My pleasure pier nightclub will be called “Paradise Palms”. I just recently learned there is a replica of an old-time amusement pier at Disney’s California Adventure theme part called something like “Paradise Pier.”
Cardboard mockup of model:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/afa.jpg

I like the look of the cartoon “Dashing Turtle” logo decal inserted in Model Railroader some time ago. The top had turtle looks like the kind of character associated with a slightly raunchy “gentleman’s club” of the 1950s, one that might have a little burlesque. I think I will make “DASHING TURTLE” an on-shore club in the Roberts Drive entertainment district.

An old-time wooden roller coast was named “Mountain Coaster” on some Sanborn’s Insurance Maps but I want something with a more ratty-tatty amusement district flavor. The coaster could not possibly be called “Hurricane” or “Cyclone” or anything like that because of the civic memory of the 1900 hurricane which killed 6000 to 9000 Galvestonians- nobody knows for sure how many- the deadliest natural disaster in US history. My roller coaster will be the “SPEED DEMON”.
Cardstock mockup of model:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acv.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acw.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acx.jpg

The bay crossed by the rail and auto causeway will be “ARMSTRONG BAY” in memory of an old friend associated with bays, the late Dr. W. Armstrong Price, one of the world’s top shoreline geologists.
Prototype photo: Texas Limited tourist train crossing Galveston Bay causeway 1990 .
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aca.jpg

The mainland end of the real causeway is Virginia Point. Mine is “BAY POINT”.
Old computer conceptual rendering:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aby.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acb.jpg
Prototype stilt houses at Virginia Point:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aeq.jpg

My big dream railroad included one inland town between Bay Point and the urban center of Santa Vaca, my stand-in for Houston. I have called that in-between town, with elements of Texas City and Hitchcock, the fictional name of “TIDELANDS”, after the controversial issue of the 1950s about state vs. federal ownership of offshore oil. I don’t know if I can fit any of Tidelands in my 11’ x 12’ room. But I have built a 2’ x 3’ portable switching layout representing the Navy blimp base at Hitchcock, Texas served by the Santa Fe. The official name of the base was United States Naval Air Station Hitchcock (Lighter Than Air). By abbreviation, the name of my on-base railroad is (drum roll, please) the “LIGHTER THAN AIR RAILROAD”.

http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aac.jpg

Sticks and stones may break my modeling budget, but names will never hurt me (as long as I keep them fictitious enough that I don’t have to pay licensing fees.)