J Campbell wrote: I'm not necessarily looking for "cute" as much as "cool" sounding...if you follow me.
I'm not necessarily looking for "cute" as much as "cool" sounding...if you follow me.
Central Oregon & Ottertail Lake
Central Oregon & Olallie Lake
(actual lake names in Oregon!..not sure where!) found names here: http://nwdata.geol.pdx.edu/OR-GIS/PlaceNames/
Cascade & Southern
Cascade & California
Pacific Northwest System
Cascade Range System
Northern California & Oregon
Wenatchee & Columbia
Snake River Railroad
Cascade & Snake River
Clickitat & Cowlitz
Snohomish & Puget Sound
found all these just by googling oregon and washington maps! I have never even been west of the Mississippi river! ;)
Scot
Falls Valley RR wrote: J Campbell wrote: canazar wrote: Where the name Kiva came from gets asked alot. Something historical? A location? A famous person? Nah, it is the name of my street that I have been living on for the last 3 years.. Sometimes it can be something rigth in front of you and not know it.Hmmm...I live on Thunderbird Road.Thunderbird Rail Co.?I'll have to play with that one...Dont bother, that 20/20 will get cha.
J Campbell wrote: canazar wrote: Where the name Kiva came from gets asked alot. Something historical? A location? A famous person? Nah, it is the name of my street that I have been living on for the last 3 years.. Sometimes it can be something rigth in front of you and not know it.Hmmm...I live on Thunderbird Road.Thunderbird Rail Co.?I'll have to play with that one...
canazar wrote: Where the name Kiva came from gets asked alot. Something historical? A location? A famous person? Nah, it is the name of my street that I have been living on for the last 3 years.. Sometimes it can be something rigth in front of you and not know it.
Hmmm...I live on Thunderbird Road.
Thunderbird Rail Co.?
I'll have to play with that one...
Dont bother, that 20/20 will get cha.
??? You lost me.
~ Jason
secondhandmodeler wrote: J Campbell wrote: I want something with (if I may be so bold)...balls. See my earlier post!
J Campbell wrote: I want something with (if I may be so bold)...balls.
I want something with (if I may be so bold)...balls.
Noted.
Association of Cunning Dumb CATS (If you model chessie lol...)
Or A.C.D.C for short.
I still like T.R.A.I.N.W.R.E.C.K though.
It took me to do Falls Valley a long time.
My suggestion probably will be Cascade Gap and Columbia Run. That is how we Easterners would see things out west, only smaller =)
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
cuyama wrote: Real-life railroads don't generally do quirky. They are businesses and need to be regarded as such. For me, that's why funny names or acronyms don't work very well.
Dave Vollmer wrote: I agree that "cutesy" or "quirky" names are less credible than real railroady-sounding names. But that depends on what your objectives are. Many modelers prefer a touch of fantasy to nitty-gritty business-like railroad names.
Let my clarify...
I'm not necessarily looking for "cute" as much as "cool" sounding...if you follow me. Lord help me, but the best example I can come up with right now is the "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" @ Disneyland. I know, I know, but hear me out...it sounds real cool and gritty, yet its almost believable enough to be an actual railroad name. That's what I'm going for.
The whole "city-to-city" name thing is prototypical and all, but I just can't help but be bored with it. It just sounds mundane and "ho-hum".
loathar wrote:Shooster & Huron Intermodal Transportation...
Your bad.
Dave Vollmer wrote: Cascade Range And Pacific."Don't be a sap, ship with CRAP!"
Cascade Range And Pacific.
"Don't be a sap, ship with CRAP!"
That is classic.
Best Regards, Big John
Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona. Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the Kiva Valley Railway
Snoqualmie Southern? (Northern? Eastern? Western? And Puget Sound?)
Love the name of that pass!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Tacoma Rail & Assabet Inland Neck & Western Rail Exporting Crummy Kites...
For short: T.R.A.I.N.W.R.E.C.K.
"uhh... That's spells train wreck."
"Ah, shoot! Really?"
"Boss ain't gonna be happy..."
Lol, call me a copy cat, had to do it.
Oregon Central.
Colorado and Northern.
I have the same problem naming a feeder line to the Virginian/N&W lines, its narrow gauge, so I looked up lines in the book of American Narrow Gauge Railroads and found abandoned lines that did interchange with them or standard gauged and eventually merged in.
I used a name and just said "they never abandoned..."
Real names...
Oregon
Oregonian Railway
Portland & Willamette Valley
Oregon Portage
Portland & Vancouver
Sumpter Valley
Washington
Cascades Railroad
Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Co.
Mill Creek Flume & Manufacturing Co.
Seattle & Walla Walla
Walla Walla & Columbia River
but then you could call it...
The Northwest Pacific.
During my HO years I had two freelanced railroads.
The first was a turn-of-the-century Colorado standard-gauge line much like the Colorado Midland. It was called the Gunnison, South Park & Pacific RR.
Later I modeled a 1910's-era freelanced standard-gauge Pennsylvania coal hauler similar to the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain RR and narrow-gauge East Broad Top RR. Mine connected the steel mills at Johnstown PA with the Broad Top Coal Fields by a somewhat more direct, although more vertical, route than the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was called the Johnstown & Broad Top RR.
While neither helps your Pacific Northwest setting, my point is that surrounding real railroads may give inspiration. Honestly, I agree that "cutesy" or "quirky" names are less credible than real railroady-sounding names. But that depends on what your objectives are. Many modelers prefer a touch of fantasy to nitty-gritty business-like railroad names.
I was in the same boat for my name. I went round and round with all kinds of ideas. My freelanced road is here in Arizona and I was trying, I suppose, to hard. Then one day, after all kinds of ideas I hit a wall and gave up... then my wife gave me a name, "Kiva"! I stuck on the Valley and I was off.
Where the name Kiva came from gets asked alot. Something historical? A location? A famous person? Nah, it is the name of my street that I have been living on for the last 3 years.. Sometimes it can be something rigth in front of you and not know it.
Otherwise, write a bunch down on post it notes, stick them to the wall, and grab a dart.
Well being fictional you can always go wih the city to city rout and there are alot of cities to choose from that have native american names to them up there. (I know I lived most of my life in a place called Olalla, WA) There is the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges they have robust names. Evergreen and Cascade? Puget Sound Logging Ry. Cascade Mnt logging. There is also the mountain peaks that are all named the 2 most notable are Mnt Rainier and Mnt St Hellens. If you use Mnt. St. Hellens you could always have your locos painted with the erupting mountain and then make the top of the loco grey for quirky. Just some ideas.
A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."
J Campbell wrote: I want something that sounds rugged and robust, yet slightly quirky. For the life of me, I can't come up with the right moniker.
I want something that sounds rugged and robust, yet slightly quirky. For the life of me, I can't come up with the right moniker.
Real-life railroads don't generally do quirky. They are businesses and need to be regarded as such. For me, that's why funny names or acronyms don't work very well.
You may not be interested in realism, but if you are, Bob Warren undertook a survey of 100 railroad names and found that the majority (nearly 70%) had a geographical term in the name (Pacific, Atlantic, Central, Western, Eastern, etc.). 56% had a city name in the title, 29% a state name (of course, there were many combinations like New York Central). This article was in the Layout Design News LDN-13, April 1995, published by the Layout Design SIG.
So for realism, pick a city or state name and a geographic element .... Chehalis Western and Portland & Western are two real-life PNW examples.
For quirky, it seems you already have lots of suggestions.
ByronModel RR Blog
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
MisterBeasley wrote:I really, really like incorporating at least one Native American or wildlife name into a railroad. Mine is the Moose Bay. The tribes in your area probably have great names that would go well with your proposed prototype.
Oh yeah...that's a pretty cool idea. Thanks!
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
SpaceMouse wrote: What are the names of the two end cities?
Not real sure...I haven't exactly looked at a map.
secondhandmodeler wrote:North Union Timber & Stone..........N.U.T.S.!
What are the names of the two end cities? The short line near me is the Bufalo and Pittsbugh Railroad.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.