Back shortly after I started in model railroading, I chose a name for my railroad. Since I hadn't chosen a region for my railroad to exist (still haven't) I kept it ambiguous enough that it could have been found anywhere. A name like Samson, Burnton, and Southern (not Burlington) didn't use the name of any major cities or even regions, so I'm not restricted to region by the name. For paint scheme, I loosely followed the Reading Railroad (growing up it was my hometown railroad), but used a lighter green. I even copied the large numbers at the back of the long hood.
My regional-link railroad was founded in 1972 as simply the "Pine Ridge Railroad". It was formalized in 1973 as a High School English short story project as the "Pine Ridge and North River". It is set at the height of the uranium mining craze of the 1950s and is in the same part of the country as Adelie's "Bunter Ridge Southwestern Railroad". It connects to the Santa Fe & C&S in Trinidad and the Rio Grande in Walsenburg. It services several major coal mines but its primary customer is a uranium mine in Northern NM. At the time I was into the cutsy name and it had a direct competitor which was the Emersion & Lake Palmer.
It took years planning the geology, geography, and towns of the ficticious area. Once the "area" is designed the elements become part of the railroad name just like they do in real life.
Since that time I've learned a lot more and worked on a railroad further north. It assumes that Westinghouse fulfilled their committement to Tesla and his wireless power distribution system was developed. The railroad is therefore a shortline/industrial railway mainly serving the Tesla Wireless Power company near Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak Fossil Creek & Tesla.
At one time I wrote a computer program to generate railroad names. It was programmed with "Colorado" and came up with some really good ones. Unfortunately I don't need that many. So I only kept the Kremling & Roostic Uray as my narrow gauge.
Here are some other threads related to this topic. Once again I really wish we could merge these things into a more comprehensive and easily findable thread:http://cs.trains.com/forums/1/670786/ShowPost.aspx#670786http://cs.trains.com/forums/1/792540/ShowPost.aspx#792540http://cs.trains.com/forums/1/826283/ShowPost.aspx#826283
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
My Golden State Railroad is a fictional bridge road that runs from San Jose California east throught the San Juaquin Valley and then up the spine of the Sierra Nevada Mountians thru Klamath Falls to Medford Oregon. All six of the class 1 railroads have to connect thru us to move traffic in all directions thru northern California. We also have the City Of San Francisco, The Daylight and the California Zephyer passenger trains running on our tracks.
In Westcentral Pennsylvania, Johnstown city limits, are shaped like a dog, surrounds the Conemaugh Valley where two rivers meet to form the Conemaugh River, to run through the steep-hilled Conemaugh Gap, eventually emptying into the Allegheny River into Pittsburgh.
The former west slope 4-track Pennsy mainline (now 3-track Norfolk Southern) follows the rivers through Johnstown and then the Conemaugh Gap before cutting over to Pittsbugh and beyond.
Interurban => What if the Brill/PCC traction was expanded to include local freight?
Class I => What if PRR electrification westward expansion was planned from Harrisburg?
Conemaugh Road & Traction:
"Conemaugh" for geography.
"Road" for newer small diesel.
"Traction" for CR&T's origins.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
One tip.
Avoid any "cutsie" name. The novelty soon wears off.
Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com
For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
When I was planning a free lanced class I, it was going to be the Virginia and Lake Erie. But now I'm doing the Maryland and Pennsylvania (Ma&Pa) and that's what I plan to call it.
Enjoy
Paul
Mine is the Grey Mountain and Dalton RR.
My first layout used hardshell scenery as popularized in MR in the early 60's; I tinted the plaster so the mountains had a light gray base color which prompted the first part of the name. However when abbreviated as the GM RR, the name seemed to lack an ending.
So... GM&A? - naw. GM&B?, nope.... GM&D had a nice ring to it. Since the setting for the layout was in NE PA, I looked on a map for a city starting with D, and found Dalton.
"Grey" is spelled with an "e" because I was using rub-on lettering sheets that only had two A's per alphabet.
And that's been the name for 46 years and counting.
Jim
I was going to name mine PennCentral but suddenly my bank accounts all emptied and all the other railroad modelers giggled and snickered behind my back. I wonder why that would be?
Seriously, my last layout was called the Plywood Atlantic as it was two sheets in an L shape and 100% snap track.
When I get to starting my road, it will be an industrial pike called "Nackers yard", which where most of the equipment will look as if it should have been dumped.
Dennis
Ours is called the JUMIJO RR (pronounced Joo-mee-joe). I used the first two letters of each child's name to come up with that. JUlia, MIchael, and JOhn.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
I struggled with a name for my railroad untill I moved into Essa Township I live in a valley so the Essa Valley Rail Road was born.The EVRR has a nice ring to it.
Although I'm a CN and CP modeler in HO scale, I do have a fictitious short line locomotive fleet. The railway is called the LBSS&G (Lopsided, Backwards, Smeared, Smudged, and Gouged). The name is dedicated to the hazards that go with painting and detailing model railroad equipment.
All the locos in the LBSS&G fleet are ex-Pennsylvania units and are painted Brunswick Green. The roster is as follows:
1 Alco RSD-4
1 Alco RS-11 (with six wheel trucks)
1 BLW AS-616
1 Alco S-2
2 Alco S-1s
2 BLW VO-1000s
2 BLW VO-660s
2 BLW S-8s
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
My layout is called Mt. Penelope and my fictional railway is the Mt. Penelope Rwy. Co. -- both named for my wife.
There is also a church named after my oldest son (just 'cause his name has biblical origins; he is a little more on the side) and there is a hill named after my youngest son.
Craig
DMW
Many of you will recall my HO/N Scale Columbus & Hocking Valley and the HO Huron River RR.
However,there's been another name floating around in my thoughts and that is the Columbus Belt & Terminal a 14 mile industrial switching line located on the South Side of Columbus(Oh) set in 1990..
Here's the twist..
This switching line is a paper railroad own jointly by either NS/CSX or NS/CR .
IF I choose to do the CB&T for my N Scale railroad I will rotate locomotives between the owning roads.
Another thought is to paint and letter 2 locomotives CB&T.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
My Westport Terminal RR is named after the town. There was in Model Railroader Sep. 83 an article by John R. Decker "The yard at Westport". This article gripped me!
This article was the base for my first "Westport". But due to the growing business they had to build a new yard.
And I made my own paint scheme.
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
My railroad, the Rochester and Richmond, is actually named for a rail-trail bike path. I had been trying to figure out a road name for a long time. The railroad is set in the Appalachian coal region but I never figured out exactly where and I had never planned to follow a specific prototype.
Back to the bike trail..... The former Grand Trunk branch ran from Pontiac MI through Rochester to Richmond MI. This was abandoned about 10-12 years ago and converted to a trail. A little over a year ago my wife and I rode from outside Rochester to Richmond and back with a group of friends. This was a long trip for us (about 50 miles) and it was a hot day. When I am riding the rail-trails I often think how things may have been different. What if this branch had some additional industry and was sold off to a short line? That maybe found a market for cross-town commuters.... that maybe was owned by a steam enthusiast who occasionally fired up a locomotive, sort of like the Ohio Central? What would you call the railroad?
OK, so maybe this is a heat and exercised induced fever dream, but the name "Rochester & Richmond" came out of it. Like RRTrainman's, it also abbreviates to R&R which is what the railroad is - rest and relaxation.
George V.
Mine has a ring to it Russell Rail, my town is Russellville fictious name but on my door to my train room there is a big R&R on it.
4x8 are fun too!!! RussellRail
"The Malpaso & Saccara Railroad"
Pretty sure I misspelled the second word. The first is the name of a creek near where I grew up (and also the name of Clint Eastwood's prodution company) and the second comes from a town in Egypt where they discovered a small model of a bird that when blown up to human size, could fly reasonably well. Scientists believe that it illustrates that the ancient Egyptians understood flight. Or they got lucky with a tiny wooden bird.
Basically I liked the words and how they sounded together. Malpaso is a bigger grity city (translated, the word means "Bad Step"), and Saccara will be a desert outpost styled city.
Folks:
I've done this. On my current RR, I'm trying to use the names in ways that sound authentic. So far, all I have is Edwards Mill, named after our son. I don't have too many buildings yet.
The two towns were named in a different way. One was near the electrical panel, and the other was near the Johnson furnace, so they were named "Wattsburg" and ... "Johnson Furnace".
I've really been struggling with this one for the past couple years. I've been thinking about a play on a name and going with The Stetsburg Sub. Or maybe The Stetsburg and Walish.I don't know if I like them or not. Maybe I could call it Mayoville...(naw..)
I named a live steam model boat after my wife (now ex); she got mad, because the boat was cute but not exactly streamilined - it looks sort of like Kate and Bogie's African Queen. I learned not to name stuff after real people; their reactions are hard to predict.
My railroad is the Blackwater & Butte Creek Railroad. Blackwater came from the Doobie Brothers song, and Butte Creek is a real stream in Oregon where my father and I often fished (the fishing was great, the catching was a little iffy).
tomikawaTT wrote:The Nishikawa Electric Railway - based loosely on the Hakone Tozan Dentetsu, connecting several mountain resorts to the National Railway.