Great responses. I've got my favorites that will definately see use, and a couple I would like to use but probably won't because I don't want to explain them to my 8yr. old
Model Railroader Classics from Art Curren:
Perry Shibble Grocery Distributors
Cramdin Warehouse Co.
Hardley - Able Manufacturing Co.
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Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
a scrap dealer named REESE EICKLE
a chain of a stores in small towns in the low-lying delta country on the Texas-Louisiana border that appeals to low-income customers with groceries on credit. The name of the chain is BUY-OWE GROCERIES.
A paper mill that is the result of a business arrangement between an old Cajun family with one of those French names, and the Conde Nast Publishing Company. QUEAUX - NAST PAPER CO. You have to say it out loud to get it. But be careful where you say it out loud. Some Cajuns may mistake that corporate name for a colorful colloquialism which some will take affectionately, but at which others might take umbrage.
SCHULTZ PEANUTS NEW ACES FARMS (the English pronunciation of "Nueces", Spanish for nuts) a shipment of Georgia peanuts for subtle taste blending, from KENNEDY-BUTLER ENTERPRISES (named for two of the three husbands of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind") Tara, GA. One of the model railroaders in Corpus Christi is a rock-n-roll disc jockey in real life (if you can call that real life) with the "air name" J.J.STONE.
SCHULTZ PEANUTS
NEW ACES FARMS (the English pronunciation of "Nueces", Spanish for nuts)
a shipment of Georgia peanuts for subtle taste blending, from KENNEDY-BUTLER ENTERPRISES (named for two of the three husbands of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind") Tara, GA.
One of the model railroaders in Corpus Christi is a rock-n-roll disc jockey in real life (if you can call that real life) with the "air name" J.J.STONE.
MCDONALD FARM SUPPLY, named not for the burger but for the old guy who had a farm in the song. E-I-E-I-O, and all that
A steel fabrication yard that builds refinery vessels so big they take two heavy-duty flatcars and a spacer flat to ship: TOTAL FABRICATION. (prototype picture)
A steel fabrication yard that builds refinery vessels so big they take two heavy-duty flatcars and a spacer flat to ship: TOTAL FABRICATION.
(prototype picture)
A chemical plant that ships smelly stuff in tankcars: EUREKA CHEMICALS
PLAINVIEW HIDE. Big reels of cable wire are shipped to TYZON WIRE & CABLE.
PLAINVIEW HIDE.
Big reels of cable wire are shipped to TYZON WIRE & CABLE.
BOOTH OPEN KETTLE SUGAR. (real company from 1920s) ships sugar in private cars with reporting mark (the owner name abbreviation) would be BOKX but the BOKX cars (pronounced "boxcars") will actually be covered hoppers.
GHOTI SEAFOOD with gh pronounced as in "tough", o as in "women", and ti as in "action"
From Cambridge MA we have Deathwish Piano Movers. "No job too scary".
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
My chiropractor is Dr. McCracken.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Here's one. I scratch built this. The C.R. Krack Plumbing Supply Company..
AltonFan andrechapelon: 2. Jim Findley's Kimchi Gas Works (Findley spent some time in Korea, Kimchi is a Korean dish or rather a variety of Korean dishes) For those who do not know, kimchi is spicy, pickled cabbage. You can understand why the name is appropriate for a gas works...
andrechapelon: 2. Jim Findley's Kimchi Gas Works (Findley spent some time in Korea, Kimchi is a Korean dish or rather a variety of Korean dishes)
2. Jim Findley's Kimchi Gas Works (Findley spent some time in Korea, Kimchi is a Korean dish or rather a variety of Korean dishes)
For those who do not know, kimchi is spicy, pickled cabbage. You can understand why the name is appropriate for a gas works...
Yeah and Kimchi Stinks!! When they opened the door of the Aircraft I was on upon landing in Seoul S. Korea the smell hits You right away,Everywhere I went I could smell Kimchi. Could never get past the smell to try it though.
For us old comic fans, I put the R Crumb Trucking Company on my layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I am naming a machine manufacturing company after the lumber edger I ran for years. Can't remember what company actually made it, but after a week of running it, I painted the makers names the same color as the machine and then in yellow painted "P. Sochiet Machine Co." I hated that dang thing!
Robert H. Shilling II
There was a pipe filttings manufacturer in Cambridge, MA called Cambridge Nipple
Sheepscott Scale Products has decal sheets for trucks that include the following:
Knotts LumberRock Bottom Wholesale FishJustin Case Medical SuppliesIron Bladder Boiler WOrksBuster Keaton MoversStan & Ollie TaxiJere E. Picker Auction HouseOver the Hill Motor TransportWripe & Flye Live BaitRoxanne Debris Drilling & BlastingHarry C Crooker Construction (this is a real company)
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I can't remember the actual name of the company, but my former boss and I once spotted a septic pumper truck with the slogan, "You're Crap Is Our Bread 'n Butter." We laughed for hours!
Hornblower
Sounds better if you pronounce it in Spanish (appropriate too as the bank is in South America).
As a young woman, my Mom worked for a company called Ketcham and Cheatham, and we had a dentist in town named Dr. Perlpuller. A toilet-seat manufacturer advertised his product as being "Tops for Bottoms." Once again, there's a prototype for everything.
Here is my Undertaker, I.M. STIFF. "You stab 'em, I'll slab 'em"
Then we have a Roto Rooter guy here in town who's slogan is " In our business a Flush is better than a Full House".
Johnboy out.......................................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
pike-62 Seymour Butts proctologist I.P. Freely Commodes In Buffalo Ny there is a funeral home named Amigone Funeral Home
In Monterey, CA, there's a hair salon called "Curl Up and Dye". There's also one with the same name in Belmont, ME.
Don't remember the name of the company, but several years ago, I saw an electrician's truck with the slogan "Let Us Get Into Your Shorts".
Andre
yougottawanta Telling my age here , but I believe Abbott and Costella had a skit with Lawyers whose company name was " Dewey Cheatam and Howe" Locally there is a portable toilet company thats name is "Dons Johns"
Telling my age here , but I believe Abbott and Costella had a skit with Lawyers whose company name was " Dewey Cheatam and Howe" Locally there is a portable toilet company thats name is "Dons Johns"
And if anyone asks about Doh's Johns, you didn't hear nuttin', you got it? Capisce?
Seymour Butts proctologist
I.P. Freely Commodes
In Buffalo Ny there is a funeral home named Amigone Funeral Home
Forever Remodeling - Owner - Al B Forever!
Sign on the Door -
If you want it done RIGHT
It takes FOREVER!
Al's helpers:
B. Z. Werkin - his wife Wanda B. Werkin
Ben Werkin - his wife Estelle (Stell) Werkin
Barry (Bear) Lee Werkin
Otto B. Werkin
Will B. Werkin
Harley Werkin
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Mike Kieran There was a doctor who worked in a NYC Hospital whose name was Dr. Frank N. Stein. I guess his parents had a sense of humor and luckily, so did he.
There was a doctor who worked in a NYC Hospital whose name was Dr. Frank N. Stein. I guess his parents had a sense of humor and luckily, so did he.
There's an attorney in West Virginia named Edgar Allen Poe. Junior. Someone definitely has a good sense of humor there.
I think taht Frank N. Stein was also the name of a fabricator company on Matt Chibbaro's Norwest Terminal Railroad.
Mike Kieran A friend of mine, Vinny Blood (It's his real name, honest) had a son who became a doctor. Yes, Dr. Blood.
A friend of mine, Vinny Blood (It's his real name, honest) had a son who became a doctor. Yes, Dr. Blood.
My GP is Dr. Paine, and there's a clipping floating around the web of an actual Dr. Frankenstein.
I usually don't like puns on signs. I have a very low tolerance for cornpone and slapstick, preferring dry and subtle humor. I'd prefer something that only one person out of a thousand will recognize.
"Harry Baals" government center...No joke.
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/02/09/Harry-Baals-Government-Center-unlikely/UPI-83251297281467/
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
In Norristown, PA there was a real company called the "Erection Tool Co."
There was also a warehousing company, "A. Duie Pyle"
Some "joke" ones I've always wanted to include:
Bemis-Eppscotti Enterprises
Moh's Scale Co.
Brinnell Hard Candy
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Let's not forget the Franklin & South Manchester's Y.B. Fardy - makers of Gastorex.
I'm planning on using the R.U. Ready Mix Co. and the Rahtin Fish Company on my layout.
Not businesses, but a village on my layout is named "Valley Heights" and the waterfall is called "Standing Falls".
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
This is "not" a joke, back in the 1950's we had a state rep here named "Flavel Butts" and you guessed it, his campaign sign read "Butts for Congress".
Apparently it worked as he was re-elected. I would make a further commentary on this but then it becomes "political" I guess, but you have imaginations of your own.
Mark
WGAS
A. Wallace On my Goldfield & Hangtown RR, at Tonopah, there is the Bonebrake Manufracturing Co. At Hangtown, travelers can read the local paper, the Hangtown Daily Noose. On the Glendale, CA. RR Club, passers-by may note the sign at the entrance to the group behind a high fence, and admonition, "Frosty Fanny Nudist Colony, Please do not feed the bares".
On my Goldfield & Hangtown RR, at Tonopah, there is the Bonebrake Manufracturing Co. At Hangtown, travelers can read the local paper, the Hangtown Daily Noose. On the Glendale, CA. RR Club, passers-by may note the sign at the entrance to the group behind a high fence, and admonition,
"Frosty Fanny Nudist Colony, Please do not feed the bares".
There is a real nudist camp near Ivor, VA called White Tail Park. The name is more appropriate at the start of the season!
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/