First initial, last name. At my age I can hardly remember my PASSWORDS let alone come up with a nifty forum name, LOL!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
This one, too, is very simple; and it's one I use for various sites around the web.
I'm 6'7" tall and have been a professional pianist for over 40 years. Duh.
Many sites don't like the name, deeming it 'unsafe' as I don't have any numbers in it. They can use a metal wood fastener; this could also be applied to their equine companions.
Paul -
Mine was my pledge name given to me in college.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
Well, I have one of those easy-to-figure-out names, but how I got it is a bit roundabout.
I was born on the northwest side of of Chicago, but lived most of my life in Des Plaines, Illinois. The first trains I remember seeing were Milwaukee Road trains that ran along a playground where my Dad used to take me. When we moved to Des Plaines, our railroads were the Chicago and North Western, the Milwaukee Road, and the Soo Line. I should probably have become a fan of one of these three lines that I grew up with.
When I was high school, I discovered the railroad books section, and Don Ball, Jr.'s book America's Colorful Railroads. I took one look at the four photographs of Gulf, Mobile and Ohio trains, including a rare photo of an Alton 4-6-2, painted red and maroon for passenger service. I was blown away. The text said something similar happened to Ike Tigrett, the president of the GM&O, when he saw the Alton's passenger locomotives. When the GM&O acquired the struggling Alton in order to get a Chicago gateway, Alton's red and maroon replaced the GM&O's vermillion and silver. And as I began researching the GM&O's history, I developed an interest in the Chicago and Alton.
And when I discovered the MR forums, the handle seemed obvious.
Dan
It's August 8, 1829 and "Stourbridge Lion" is officially tested with Horatio Allen at the controls. This marks the first operation of a steam locomotive in North America.
Being a D&H Railfan picking this engine as my internet handle just made since...
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
I love filthy Southern Pacific diesel engines...
Alton Fan, I worked in Alton IL for 2 years and I really like the town. Lot of history there, Shell Oil started there!
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
International Harvester Company 1976 4X4
The initials of my "company" (not really one, just call it that) and I like trains!
Modeling the Maine Central in N scale.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Thanks everyone! Some very interesting responses so far.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
It's who I am.
I chose my forum 'name' because I am a fan of the Canadian Pacific Goderich Subdivision's north end. (Or west end if you look at a map.) Originally the railway was built as the Guelph and Goderich Railway. So you get g&gfan.
My avatar is a photo of the last steam switcher used on the CPR; and it was stationed at Goderich. It's now on display in the Huron County Museum in Goderich.
I made up mine awhile before I joined the forums. I though of it because I'm the only model railroader/railfan in my town that I know of. I also think it has a nice ring to it too.
Lone Geep
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Besides growing up riding the Kansas City Southern, I've always liked the moniker given to KCS trains 15 & 16. In the early 70's it was the name painted on the side of my F105D. In the mid to late 70's it was my CB "handle" good buddy.
So there you are.
I'll admit that I wasn't very creative when I created mine. It was late at night and I just wanted to post a question before I went to bed. It's the first letter of my first name and my last name put together.
Will
The name is a play on 'wunderbar', German for wonderful, and Bob is my real first name. On a different board I frequent, I adopted a benignly conceited persona and VunderBob was part of the cover story and gag. In real life, I liked it so much that now I use it everywhere.
I used to be clueless, but i've turned that around 360 degrees.
Hello my first steam loco was a 0-6-0 My dad gave it to me it was his first loco. Just seem like a good fit. Have a nice day Frank
I really like the Acelas. Well, Acela and Acela Express were "unavailible". Went with 3 random numbers on the end. I don't know why I didn't do something else. Oh, well. The handle fits nicely.
Acela
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
I chose my moniker for obvious reasons. I'm dangerous and unpredictable in 56 different ways.
In all honesty, when it came to choosing a name for this forum I wanted something old timey, yet somewhat obscure sounding (my grandfather who worked for the AT&SF told me several scary stories about this long forbidden switching maneuver). As for the 56, well, that just happened to be a very good year for me.
Vic
Modelling the span between the real and the N-sane...
No extra points for guessing where my handle came from. Once upon a time I sold all of my HO trains and bought a small hand operated printing press with 12 fonts of type. The press needed a name and so I called it "Don's Tiger Press". Once I got out of the Navy, I dropped the "Don's" and just called it the "Tiger Press." Thus everybody called me "The Tiger" I have about 55 stuffed animals, mostly tigers, but some lions, leopards, and other felids as well. (Also two bears and a donkey).
Tiger I was on some older forums, but since my new railroad was to be a subway, the "Route of the Broadway LION" sort of fell into my consciousness. Something to do with Aslan, of course. I have now been known on the internet as the Broadway LION for about 12 years. (Before 9-11 for certain). Posting in the third person just seemed to me something that a LION would do.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
In 2005 we moved from San Francisco (sold the property before the crash) and moved to Lake County Ca. Bought a place in the city of Clearlake near the lake called Clearlake.
And as they say the rest is history
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
Because it's the truth and for some reason when I signed up on here I thought it'd be fun to choose an SN that reflected how befriending cats is fun for me.
Alvie
Well I just worked through all the names I wanted and couldn't find any so I found one I could misspell and live with.
Hey Colesdad!
My son is named Cole too! He is 21, still living at home and attending Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario. He loves to play guitar, and he just bought a violin! I think I am going to purchase some soundproof doors!
Coquihala and Rock Creek is the area I am modelling but as I'm not being exact I left out one "L" in Coquihalla to keep it "my way"....
If you cannot fix it with a hammer;
You have an electrical problem!
I work in HOn3 and will operate a Rio Grande Southern Uranium mine servicing layout of the late 40's vintage with some transfers to D&RGW. Some areas and cities in Colorado serviced by both roads had uranium mills or concentrator facilities. Some of these places are now super fund sites.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
That's easy, its cos it is my name. Dusty is a family name, my real name is Donald, but its been so long since anybody called me that its kind of dissapeared in time. I got Dusty from my Mom when I was a little kid and she would say, look at you all dusty and dirty from playing in the yard so Dusty kinda stuck - better than her calling me dirty I guess.
So long.
Dusty.
Interesting stories so far.
When my mother sold her house a few years back we sorted though all of our childhood "stuff". In that stuff was the boxes of old HO trains given to me and my brother when we we're kids. My Uncle was getting out of the hobby in the mid eighties and gave us everything he had. We used it for a few years until moving to another house as we were entering high school. I didn't set eyes on it again until seventeen years later while cleaning out my Mother's house. I decided to use this old train equipment and have a free hobby! Since it was all given to me by my Uncle years ago I called myself Secondhandmodeler. Well, that "free" hobby has been anything but free. I've replaced just about everything since returning to the hobby but I still have the same name.
I have been BATMAN since I have been old enough to have friends. My surname is very close to the word Batman so resistance to being called Batman was futile. I decided to roll with it, after all I could be called worse.
The funny thing is, even at work I could be out on the tarmac at Vancouver International with three radios hanging off me and the call would be for Batman, not my designated call #.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."