I have to list more than one. Pennsy in the diesel era, as well as N & W and Virginian in the diesel era. C&O in the steam era as well as Virginian. Pennsy ran everything in the diesel market, Virginian and N&W ran high hoods. C&O ran a lot of my favorite steam locos 2-8-2, 2-8-8-2, 2-8-4, 2-10-4, and 2-6-6-6 all of which were very heavily built and powerful.
Wheeling & Lake Erie ,B&O, and Pennsy because they ran to the town I grew up in Wheeling, WV. Sadly now the trains no longer run in that city as the tracks have become trails and the businesses that needed the trains are gone as are most of the people.
My as yet to be built railroad will involve revisionist history and will depict the OHIO valley as a still great manufacturing center. The new hybrid line will be the Virginian and Lake Erie, merged with Virginian, Wheeling and Lake Erie, Ohio river railroad, Wheeling terminal railway, and granting trackage rights to B&O and Pennsy.
Since I am going to rewrite history I can also fix it in time to be the fall of 1959 and have the last days of steam with rapidly expanding diesel roster. And lots of heavy industry that needed the railroads.
D&H and any of the Colorado historical roads...
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
I would have to second the LVRR.
However, I like the S&NY as a short line, and the Lackawanna.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
You get three guesses and the first two don't count !!!
Take a ride on the Reading, do not pass Go, do not collect $200
I model Southern Pacific in the San Fernando Valley, as some of you know. But for modern railroading, my favorite is the Modoc Northern, a short lived railroad in Northern California several years ago. They had SD-9 a GE U-boat and an old DRGW caboose all equipment painted up in the green with yellow lettering.
SANTA FE!! ATSF!! Not the Big Nasty Santa Fe, the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.
I like Santa Fe. Questions?
Bob
Southern Rwys
and a close second, Norfolk Southern.
Jarrell
TA462 I'm a big fan of the Ontario Northland Railway as well as VIA Rail.
I'm a big fan of the Ontario Northland Railway as well as VIA Rail.
Me too. You model the ONR, do you have any pictures of your layout, loco's and rolling stock you could post?
I like many aspects of many railroads and locales across this world and on top of that a fan of old automobiles and steamers throughout my living memory. Seeing these things as rare and special rather than just old relics from an old time, not to mention I'd been virtually the only one among my peers who took more than a glance at these old things from the past. But, which railroad(s) strike my fancy? I'm from Virginia and really love the N&W in the '50s as I fell in love with their famous J-class 4-8-4s once I first laid my eyes on photos of 611 in excursion service. I'm also a fan of the Pennsylvania in the same era after seeing photos of the railroad, plus I've always found the steel industry fascinating and that railroad and the industry seem to kind of go together. Plus, the selection of PRR models is quite vast which makes me happy.
Alvie
Growing up near the northern end of Potomac Yard and seeing the huge yard and shops in Enola on the way to New York every year for Thanksgiving, made me an early fan of… wait for it… Penn Central. I shall now duck for cover. I loved seeing the E-44s and GG-1s enter the yard. Being a small kid and seeing the big black engines just did something for me. I have never owned a model of any PC car or engine, but that was the favorite of my youth.
With that being said my favorite road is the one my grandpa worked for from 1928-1968, Grand Trunk Western. I have never lived anywhere near where it ran, but both sets of Grandparents did so I got to see it every summer. As I grew older and read more and realized that they ran steam up to a few years before I was born, made me like it even more. I own lots of books, photos and of course trains from the era I chose to model, 1953 and as soon as I retire and stop moving every few years in my chosen profession, I will find out where I am going to spend the rest of my life and build my version of the South Bend Subdivision with steam galore and a few F-3s mixed in for fun.
Steve
Collecting to model the GTW in August 1953
I model whatever is closest to where I live. Mostly because I can just drive a mile or two up the road and see the prototype in action. So, in my [Michigan] childhood it was the C&O and the NYC. When my family moved to Maryland we lived near the Metro branch of the B&O that runs between Washington DC and PointOfRocks, MD. Early in my Navy enlistment I was stationed in San Diego and developed a liking for the Santa Fe and the SP. After I moved back to Maryland and returned to the hobby in 1988, CSX was the main carrier in my area - so I modeled that.
Eventually I got homesick for the way things were during my teenage years (early 1970s), so I have decided to go back to modeling the B&O.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Apache Railway in Arizona
gabeusmc and thats a problem??
and thats a problem??
Well, you raise a good point, but those darn shirts are starting to crowd the train boxes a little...
bulldog_fan After MILW there's a shifting alliance of other favorites: CNW, GN, Santa Fe, Erie Lackawanna, Maine Central, the Monon... which perhaps explains why I have *way* too many trains in boxes in the closet, waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. Dean
After MILW there's a shifting alliance of other favorites: CNW, GN, Santa Fe, Erie Lackawanna, Maine Central, the Monon... which perhaps explains why I have *way* too many trains in boxes in the closet, waiting for me to figure out what to do with them.
Dean
"Mess with the best, die like the rest" -U.S. Marine Corp
MINRail (Minessota Rail Transportaion Corp.) - "If they got rid of the weeds what would hold the rails down?"
And yes I am 17.
CN when the C in CN still meant something.
As has been said before,
Santa Fe all the Way
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
I'll join a few of you and claim the Milwaukee Road as my favorite. And as with many of you it's all about those early years: as a kid I would visit my grandparents in Deerfield, Illinois, easy biking distance from the MILW main line. My grandfather was a lifelong railfan and would sometimes take me to watch the trains at Rondout or Techny Junction, or right there at the Deerfield station. Been close to 40 years since I went to sleep at night in their house, hoping to hear a train before falling asleep and usually getting my wish. Sure would like to hear that deep far-off rumble of multiple heavily-loaded 567s again.
I always loved the Chessie Intercahnge cars and occasional loco going by on the EL {which I never cared for} near my house growing up in the 70s.
SO, naturally the Chessie system is my favorite.
BUt WAIT!!! I LOVE steam! so what to do? Well...the Chessie came out of the C&O, which came out of the B&O...so Guess what? I Like all three!!!
BUT wAIT!!! The CHessie isn't around anymore...SO what to do? Well the CSX came out of the CHessie...so there is my "modern day counterpart" to the Chessie!!!
SO I can model any different era to get what I want.
BUt WAIT!! When I went to Strasburg Railroad and visited the RR Museum of PA, I fell absolutely in love with the Majestic PRR M1a/b {conversion} loco wiht the Belpaire FIrebox they had on static display!!! What to do??
Imagine the B&O gave PRR some "trackage rights" to run both the M1a and The K4 loco on my layout. But wait!!! I found out that certain areas the B&O DID indeed give the PRR trackage rights in real life!!!
SO I can run my steam models or diesels in B&O, C&O or CHessie, CSX. If I run the steam, I can run the PRR steamers too!
BUT WAIT!! There's more!! My Other Half {MOH} and my initials come out to D&H.......What to do??? COllect some D&H stuff as well!!!!
But Wait!!! There is no more now!!!{aren't you glad??}
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
I've got a good list of favorites, with a little bit of everything in it:
Still in service:
*Both because they operate in Florida, and are common in my area
Fallen Flags:
CN and CP obviously because I'm Canadian, but I have some locos in US roadnames too: Burlington Northern (including some equipment in fallen flag paint schemes), Penn Central, and Chicago & Northwestern.
How do you begin to answer, I have several.
PRR - This is easily my grandfathers favorite and that has rubbed off on me greatly.
Nickle Plate - The first house my wife and I bought after we got married shared the rear property line with N-S on a line that was Nickle Plate. I could always imagine one of the Berkshires running that line. Need to get my boys over to see 765.
Erie - I can look out my kitchen window and see the abandoned railbed
CB&C - I have to throw this one in just because I'm so close to where it ran. It's nickname always amused me.
Adam
I'm a late entrant to this conversation, though by my avatar it should be pretty apparent that my favorite railroad is the Chicago, Indianapolis, & Louisville.
Though the Monon was merged into the L&N before I celebrated my ninth birthday, I still have fond images of watching those gold & black locomotives pulling long strings of hoppers with that distinctive block lettering across the field from my grandparents' living room window in Orleans, Indiana. So modeling the Monon honors the memory of my parents and grandparents, and even today I still once in a while get little shadows of that little boy's excitement when a 1:87 version rolls by.
Jim
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
fwright\Florence & Cripple Creek
Oregon & California - before SP take-over
Oregon Pacific
Coos Bay Lumber Company
Caspar Lumber Company
Florence & Cripple Creek
Denver, South Park & Pacific (before C&S)
Colorado Midland
Fred W
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900....(with a little Colorado influence)
I am partial to the B&OCT.
Rich
My favorite railroads are the Milwaukee Road,Rock Island and the Chicago and Northwestern.
I can think of 5 for various reasons. C & O for it's steam power. Pennsy for it's diesel power. Virginian coal to tide water and wanted to go west but never did. Wheeling and Lake Erie because I am from Wheeling. B & O it ran through Wheeling and down the Ohio River. Since I have two many to choose and the tracks and most industry in my hometown are now gone as well as most of the people I have decided to do a what if railroad.
The Virginian and Lake Erie. The section to model will be from Wheeling to Benwood Less than 20 miles and consist of a large junction yard and some busy man line and industrial track. I will be able to have guest appearances by the 3 lines not covered by my proposed merger as my route will connect with all of them.
As of this date nothing has been done but collecting structures and rolling stock.