Just a strange question, while checking a list of brass locomotives for sale, I noticed some great looking locomotives from long gone railroads, some are: Western Maryland, Boston & Albany, Western Pacific, B&O, Texas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, NKP, Reading, FEC, Wabash to name a few.
My query is, does anyone out there model these specific lines? Posters never seem to mention any from the above list, I'm sure some must, but they must be in a minority, the U.S. had (has) a great many railroads as opposed to most other countries- - they seem to have one. Here in Canadaland we have two, would like to hear from people that model these specific railroads, I know there are lots of fictitious railroads out there, but does anyone model the older lines?
I don't mean ODD in a derogatory manner.
Most of those railroads are "regional" railroads, serving only a couple of states. Most of those were merged out of existence one or two generations ago, so might not be as well known with 'younger folks" I guess.
There certainly are people who model them. The Nickel Plate (NKP) is modeled by MR columnist Tony Koester for example. Baltimore and Ohio was a pretty large railroad, and seems to me several MR and RMC issued have had B&O layouts featured in the last year or so. (I think a couple of B&O model railroads were in Allen Keller's "Great Model Railroad" video/DVD series.) Boston & Albany was part of the New York Central System, who have many modelers and their own modeling newsletter.
Tatans,
This link explains my approach. I do have brass from several small shorlines as well as the SP.
http://thewilloughbyline.com/willoughbythelayout2.html
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
You know, I've never seen an FEC layout. Huh.
Its on the list of my hypothetical "somedays." FEC-NASA layout.
i'm interested in the Reading and feel fortunate that many of its steam locos are available in brass.
i assume that at the time the brass models were made, these roads may still have been in existence. Bear in mind that steam locomotives were most often unique to the railroads they served, so there was a large variety.
greg
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
NittanyLion You know, I've never seen an FEC layout. Huh. Its on the list of my hypothetical "somedays." FEC-NASA layout.
Model Railroader, Feb 2001:
Florida East Coast - Key West Extension. Around the wall + peninsula, multi-level.
It's in the track plan data base, if you subscribe to MR.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
IT was also in an article showing the layout. The trouble with the FEC is the terrain is flat. Scenery would be trees, small bridges going over streams to the ocean. They do have shipping rights into Georgia.. There is ,or was, a group dedicated to the FEC..
Flip
I think all those railroads have been modeled by several people to some extent. It's the really odd ones like the Chesapeake Beach Railway that I haven't seen modeled.
Enjoy
Paul
Well, for the Wabash, I'd refer you to the Operations Road Show layout for one.
And the one I'm preparing to model (building up the locomotive and rolling stock collection, waiting for the right basement...) is rather more obscure than the ones you list, the Pere Marquette.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
Yes. I have modeled the MP (which includes the TP) and the Reading (which touches the WM and B&O). My dad modeled the Wabash.
They are or were all class 1 major railroads. There are dozens of modelers of those roads.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
wjstix Most of those railroads are "regional" railroads, serving only a couple of states. Most of those were merged out of existence one or two generations ago, so might not be as well known with 'younger folks" I guess.
They were all class one railroads. The Wabash ran from Buffalo to Omaha, from Canada to St. Louis. The Reading carried more tonnage than the ATSF up until the end of WW2. The MP served every state in the midwest from Nebraska to Texas (10 states). The B&O also carried more tonnage than the ATSF and ran from New York to St. Louis.
tatans Western Maryland, Boston & Albany, Western Pacific, B&O, Texas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, NKP, Reading, FEC, Wabash to name a few. My query is, does anyone out there model these specific lines?
Western Maryland, Boston & Albany, Western Pacific, B&O, Texas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, NKP, Reading, FEC, Wabash to name a few.
My query is, does anyone out there model these specific lines?
Yes, there are hundreds of layouts that have been based on one of those road names. "ODD" question, easily answered by referring to MR's on-line index.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
tatans
The Algoma Eastern is not on your list but it is a (long gone) real Canadian railroad. I have included elements of the Algoma Eastern Railway in my layout plan. It ran from Sudbury to Little Current on the Manitoulin Island and handled passenger, freight, coal and ore trains. The terrain it ran through in the La Cloche mountains is spectacular. It is the sort of line where the engineer can wave to the conductor in the caboose as they passed going in opposite directions around a lake. It included the famous swing bridge at Little Current which is still operating (although it hasn't seen a train in quite a while).
The best I can do to model it is a couple of curves going through the white quartz mountains and a small mine spur. I have managed to find one steam engine that more or less fits in with their roster (not brass). I have not found any passenger cars that come close. Maybe some of you with a better understanding of passenger cars can make suggestions:
http://www.magma.ca/~morcomp/Images/1912-aer-coach72-1.jpg
http://www.magma.ca/~morcomp/Images/1912-aer-combine52-1.jpg
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter tatans The Algoma Eastern is not on your list but it is a (long gone) real Canadian railroad. I have included elements of the Algoma Eastern Railway in my layout plan. It ran from Sudbury to Little Current on the Manitoulin Island and handled passenger, freight, coal and ore trains. The terrain it ran through in the La Cloche mountains is spectacular. It is the sort of line where the engineer can wave to the conductor in the caboose as they passed going in opposite directions around a lake. It included the famous swing bridge at Little Current which is still operating (although it hasn't seen a train in quite a while). The best I can do to model it is a couple of curves going through the white quartz mountains and a small mine spur. I have managed to find one steam engine that more or less fits in with their roster (not brass). I have not found any passenger cars that come close. Maybe some of you with a better understanding of passenger cars can make suggestions: http://www.magma.ca/~morcomp/Images/1912-aer-coach72-1.jpg http://www.magma.ca/~morcomp/Images/1912-aer-combine52-1.jpg Dave
My club is modelling the Sudbury area in the 1970s, so portions of our layout [will] depict the suriving sections of the Algoma Eastern as they were in operation at that time. (Those sections are still under construction, but we will be featuring the bridge at Little Current.)
www.wrmrc.ca
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
tatansHere in Canadaland we have two, would like to hear from people that model these specific railroads, I know there are lots of fictitious railroads out there, but does anyone model the older lines?
Two BIG ones, plenty of others. Pacific Great Eastern/British Columbia Railway, Algoma Central, Ontario Northland, Quebec North Shore and Labrador, Quebec-Cartier and that's just the relatively recent regional category. All of those are either still operating or were bought out within the last 15 years. Northern Alberta Railways until 30 years ago.
That doesn't count other modern shortlines line the RailAmerica, Cando, Quebec Railway Co. and OmniTrax lines, or various other independents, or even older railways like CN and CP's constituents (Grand Trunk Pacific, Canadian Northern, Intercolonial, National Transcontinental, Dominion Atlantic, etc.)
Yep. I model the Missouri Pacific in the early-mid 1980s, just after the merger with Union Pacific. I think just about each of the roads you mention probably has a Yahoo group dedicated to it. I know the MoPac list boasts quite a few folks with layouts built or in progress.
Being a "class 1" really has nothing to do with being a "regional". From 1911 to 1956 the only criteria for being a class 1 railroad was having an annual operating revenue of $1 million, in 1956 it changed to $3 million. In 1911 there were 174 class 1 railroads; the number fell to 113 in 1956, but was still over 100 in 1963 (102 to be exact). Many of those class 1 railroads operated in a small area, I think in a few cases in just one state.
Chris
Modeling the swing bridge at Little Current sounds fantastic. Will you also be modeling the coal docks on the north side of the North Channel as well, or the wye on the island?
I once worked out an HO scale plan for the swing bridge. Without compression the bridge came out to a little over six feet in length. That is without the approaches, so it proved to require a little more (read - a whole lot more!) real estate than my layout room would permit unless I devoted half of the room to the bridge. Swinging that large a structure also proved to be problematic because my layout room is only 10 feet wide. Even if I compressed the bridge down to four feet it still required more space than I wanted to commit to it. I was tempted but there were too many other things that I wanted to model so the bridge got left out of the plan. Also, although the swing bridge would be a spectacular structure for viewing, there really isn't a whole lot of action taking place. "Swing the bridge closed, cross the bridge, swing the bridge open, repeat...". Obviously with a club sized layout you will have many many opportunities for switching etc. so the bridge would be a great compliment to your operation, and very stunning visually.
Please keep us posted on your progress!
By the way, the club layout is stunning!
tatans Just a strange question, while checking a list of brass locomotives for sale, I noticed some great looking locomotives from long gone railroads, some are: Western Maryland, Boston & Albany, Western Pacific, B&O, Texas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, NKP, Reading, FEC, Wabash to name a few. My query is, does anyone out there model these specific lines? Posters never seem to mention any from the above list, I'm sure some must, but they must be in a minority, the U.S. had (has) a great many railroads as opposed to most other countries- - they seem to have one. Here in Canadaland we have two, would like to hear from people that model these specific railroads, I know there are lots of fictitious railroads out there, but does anyone model the older lines? I don't mean ODD in a derogatory manner.
I LOVE love love the B&O and all it's incarnates! {B&O, C&O, Chessie, and CSX}
I would tend to say I "protolance" my layout, as space is very limited.
My small layout is mostly stripped now with the idea of expanding it a little. BUT I started off with the B&O steamers. Have 3 of them.
Then, because I like the Chessies that rolled by on the RR near my house as a kid/teen, I bought a Chessie Diesel. Then I bought a GP 35 because they started building them the month after I was born, so they are "as old as I am".
Then the C&O stuff came, and I decided IF I had some locos of all the "heritage" of B&O-CSX, I'd have plenty of time/eras to model so I wouldn't ge too bored with my little pike. I can change out some buildings {leave some too}, change out RR equipment that will fit an era better to run with the era i am running trains for.
I also love the Pennsylvanian K4s and such..love the Belpaire fireboxes and their "Majestic" look. SO If I get 1 or 2 Pennsy steamers, I can run them on my B&O. I thought I'D protolance that the Pennsy had "trackage rights" on my B&O pike so I could justify having them/running them. Then {as there is a prototype for everything} I ran across info that the B&O DID, indeed, give trackage rights to the Pennsy in certain areas!
SO I am happy and set with lots of "fun alternatives"!
-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.
Dave (hon30critter):
Yep, the yard and dock and pellet loader at Turner that you refer to is part of the plan. Coal was done by the 1970s, but there was an iron ore pellet loader built there in the late 1960s to load pellets from INCO onto ships. We won't really have enough room for the wye, but the locations on both sides of the bridge will be represented.
The bridge will probably be modelled as permanently closed. The scene would have to be pretty deep in order to allow a 90 degree swing.
I don't model the specific railroads you mention, but I include traffic from them on my Santa Fe layouts. I did Santa Fe in the piney woods of East Texas, and on Galveston Island, probably not scenes that come instantly to mind nwhen you mention Santa Fe.
I have designed MISSOURI PACIFIC layouts for people and put them on this and other boards.
Missouri Pacific in Austin, Texas in the 1950s-- N scale
Missouri Pacific in Austin, Texas in the 1970s- N scale
Missouri Pacific in San Antonio, Texas in the 1950s -HO scale
Don't know how many of these have been built.
If you are a constant participant on this forum, I'm sure you have seen, or will see, Western Maryland (Wild Mary) modlers frequent (OK, sometimes) contributions on line/ The WM Historical Society is alive and well , operating in Union Bridge, MD, and offering modles of WM equipment and other historically correct memorablia. I personally have 37 WM diesels, 7 WM steamers, and 164 WM cars (freight and Passenger) on my HO layout. JWH
Sounds great! I totally understand the huge amount of layout space required to fully swing the Little Current swing bridge, even if it is compressed. How about adding just a small degree of swing to the bridge, just so it can be seen in motion? Then you could also model those (relatively few) occasions when the bridge got stuck open. That would certainly require your operators to scramble a bit!
Well, it will be a while until we are actually that far anyway.
I'll chime in and say "Yes" to the above and add my $0.02. My plan right now is to model the FSUD out of Detroit, which will include the Pere Marquette, Pennsylvania, and the Wabash (not to mention the FSUD line with its NW5's) . Wabash is on that list and as Fritz alluded to earlier, the PM is even more obscure. Try finding a PM Pacific to haul a passenger train.
Somewhere along the line, I'm trying to figure if it's feasible to incorporate some NYC, Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, and Ann Arbor Railroad operations in the plan. I have some old photos of the DT&I using hand-me-down PRR locos and I thought how interesting it would be to incorporate those into the plan. As usual, I'm doubting I'll have the room.
Hi Dave,
I'm currently building a modular version Algoma Eastern's track in Little Current. The swingbridge will be the beginning and the tracks that lead behind where the Brewers Retail is today. Right now I am using a photograph of the swingbridge on the facia as a placeholder. I plan to eventually extend the layout in order to build the swing bridge. Before I get there I have lots of scratch building to do. I think it will be very structurally challenging but also a beautiful model if done right.
tatans Just a strange question, while checking a list of brass locomotives for sale, I noticed some great looking locomotives from long gone railroads, some are: Western Maryland, Boston & Albany, Western Pacific, B&O, Texas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, NKP, Reading, FEC, Wabash to name a few. My query is, does anyone out there model these specific lines?
And by the way, back when I first started to pay attention to such things in the late 1960s, and well into the early 1980s and beyond, it was common to see freight cars going by with all those road names on them (even if the railroad such as the Nickle Plate had long since been absorbed - the rolling stock lived on with logos and names even if the reporting marks showed the new owner).
Dave Nelson
I guess it's appropriate for a thread to 'rise up from the dead' during Holloween season.
Not me, I'm a free lancer, bent towards modeling CSX and NS beacuse of the rolling stock and locos that might appear on the layout.
But if I was going to model a prototype, it would be the MOPAC. Have been a fan of that road since I was a kid.
- Douglas
I'm freelancing, too, but because I've set my layout in the late-'30s era, a lot of those now long-gone railroads show up regularly on my layout. That was one of the main reasons I opted for that timeframe.
Wayne