Top 25 Railroads to model?

[schom]

I was asked a question last night about what are the top 25 railroads to model.  It got me thinking about how the list has changed over the years.  I wanted to see what people thought?

[UPinCT]

Well what is the criteria for being on the list.  All the Class 1 railroads would come first.  But what about some Class II's.  Is it based on era?  Based upon what roads have models for Purchase?

I vote for Pan Am Railways!!

[Burlington Northern #24]

I vote for BN, I'm sure that pennsylvania is #1 followed by many of the pre merger railways of the east coast.

[PJM20]

Pennsy power all the way! Chuck in pre merger East Coast roads and some Western roads and we got our top 25.

[NP2626]

Judging by what's available, Pennsylvania, for sure; but, never understood why?  I'm guessing if you live east of the Mississippi, the eastern roads will be your choice and if west, the western roads.

Need criteria!

[tgindy]

Half of the 25 railroads are quite thoroughly documented with 30,000 pictures at North East Rails -- And these are only the major Pennsylvania-centered railroads.

[IRONROOSTER]

Based on what's available I would say the list should include

Santa Fe

Union Pacific

PRR

B&O

Denver & Rio Grande

Maryland and Pennsylvania

Enjoy

Paul

[mlehman]

UPinCT

Well what is the criteria for being on the list.  All the Class 1 railroads would come first.  But what about some Class II's.  Is it based on era?  Based upon what roads have models for Purchase?

I vote for Pan Am Railways!!

I don't know about exact criteria, but it's some combination of prototype and modeling factors. Just being a Class 1 shouldn't do it. Depending on era, there were many more than 25 Class 1s anyway.

And I'll bet everyone can name several Class 1s that people just detest and consequently are modeled less than you might think because of sheer size. I won't name names in order to protect the guilty and avoid starting a fight with some of their few fans...

I will nominate a road that always punches well above its weight class and, as a number of people have observed over the years, seems to consistently sell out in runs of models faster than competitors. While it may be on the edge just on size or based its regional character, but I'd say the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad certainly deserves to make the Top 25 Most Popular Modeled Prototype Railroads. Add in all the Rio Grande narrowgaugers in every possible permutation of -n3 and that clinches the Rio Grande's Top 25 status.

EDIT: One more idea for a criteria to make the Top 25. It must have a historical society devoted to it, as that is certainly one measure of the devotion of a RR's fans.

http://www.drgw.org/

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Well, yes, most people tend to model what they know - but not always.

I have been in this hobby a long time and worked in several hobby shops - so I have "watched" what people buy.

Back in the day, even as the east coast mergers where beginning, the original big east coast Class I lines sold best here in the Mid Atlantic - B&O, C&O, PRR, NYC, N&W, etc.

Major western roads also always had a reasonable representation of modelers here in the east - ATSF, SP, UP, GN, NP.

In this region, Mid west roads seemed least modeled - not sure why?

People who live in the west sometimes seem to fail to realize the size and scope of systems like the PRR or the B&O. While they might not cover as much "area" from end to end as the big western roads, east coast roads prior to the 60's had very dense webs of trackage to nearly every town or city in their "service area".

And in the golden age of railroading, east coast roads were very busy, making them good modeling subjects. Several of my good friends model the PRR in the 40's or 50's. In those eras, on the PRR northeast corridor, a train passed any given spot about every 12 minutes - lot of action - what's not to like about that?

The B&O was equally as busy and the Appalachian summit was a challenging obstacle, requiring great amounts of power to move coal and other goods east to steel mills and ports and west to other consumers.

Today, I don't know what people model, or what would be most popular, I model the early 50's and freelance with my ATLANTIC CENTRAL, which interchanges with the B&O, C&O and WM.

I find modern railroading rather boring, I'm more into the history side of the hobby.

And I am amazed at the lack of B&O prototypes among all this high detail, high accuracy RTR product. There has been some recent action in the B&O direction - wagon top box cars and caboose, Bachmann's EM-1, but for a railroad that had tremendous car and loco shops and produced a wealth of amazing railroad equipment, it not represented very well compared to the PRR or the UP.

Again, for me personally, west coast roads hold little interest. I have not spent much time out west, I don't care for the scenery, much preferring the lush green of Appalachia, or the busy ports of the Chesapeake to open prairie or the Rockies.

For me the beauty of the Blue Ridge of Virginia, or the dramatic B&O bridge crossing the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, or the still in use Thomas Viaduct are railroad scenes of great beauty and excitement.

I'll take the east coast lines anytime.

Sheldon 

[Burlington Northern #24]

Pennsy, UP, B&O, SP, DRG&W, CB&Q, GN, Amtrak for sure, Erie, NYC, Southern, NS, CSX, C&O, ATSF, Conrail, Penn central, BN, NP, W&M, Pan AM, CP, CN, GT, and Soo lines. 

[caldreamer]

My wife's grandfather worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad for over 50 years.  Starting out  as a messenger and ending his career as the yardmaster in the Hagerstown, Maryland yard.  He saw it all from small steam engiens to dieselization.  The Pennsylvania Railroad designed and built most of their own locomotives and cars and they were some the best ever built.  It is too bad that poor management and the Federal Government forced them into bankrupcy.

 

[-E-C-Mills]

Well personally I mash it all together because I pretty much like just about everything railroady.

But I'll go ahead and say it:  If your going to model a "railroad" as in a complete railroad, then its going to have to be a small one!

[BATMAN]

The Trans Siberian Railroad is the most modeled on the planet, followed by a couple of other European Railroads.

I have an article on the business of model railroads worldwide, that is full of world wide stats on the hobby. If I can find it I'll post some exact numbers. Back in the days of the old Iron Curtain, the Trans Siberian Railroad was probably all that was available on the market in the old Soviet Union.

Model railroading was, and still is very popular in eastern Europe.

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

BATMAN

The Trans Siberian Railroad is the most modeled on the planet, followed by a couple of other European Railroads.

I have an article on the business of model railroads worldwide, that is full of world wide stats on the hobby. If I can find it I'll post some exact numbers. Back in the days of the old Iron Curtain, the Trans Siberian Railroad was probably all that was available on the market in the old Soviet Union.

Model railroading was, and still is very popular in eastern Europe.

Brent, with all due respect, since most model railroad manufacturers are privately held firms, who do not disclose sales info, we have no idea what road names or products sell the most.

Sheldon

[tomikawaTT]

My take, as an ex-statistician, is that the basic question is meaningless and that the answers, being 100% opinion with only a few glimmers of fact, are equally meaningless.  I model what I model because it snaps MY cap, and i couldn't care less what people I don't know and will probably never meet do with their hobby time.

If MR were to send a free-return card to each subscriber asking that person's choice of a railroad to model:

1. Most of the cards would never be sent back.
2. There would be no way to determine if the modeled railroad was a 1,000 square foot monster or one old Athearn BB loco in a box.

 

So, lacking a directive to the FBI to raid every known model railroader's home and examine his modeling, a meaningful statistical base is unattainable.  Even if that was done, it would ONLY cover North American practice.  I, for one, am willing that Japan has more modelers than the United States, even with a smaller population.  Then, how about the modelers in countries where the Euro is the local currency?  Australia?  New Zealand?  All the rest of the land areas I haven't named?

 

Then, too, how do you parse out NYC and PRR modelers into Penn Central, then Conrail, then back out to CSX/NS?  Or do we pick a single day in history and say, "Only that which existed on (fillintheblank) will count?"

 

I quit.  My head hurts.

 

At the time I model, there were only two railroads in my prototype area of interest.  I model all five of them...

 

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[mlehman]

I know I'm being ethnocentric, but I kinda assumed we're talking US, since the OP led off discussing Class 1 RRs, a category which I don't believe has any application beyond the US since it's defined by the AAR, IIRC.

[BATMAN]

mlehman

I know I'm being ethnocentric, but I kinda assumed we're talking US, since the OP led off discussing Class 1 RRs, a category which I don't believe has any application beyond the US since it's defined by the AAR, IIRC.

schom

I was asked a question last night about what are the top 25 railroads to model.  It got me thinking about how the list has changed over the years.  I wanted to see what people thought?

Sorry I don't see anything here that say's U.S. only railroads. I always think globally on any topic of conversation, sometimes it drives my friends nut's.

I thought Mexico and Canada also have Class 1 railroads.

I'll bow out.

[Metro Red Line]

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

Again, for me personally, west coast roads hold little interest. I have not spent much time out west, I don't care for the scenery, much preferring the lush green of Appalachia, or the busy ports of the Chesapeake to open prairie or the Rockies.

For me the beauty of the Blue Ridge of Virginia, or the dramatic B&O bridge crossing the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, or the still in use Thomas Viaduct are railroad scenes of great beauty and excitement.

I'll take the east coast lines anytime.

Sheldon 

(Disclaimer: I'm just having fun with this, so don't take any of this personally :))

Scenery? In the west, we have these things called mountains. No, not the Poconos or the Appalachians or any of those geologically ancient anthills. 

Our mountains are not hundreds of feet tall, they're thousands of feet tall. It took serious engineering to climb them or tunnel through them. That's what made railroads mighty in the west. Tehachapi Loop. Cajon Pass. Moffat Tunnel. All in the west, baby.

You know the song "America The Beautiful" -- Those purple-mountain majesties above the fruited plain? Yep, those are in the west.

Without the western railroads, you'd never eat Washington apples, California oranges or buy any cars or electronics from Asia. Heck, you wouldn't even have any railroad models.

I'm a UP modeler, but I'd bet the most famous railroad in the entire US among the general population is the "Santa Fe.". (They probably aren't aware the ATSF isn't around anymore, but I digress). Mention "train" (freight or passenger) to someone walking down the street and they'll probably think of a Santa Fe F-unit in Warbonnet paint. It's that iconic.  

Wanna know what's the main difference between railroads in the east and railroads in the west?

The east built railroads.

BUT RAILROADS BUILT THE WEST!

[andrechapelon]

mlehman

I know I'm being ethnocentric, but I kinda assumed we're talking US, since the OP led off discussing Class 1 RRs, a category which I don't believe has any application beyond the US since it's defined by the AAR, IIRC.

 

Actually, the OP made no mention of Class 1 railroads (which limits it to the US) at all. This opens the discussion to railroads/railways world wide.

 

Were I to hazard a guess at the top 3, they would be.

 

1. British railways in the form of British Rail, or the pre-Nationalization constituents GWR, LMS. LNER, Southern. being quite common with the GWR (and the Western Region of British Railways) perhaps having the edge. There are also modelers who model the scene prior to the 1923 Grouping. Don't have any idea how much modeling of the British scene would encompass theprivatization of the last 20 years.

 

It wouldn't surprise me to find that there are more British modelers of the US/Canadian scene than there are American and Canadian modelers of the British scene.Ironic, given the combined US and Canadian population is 355 million and the British population is 62 million. OTOH,, the Brits do things like building 1:1 mainline steam locomotives from scratch.

 

2. Japanese National Railways.

 

3. German railways (i.e Deutsche Bahn, the postwar Deutsche Bundesbahn up to re-unification  and the pre1945 Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft with some possibly modeling the post-war Deutsche Reichsbahn of German Democratic Republic (Rast Germany as well as the state railways prior to nationalization as the DRG in 1925).

 

After that, I wouldn't want to hazard a guess. There's an awful lot of equipment available for the OBB (Austrian Federal)  and the SBB/CFF/FFS  (Swiss Federal Railways) despite the fact that these are small countries with populations of 8.4 and 7.9 million respectively.

 

New Zealand wouldn't be in the top 25, but you've got to give a lot of credit to the Kiwis. They have no fewer than 3 scale/gauge combinations: 9 millimeter scale on 32 mm (O gauge) track, S scale on 16.5 mm (HO gauge) and NZ120 (TT scale on 9 mm track to model 42 inch gauge). Incdently, there are only 4.4 million people in New Zealand. That, of course, doesn't count New Zealanders who model railways in other countries.

 

Andre

[Anonymous]

BATMAN

The Trans Siberian Railroad is the most modeled on the planet, followed by a couple of other European Railroads.

I have an article on the business of model railroads worldwide, that is full of world wide stats on the hobby. If I can find it I'll post some exact numbers. Back in the days of the old Iron Curtain, the Trans Siberian Railroad was probably all that was available on the market in the old Soviet Union.

Model railroading was, and still is very popular in eastern Europe.

Back in the days, when the Iron curtain divided the world into good and bad, the only source of model trains in the Soviet Union was adaptions of German trains made by Piko in East Germany. IIRC, MR ran a feature on model railroading in Russia quite  a few years back.

[NP2626]

Some folks simply like to talk, more than is needed; or, even warrented!  I got the question as only relating to Model Railroading, as in which roads are the most popular to model.  

I'm mostly in agreement with TomikawaTT, I model the Northern Pacific in the transition period.  This railroad had it's HQ in my state!   It was N.P.; or, Great Northern and I didn't like G.N.s Belpaire fire boxes!  So, what was I supposed to do?

Not to throw rocks at anyone; but, the O.P.'s question is superfluious.  Will there be a winner, will the choice of a winner influence anything, what does the winner win?  The question is for fun.  If the winner ends up being Pennsy, my N.P. equipment isn't going on the market!

[rogerhensley]

In all of the conversations here, I never saw the NYC (New York Central) mentioned and only a couple of mentions of the PRR.

My suggestions: NYC, PRR, PC, Monon, CR.

That's all folks...

[BRAKIE]

CSX,CR and NS will rank in the top 12 as well BNSF as suggested by the mass quantity of models available for these roads..

Judging by the availability of modern short line  locomotives they must a decent following as well.

[richhotrain]

What's the question?

Which railroads are most modeled?

Or, which railroads are our favorite railroads?

How would you answer your own question?

How has the list changed over the years?

[mlehman]

BATMAN

mlehman

I know I'm being ethnocentric, but I kinda assumed we're talking US, since the OP led off discussing Class 1 RRs, a category which I don't believe has any application beyond the US since it's defined by the AAR, IIRC.

schom

I was asked a question last night about what are the top 25 railroads to model.  It got me thinking about how the list has changed over the years.  I wanted to see what people thought?

Sorry I don't see anything here that say's U.S. only railroads. I always think globally on any topic of conversation, sometimes it drives my friends nut's.

I thought Mexico and Canada also have Class 1 railroads.

I'll bow out.

Brent,

Sorry, I apparently didn't return to the top of the first page and read the 1st reply instead. I wasn't trying to exclude anyone, just trying to help with the problem definition.

I certainly wasn't trying to wrap the question in anyone's flag in particular. Just wanted to figure out what it is we're talking about since we seemed to be all over the place in even agreeing what it is we're discussing. Maybe it would work better to just state whether it applies globally or not. A Global Top 25 will be a very different list and conversation from a US Top 25. And like most of us here, I'm certainly not qualified to address a Global Top 25.

I will note that if we're talking North American Top 25, CN and CP are in and the NdeM is probably not in.

[E-L man tom]

Schom,

In the final analysis, it is all a matter of personal preference and, most of the time, either historical experience (what RR you grew up around or were most aware of when you got the "bug") or what type of area you would prefer to model (industrial corridor, wide open western scenes, eastern or western mountains, etc.).

Me, having grown up back east and having lived in the midwest and now the west, I tend to still prefer modeling either eastern or midwestern railroads, or free-lanced derivatives thereof. I got the train bug a long time ago and still had it (obviously) when I moved to the midwest. That's where I spent most of my life, in those areas of the country. There is a model RR friend of mine here in town that also is from the east (Pennsylvania) and still prefers to model the Pennsy and/or a free lanced derivative of it.

That is all I have to add after having spent the rest of it on trains (my two cents!).

[ndbprr]

The PRR had more engines in individual classes then most railroads had engines. 598 2-10-0s, 3700 2-8-0s and a numbering system that went to and used #9999.

[andrechapelon]

ndbprr

The PRR had more engines in individual classes then most railroads had engines. 598 2-10-0s, 3700 2-8-0s and a numbering system that went to and used #9999.

 

The PRR was a piker.

 

There were 852 Stanier designed 8F class 2-8-0's rostered by British Railways as well as 842 Stanier designed "Black 5" 4-6-0's. Some of these engines were built post Nationalization. Nonetheless, the LMS, for which they were designed had more of both classes than the Pennsy had of I1's.

 

A total of 1989 class 44 2-10-0's were built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft from 1926 to 1945. Of those, over 1200 ended up in service with the Deutsche Bundesbahn and an additional 300+ with the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn. The rest ended up outside of Germany. IIRC, Turkey had some 2-10-0's built to the 44 design.

 

Even more prolific were the class 50 light 2-10-0 and its variants (50UK, 51, 52). Something like nearly 10,000 were built.

 

Something like 4700 QJ 2-10-2's were produced in Chima. Then there are the 1900+ JS 2-8-2's and over 1800 SY 2-8-2's.

 

Andre

[yougottawanta]

Well my unbiased oinion would be M&W followed by UP, Penn,SF, NYC, B&O, Burlington.....

[P&Slocal]

BATMAN

Sorry I don't see anything here that say's U.S. only railroads. I always think globally on any topic of conversation, sometimes it drives my friends nut's.

I thought Mexico and Canada also have Class 1 railroads.

I'll bow out.

I have to agree that it would cover more than US railroads, especially these days when the CP owns the amount of trackage they do in the US.

I am not sure if others have been paying attention to what is on the market today, but last year I started noticing a higher number of Mexican marked equipment for sale in ads for new products. If they are producing this stuff, such as the NdeM marked freight cars, then there has to be a market for it.

I would venture to guess that Class I's are the most modeled due to ready made equipment. I seldom see Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh or any of the Genesee & Wyoming related companies equipment.