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Name For Fictional Railroad

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Posted by NVSRR on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 7:03 AM

Look back at the history of the railroads in that area.  There might be a long gon eline or what's called a paper railroad you could develop.    Mine line, the Nittany Valley Southern was a paper railroad.   It was created by the Bellefonte Central  to connect to the NYC branch just north of state college PA to give them a second outside connection.     They also wanted to obtain the Pennsylvania branches and NYC branches in the area and consolidate them.  Since the low traffic wasn't appealing or financially operable to Pennsylvania Rr.    In the 80's that ultimately did happen with what was left and the Nittany and Bald Eagle was created.      I surmised what if the NVS had been built and all the lines comsolidated under that name years earlier.  

simply did some plausible history rewrite and there We are.   Plus it was interesting to find an industry completely over looked along with a history of the reagion not known yet. Important to railroad history in general.   

Shane

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An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

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Posted by NittanyLion on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 9:06 AM

Something I do know from my familiarity with Georgia is that they have a lot of very small counties. I'm told is has to do with an old times requirement of county seats being a day's horse ride from all points in the county.  Very rarely do counties share their name with their county seat's name.  Savannah & Atlanta is taken?  Well, Chatham & DeKalb isn't.

There's a Macon County, but Macon (the city) is in Bibb County.  They're 40 miles apart.  Macon's seat is Oglethorpe.  There's an Oglethorpe County, though, 125 miles away.  Way to make things entirely confusing, Georgia.

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Posted by angelob6660 on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 12:25 PM

I created a few fictional railroads and cities. 

Railroads:

Georgia, North Carolina Railroad Company- GNRC

Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio Railway- GNOR

Their the same company with a slight name change prior to WWII for America.

Sienna Black Star Organization- SBSO Sienna is a name of a town in California.

Mississippi Rail System- MSS It follows the same trackage as Illinois Central.

Cities:

Ephraim, NY- named after Molly Ephraim from Last Man Standing.

Pine Spears, WA- Britney Spears still my favorite artist.

Sienna, CA- Sienna Miller (because)

Kittridge, PA- name from a book I believe but I added an extra t.

Queenston Capital, CA- ?

Clintonia, IN- Its name after a flower and the past president.

There's more I believe but I care remember all of them in my mind. I would go more in depth but believe me it's like reading actual history report.

Modeling the G.N.O. Railway, The Diamond Route.

Amtrak America, 1971-Present.

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Posted by Heartland Division CB&Q on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 1:35 PM

Welcome to the forum. 

This topic can be a lot of fun. I had a previous layout with 1900 era trains and scenery. It was named the Grime & Soot Railroad. It had three stations: Hither, Thither, and Yon. 

I see Kevin is here with examples of his freight cars with fictional railroads. (Side note to kenvin: One of your cars has reporting marks of Alaska Railroad, ARR, for its fitional railroad. ) 

I think you should name your railroad after towns along the line on your layout. 

My current layout is a fictional division of a real railroad (CB&Q). 

 

Have fun ! 

GARRY

HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR

EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU

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Posted by Doughless on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 2:08 PM

NittanyLion

Something I do know from my familiarity with Georgia is that they have a lot of very small counties. I'm told is has to do with an old times requirement of county seats being a day's horse ride from all points in the county.  Very rarely do counties share their name with their county seat's name.  Savannah & Atlanta is taken?  Well, Chatham & DeKalb isn't.

There's a Macon County, but Macon (the city) is in Bibb County.  They're 40 miles apart.  Macon's seat is Oglethorpe.  There's an Oglethorpe County, though, 125 miles away.  Way to make things entirely confusing, Georgia.

 

I've lived here for about 4 years and noticed there are a bunch of counties in this state.  Seems inefficient.  

I haven't seen too many folks on horseback commuting to the courthouse lately, so maybe some consolidation would be a good way to save tax dollars.  ( We have a 6.0% state income tax and a 7.0% sales tax, those are high where I come from)

Lots of opportunities for naming a railroad though.

- Douglas

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Posted by wjstix on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 4:10 PM

nealknows
My railroad is named the "Atlantic Pacific Railroad" and named that way since I like the railroads on both side of the US

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_and_Pacific_Railroad

BTW Atlanta GA was founded by, and named after, the Western & Atlantic railroad (I think it was originally called "Atlantica"(?)). There are several towns that were named by / named after railroads, including Centralia IL and St. Louis Park MN.

Stix
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 5:49 PM

Heartland Division CB&Q
I see Kevin is here with examples of his freight cars with fictional railroads. (Side note to kenvin: One of your cars has reporting marks of Alaska Railroad, ARR, for its fitional railroad. ) 

I gave up a long time ago trying not to duplicate prototype reporting marks.

Once I decided that every freight car on my layout would be fictional, the use of "real world" reporting marks made no difference.

Then I made the mistake of duplicating reporting marks on ficticious freight cars.

Bang Head

-Kevin

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Posted by jjdamnit on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 5:55 PM

Hello All,

richhotrain
But not Thyme?

No, they were never on "Thyme!"

"Parsley" because the conductor was always late saying goodbye to his wife "Rosemary."

The name of my railroad is The Buckskin & Platte R.R. (B.S. & P. R.R.) Coal Branch Loop.

The name is derived from the confluence of Buckskin Creek; which bisects our town, and the Middle Fork of The South Platte River.

Yes, I did take some liberty in splitting the word "buckskin" to make B.S.

An actual coal branch loop exists outside of Paonia, Colorado, that I based my pike on.

The parent company of my railroad is The Consolidated Materials Group Inc.

Early on in the inception of my pike, I decided to make as much of it as possible out of "found items" to scratch build as much as possible.

Some of my rolling stock if scratch built out of coffee stir sticks, "popsicle" sticks, and "tongue depressors" which can be found unused in the craft section of most home improvement or craft stores.

You can work forward from geographic features or work backward from an acronym.

My first thoughts for naming my railroad were P.S. & B.S. (Platte Southern and Buckskin).

P.I.A.S.S. (Placer Interchange At Southpark Smelting). Our town of Alma, Colorado, is located in the Placer Valley.

M.S.L. & R.G. (Marble Short Line & Rio Grande) which could be a short line from Marble, Colorado- -which supplied marble for the monuments in Washington D.C., to the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande West.

Your naming choices are only limited by your imagination.

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"

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Posted by TheP725 on Wednesday, December 2, 2020 8:20 AM

I Decided To Go With Central Georgia And Eastern! Now, I Need Help In Figuring Out The Railroad's Livery! My Favorite Color Is Blue, So The Primary Color Shoild Be Blue! What Should The Other Color Be? 

 

 
richhotrain

 

 
Shock Control

The Parsley, Sage & Rosemary. 

 

 

But not Thyme?

 

 

 

 

This just in: representatives of Thyme have filed a lawsuit in district court to require Parsley Sage & Rosemary RR to extend trackage to Thyme, and that Thyme be granted full partnership including being added to the name of the railroad.

 

  • Welcome

If Georgia Central won't work, you could do Central Georgia & Eastern or other.  
The only thing I would suggest would be to resist cutesy names like Itsy Bitsy Lines, etc. because you will most likely grow tired of it quickly.

 

[/quote] Blue, So The Primary Color Should Be Blue, But What Should The Other Color Be?

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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, December 3, 2020 12:44 AM

TheP725

I Decided To Go With Central Georgia And Eastern! Now, I Need Help In Figuring Out The Railroad's Livery! My Favorite Color Is Blue, So The Primary Color Shoild Be Blue! What Should The Other Color Be? 

The Georgia State Flag is tri-colored, red, white, and blue. So, how about two more colors, red and white, to go along with your chosen color, blue?

Here is an image of the Georgia State Flag.

Rich

Georgia-Flag.jpg

Alton Junction

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Thursday, December 3, 2020 2:40 AM
Going the cutesy route, I have a boxcar labeled "Wrong Island"
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Posted by NVSRR on Thursday, December 3, 2020 6:49 AM

My paint scheme grew into the modified paint D&H paint scheme over time.   So I have a few variations running around. Starting with a blue dip with black accents type.  Call that the econo 70's scheme.  

there is a quarry company with a perrywinkle blue strip and accents on a very light grey base.  Really nice scheme.  I did a knock of that on my gp8 and gp10 as a short line industrial.  I will post it when I get home.   

you could always check out rrpoctures.net.  Or the other site that has a lot of locomotive pics to get ideas.  The Great Lakes eastern has a nice blue and white paint scheme

 

shane

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

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Posted by mbinsewi on Thursday, December 3, 2020 7:20 AM

jjdamnit
An actual coal branch loop exists outside of Paonia, Colorado, that I based my pike on.

Curiosity got the best of me, went to Google Maps, the Bowie Resources facility?

Mike.

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Posted by DanRaitz on Thursday, December 3, 2020 9:02 AM

TheP725
I Need Help In Figuring Out The Railroad's Livery! My Favorite Color Is Blue, So The Primary Color Shoild Be Blue! What Should The Other Color Be? 

It depends on how experienced you are when it comes to painting?  You could go the simple route and do a single color "dip job" i.e. Conrail, or a two color scheme like BN's Green/Black, just change green to blue. 

If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy .... Red Green
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Posted by dknelson on Thursday, December 3, 2020 10:24 AM

SeeYou190
up831
The only thing I would suggest would be to resist cutesy names
 

Absolutely, cutesey names are a bad idea. So are naming the railroad after family members like the SHARONVILLE AND DAVIDTON.

But... I do like this one...

And this one also...

-Kevin

 

 
Holy cow Kevin what a surprise on a December morning to see a freight car from my late friend Bob Reppert's Dawdle & Delay.  Bob was an enthusiastic trader of "private name" freight cars and I suspect there are Dawdle & Delay cars all over the country.  At his estate sale they were selling D&D cars of course, but also the cars he had traded with others.  I bought one of his expertly done flatcars with full load of tractors, and also an Ohio & Southern car he must have traded with Jim Hediger for.  As I recall at least some of the Dawdle & Delay cars were custom painted by Accurail but you had to order a case full of cars (I do not know if they still do this) so there was plenty of trading fodder.  There were other Milwaukee area modelers who did the same and had Accurail do the work from artwork supplied.  Accurail also sold and perhaps still sells cars with the data already painted on them so all they need are logos, numbers and reporting marks.
 
Anyway thanks for the memory jog.  Bob never expressed any regret over having a "cute" name for his railroad.  He loved hosting operating sessions during NMRA conventions and I imagine a lot of car trading took place as a result.
 
I tend to agree that joke names get old fast -- John Allen regretted his Gorre & Daphetid (and it took me years to get the joke because I was "pronouncing" it wrong!).  I always did like the Lackawampum however as a layout name. 
 
One good place to go for plausible railroad names is the corporate history of a railroad in the area you model.  Almost all large railroads are the result of combingind many, dozens, of smaller ones, and some were just names on a charter that never laid a foot of rail but still sound "railroady."  For example looking at the history of the Central OF George (so not the railroad our OP was talking about) reveals a couple dozen interesting railroad names that could be good choices - it pays to have a map handy while looking at the names.  One source for those old names would be George Drury's book from Kalmbach, Historical Guide to North American Railroads.
 
Dave Nelson
 
 
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Posted by Billwiz on Thursday, December 3, 2020 10:31 AM

Shock Control

The Parsley, Sage & Rosemary.

 

The Railroad that is always on Thyme!

 

 

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Posted by Doughless on Thursday, December 3, 2020 10:44 AM

TheP725
I Decided To Go With Central Georgia And Eastern! Now, I Need Help In Figuring Out The Railroad's Livery! My Favorite Color Is Blue, So The Primary Color Shoild Be Blue! What Should The Other Color Be? 

If you went with White, it would be easy to find pre-painted locos for your railroad. 

Just look for Missouri Pacific locomotives in the Jenks Blue Dip paint scheme and decal white lettering CG & E over the buzzsaw emblem.  An easy way to get your fleet up and running without having to bother custom painting anything.  As long as you find acceptable locos and can rub out the buzzsaw.

Delaware & Hudson Blue and Gray lightning stripe scheme is very snappy looking.  Again, rub out the D&H emblem and decal yellow or blue CF&G lettering on the cab sides.

B&O locos.  C&O locos.  Both blue and yellow.

Its a fictional world.  Just pretend those railroads don't exist and that your railroad came up with the schemes.

- Douglas

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, December 3, 2020 11:22 AM

dknelson
I always did like the Lackawampum however as a layout name. 

Lackawampum sounds similar to Hadabuck.

Maybe the LACKAWAMPUM AND HADABUCK should become a thing!

I wonder if the fellow who came up with this one grew tired of it.

Since I only have the one car,  I like it, but for an entire railroad it might become tiresome.

-Kevin

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Posted by jjdamnit on Thursday, December 3, 2020 12:28 PM

Hello All,

mbinsewi
Curiosity got the best of me, went to Google Maps, the Bowie Resources facility?

Yes, that's the one.

They actually supply the coal for The Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad

South of Salida, Colorado; on the Arkansas River, there is also a mining facility with a large loading facility and dilapidated sidings further downstream.

It's located at Wellsville, Colorado.

I took some inspiration from that facility too.

Thanks for your curiosity.

Hope this helps,

 

"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"

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Posted by NVSRR on Friday, December 4, 2020 5:44 AM

You could always find a paint scheme that is applied to models, and patch out the existing name on the locos.  Freight cars are usually on color so paint and decal shouldnt be hard. 

 

 That is the paint job I was talking of earlier.   The CRPA is Central Railroad of Pennsylvania.  It did exist many moons ago but merged into the PRR. there was also a Pennsylvania Northern. 

 

That was a simply paint job to apply.  Based on a real one from down that way in Georgia

 

Shane

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

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Posted by The Milwaukee Road Warrior on Friday, December 4, 2020 6:14 AM

ROBERT PETRICK

A friend in Atlanta named his layout the Napanoch Lackawack and Kerhonkson Railroad. Which I  thought was ridiculous. But as it turns out, those are actual towns and/or counties in upstate New York. Go figure. Has a nice ring to it . . .

Robert 

 

I'm still laughing about this days later.  Best name ever.  Got me thinking about all of the native american place names in my native state of Wisconsin.  Hard to imagine a Wauwatosa, Waukesha, and Oconomowoc Railroad.  Yikes.  

Since you've chosen a name now, you might consider a "mascot" similar to good ole Phoebe Snow.  Her name, of course, would be Georgia right?

Andy

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Friday, December 4, 2020 6:34 AM

The Milwaukee Road Warrior
 Got me thinking about all of the native american place names in my native state of Wisconsin.  Hard to imagine a Wauwatosa, Waukesha, and Oconomowoc Railroad.  Yikes.  

Well... In Florida, we could have the KISSIMMEE AND OKAHUMPKA!

Whistling

-Kevin

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, December 4, 2020 9:25 AM

SeeYou190
Well... In Florida, we could have the KISSIMMEE AND OKAHUMPKA!

But is that any better than the Pennsylvania "Nether Providence, Gap, Intercourse and Paradise" interurban line?

(They were famous for the slogan "No Matter What Speed You Pay For, We'll Get You To Paradise"  Perhaps it is best that they did not survive into the '60s, as their pre-WWI ad campaign about "Every Trip with us has a Happy Ending" might have been an added cause for unintentional mirth by then...)

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Posted by The Milwaukee Road Warrior on Friday, December 4, 2020 5:12 PM

Overmod
But is that any better than the Pennsylvania "Nether Providence, Gap, Intercourse and Paradise" interurban line?

Not to belabor the double entendre too much... I could be wrong but I thought there was also a Blue Ball, PA and Climax, PA and that someone had actually modeled a RR that ran from BB to Intercourse to Paradise to Climax.  Seriously.  I swear I read this in a RR forum somewhere.

Andy

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Posted by BigDaddy on Friday, December 4, 2020 5:43 PM

Anything I would like to add, would get me banned again.  Devil

Henry

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Posted by CGW103 on Friday, December 4, 2020 6:56 PM

At least you have a name for your mr. After 6 or 7 years I still have not named mine.

 

                                                 Mike

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Posted by PM Railfan on Friday, December 4, 2020 7:53 PM

I model steam era. How I ended up with over 70 road diesels Ill never know (or admit!). Always interested to try something new in the hobby, I figured, why not have two railroads. Im not sure theres any rule that says a Railfan cant.

Ive imagined two eras on the same layout (just switch rolling stock betwixt oper sessions) or, and even better in my mind.... two actual layouts.

How does this fit in this post.... i needed a name too.

Well, its pretty much a given what line I model in the steam era if you havent guessed. What I need now is a roadname for the diesel era. Anyone remember Sid Meaers(sp) PC game "Rails" from back in the 90's?

I had a really good game going one day. When you save the game it asks for a railroad name to save under. This coal hauler set on the right coast (as opposed to the left one) crossed 4 rivers. Thus, the Four Rivers Railway was born, which eventually became the Four Rivers Railroad after a company reorganization. (Yes, I gave my new line a background history too. Remember, its not just a name.... its a railroad. Gotta give it a reason to exist!)

Its either that, or I use extraordinary modellers license and continue my steam era into the diesel era (which didnt happen) as the PM. To include doing drawings of liverys etc. I mulled over both ideas and liked the former better (better paint schemes lol).

The moral - just walk out your front door, just about anything can be contrived into a name. Its your railroad, its your choice. Do a few drawings, write the name down a few times. Something, eventually will light your bulb and youll be .... "AHAA! I have it! That fits!".

Then let us know.

 

All the best,

-PMR

 

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Posted by KBCpresident on Friday, December 4, 2020 10:11 PM

dehusman

Georgia and Pacific

 

Um... Georgia Pacific already exists, and their route map is not near as impressiv as teh name suggests-- though they do have barges on many Rivers so...

I think knowing the story of your road might help name it a bit, and I agree that this is ultimately your decision. I don't have a physical model railroad righ tnow but the one in planning has gone through a few names, though i finally settled on "Wilamette, Fanno Creek & Bull Mountain." The three distinct landmarks it serves. That could give you some ideas.

The Beaverton, Fanno Creek & Bull Mountain Railroad

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Posted by richhotrain on Saturday, December 5, 2020 6:04 AM

BigDaddy

Anything I would like to add, would get me banned again.   

Go for it, Henry. Test the Fates. 

Rich

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Posted by TheP725 on Monday, December 14, 2020 8:53 AM

okay, what should the fleet be?

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