What Should I Name My New Model Railroad

[Anonymous]

I have to move and had to tear down my layout. For my next one I am dreaming up a new one. It is an end to end arrangement of two John Armstrong plans. His Montana and Puget Sound, recently discussed in Model Railroader, and his Central Midland that he designed for Atlas. I have decided it will be a Freelanced line Bridging the GN, CB&Q and UP in Northwestern Wyoming, Idaho Oregon, and maybe Southern Washington.

I have come up with two names. Which is best. I can't decided.

[Fergmiester]

I like PNW as it has conatations of Norhtern Pacific, which to me had some memorable steam power

Fergie

[Anonymous]

Pacific Northwestern here.

[Anonymous]

The Montana, Fourth of July Pass and Western Railroad. The Inland Empire Railway. The Deer Lodge, Headquarters and Kennewick RR. The Seattle Eastern RR. The Portland Overland Line. The Columbia Gorge and Eastern Rwy. The Montana, Snoqualmie Pass and Seattle RR. I throw these out just to muddy the water. Actually, I don't feel right telling you what to name your new railroad. I just bet you will finally make the decision yourself. One night, while you sleep, you will wake up screaming the name you like best. After all, it is a personal thing, is it not? What a great opportunity. You get to choose another name, design a new layout. You get to correct the things you did not like about the old road, and maybe make new mistakes along the way. How else do we learn? I have gone through this experience multiple times through the yea

[Anonymous]

I will be honest and say I do not particularly like both f the names you have listed.

[dragenrider]

I like the second one. It sounds more like your home town, neighborly railroad rather than the empire the first one alludes to. My thoughts! [:D]

[espeefoamer]

I like Pacific Northwestern,because it sounds like it is affiliated with the Southern Pacific[8D].

[AggroJones]

Anything with "Northwestern" in it has automatic coolness.

[SpaceMouse]

The was a railroad named Northwesten Pacific that ran from Arcata CA down to Marin County.

See Jetrock, I read your packet.

[krump]

Pacific Northwestern gets my vote (of the two) but it also sounds too close to our weather reports re wind direction.
mixing it up a bit you might get Pacific NorthWest Railroad instead; or North West Pacific, North Pacific and West, or simply Blood, Sweat and Tears Railroad, ...
but I like "DoOver and OverDue RailRoad"

just sporting with you - have fun, settling in again, join me for a coffee

[Anonymous]

I like the second one. I find it easier if I could pronounce the initials as a word.

[Anonymous]

I echo tpaulsen's sentiments. I had a situation with my wife, similar to you trying to name your layout. I asked her for some help/ideas about naming business places and towns on my layout with initials or names of kids and grandkids, etc. and we got into a minor 'discussion' about offending family members if their name or initials didn't appear on the layout someplace. It's best if you analyze this yourself and then the only person to be upset with is you. You can forgive yourself a heck of a lot easier and then go on with things rather than trying to explain yourself to others. I named my layout 'The Long, Thyme 'n' Cummin' due to the fact that I've been trying, off and on for 25 yrs. or so to start a layout. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. Good luck with yours. Dale, Rearbrakeman, Sumpter Valley Ry.[:)]

[krump]

any conclusions yet Sky Blue ?

[grayfox1119]

I voted PNW, it sounds better, and incorporates what you want better.

[Anonymous]

PNW. Those were the old initials from one of me past layouts. So I'd be partial to it. [^]

[Anonymous]

Mind if a total outsider offers some input?

As a very general rule, some railroad names indicated places they operated, or hoped to reach, etc. Typically, they started with the origin name, and added their hoped for destinations. Examples:

Missouri-Kansas-Texas
Chicago Burlington & Quincy
Missouri Pacific
St. Louis - San Francisco
Etc.

Using the above logic, your PNW name would be hard pressed to fulfill its destination. What is northwest of the Pacific Ocean?

Perhaps you can give some more head scratching as to where you envision your empire having started, and where it was headed. Maybe a map can offer some food for thought. Perhaps it could be Northwest & Pacific, or something. However, the bottom line is it is YOUR railroad... you can name it whatever you'd like.

FWIW, I'm of the opinion that when choosing a name for a freelanced road, and one wants it to suggest locale as well as sounding plausible, then the above logic employed by the prototypes works nicely. Here's an example of my previous freelanced HO road:

Kansas City & Gulf

I modeled a small portion of its "Ozark Subdivision".

The railroad name and subdvision name helped those that saw it to have an idea of the route's origin and destination, as well as a gave them a general idea of where in the US it ran. The name of the subdivision gave an even more specific hint as to what section of it they were looking at.

For a modeler that is trying to "Proto-lance", the name of the freelanced line, the name of the subdivision being modeled, even the names on the layout, are VERY important, for they are the main avenue in which to convey information to the viewer. I always enjoyed that part of creating a proto-lanced theme.

Good luck and have fun!

Andre Ming