Do You Model the Railroads You "Grew Up With"?

[nycmodel]

I grew up on Long Island and rode the Pennsy to DC several times as a kid. Yet I ended up modeling the NY Central. I didn't even visit Grand Central until I was 50. Go figure. Maybe it was the classy lightning stripes!

[SeeYou190]

DO I model the railroad I grew up with...

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Hmmmm... I created the STRATTON AND GILLETTE when I was 14. Does that count? The SGRR and I have been through a lot together, and many people consider the 15-24 years the "growing up" period.

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In reality, I grew up in Gainesville, Florida. Not much train action there of any type. My only childhood memories I have of trains are sometimes being caught at a grade crossing while an aggregate train rolled by. Later we moved to South Florida, and need to drive to see any trains.

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The STRATTON & GILLETTE exists nin a world more than 10 years before I was born, does that automatically exclude it?

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What is the right answer here?

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-Kevin

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[ATSFGuy]

On my railroad, I model SF, Metrolink, and Amtrak, with some BNSF.

Just for fun, I also like SP, UP, Mopac, MKT, ACL, L&N, SSW, SAL, Family Lines System, B&O, C&O, and EL.

[Fortkentdad]

Absolulely - I model the TH&B (Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo) a fallen flag from southern Ontario.  I'd love to add a loop with a HSR (Hamilton Street Railway) tolley, but have not found a suitable N-Scale model of a 1950-1960's era trolly yet.  Larger scales do have more options when it comes to modelling traction. 

I had an Uncle who would take me train watching.  In Hamilton the city is divided by the Niagra Escarpment (it is the cliff that Niagra Falls falls over).  It was fun to watch the trains work their way up those grades. 

We also watched trains cross the bridges, also nice memories.  There were darn few steamers left when I was a kid (born '54) but when they did go by people did pay attention. 

 

 

[BuffaloBob]

Grew up with the Erie and New York Central as the prevailing RRs in the area. My first cab ride was on the Central, but the Erie still has my heart. Can remember when they ran steam and when we went down town on Saturday mornings the engines would be sitting on the ready track, then one Saturday we went down and the steam was gone and in their place was Diesels. I model the Erie as if it was still in business.  Also have rewritten history, made the Erie very profitable and have purchased the Lackawana (with out the name change),Lehigh Valley,Lehigh and New England, etc.. In other words no Conrail, but Erie. Have modern motive power painted in Erie livery. Am into the hobby because I enjoy it and to have fun.

[m sharp]

I grew up in a city with 10 railroads plus a few more surrounding the city.  I tried to limit myself to modeling just a couple of my favories, but has now blossomed to EL, C&O, GTW, MONON, N&W (NKP), IHB, EJ&E, and BRC, not to mention industrial owned switchers.  My brother an I are modeling NW Indiana and South Chicago.  We want to relive our younger days, I guess.

Mike

[bopking50]

In a sense I do. Just out of high school in 1969 the second 'real' job I had was for the CB&Q in Chicago as a Per Diem Clerk. Of course with the March 1970 merger the Chicago offices at 547 W. Jackson would eventually be moved to Minneapolis later and I had no intention of moving. But I model the Q and have been doing so for years.

[JPowell]

  I plan on it once I get that far. I grew up in the 70's and 80's here in Central NY and remember going with my grandparents to watch Conrail sort cars using the 'hump' here in the DeWitt NY yard.

  So, I will have some CR, CSX, FGLK, NYS&W, CN and the leased assets as well as runthrough power (UP, BNSF, NS, CP, WC, etc).

John

[jbloch]

Yep, Frisco, early 60's, even though I haven't lived in Missouri where I grew up for over 25 years.  Since I road the Frisco passenger train pulled by those magnificent E8's, how could I model anything else?  I'm going to "slide" my era back a bit to the 50's, since I just have to have a steamer or two.

Jim 

[Anonymous]

In N scale I model - very badly - the 1900 era in the West but I keep thinking about an HO switching set up of the Essex Terminal that I grew up with.

Nostalgia is not a fatal disease.... I hope.

Douglas 

[cp1057]

Sort of but switched eras:

I grew up in suburbia where there was nary a train to be seen, but in car trips I always liked (and sometimes still do) being stopped by a train and noting all the different RRs represented in the consist.

As a child, my family often vacationed in a small town, Southampton, on the shore of Lake Huron that featured a seldom-used branchline that my father and I would hike, and a really neat little station (depot.) There was very little action on the line at that time (early 1970s) Later in life I found a library book that featured the branch line this town was located on and saw that there was considerably more activity up til the late 1950s. At the same time my interest in model railroading was reviving, so the two sort of went together.

Also as a kid I had the opportunity to ride a fantrip pulled by ex CPR steam loco CP1057 (hence my handle.) This pretty much guaranteed modeling an era that featured steam engines.

Charles

Hillsburgh, Ont Canada 

[nobullchitbids]

Yes and No:

In Southern California, we had ATSF, SP, and Pacific Electric (though PE was gone by the time I got there).  I don't model any of them and never have.

But, my grandparents always visited from Iowa by coming on UP, and that is what interests me.  Why?

It is not sentiment; rather, it is the equipment -- I love a railroad where the "small" steam power includes northerns and 2-10-2s!

I model the Wahsatch and the "great circle" extending north from Borie to Montpellier, then south again to Ogden.  And I lied:  There is an SP connection, though not serious.  And I never have lived in any of those places or even been to some of them.

[carknocker1]

Yes , I currently model what I grew up with but not where I grew up at .

 I model the L&N , and Southern Rwy , it is what I grew up with but in Southern Indiana , but right now I model the Gulf Coast in the early 1970's .

Before I moved recently and had to tear down my layout I modeled the LNA&C and the Southern Railway in Southeastern Indiana .

[JohnCNR]

I have lived a lot of places that had great train relationships, and my layout is a real mix of stuff from the times and places that I have experienced trains: Saskatchewan grain trains in the late 60's, southern Indiana coal in the 70's, a cross-country Amtrak trip in the 90's, etc.

JRW in OH

 

[frisco kid]

Yep. The Frisco. Springfield, Missouri 1950's

[bladeslinger]

Actually Yes!  I've been in and out of model railroading several times in my life.  At about 13, I built a 4x6 double oval with stub siding, mixed up road names (mostly Tyco, Mantua, Bachmann, Lifelike and IHC), a few buildings and trees, painted landscaping...pretty cheesy.  Then in my early 20's I got back into it with the purchase of a single locomotive and a second subscription to Model Railroading.  It was an Athearn SD9 in UP.  The shop didn't have a UP powered unit, but he had a UP shell over in the corner that we swapped.  After a few months of reading MR and staring at that loco, it was shelved for years.  Then in my late 20's, I ventured into another hobby shop and found the Con-Cor releases of the old Atlas SD24.  They had 2 numbers in Southern.  I bought 2504, and went back a couple weeks later and got 2519.  I'd grown up with Southern and it was rare to see ANYTHING painted for Southern.  I got bit by the bug, and for a 3rd time got a subscription to MR.  And found a Bev-Bel painted Southern GP9.  I bought some SD9 and GP9 undecs and painted them for Southern, and later tried high hooding with 2 SD45's which were also painted for Southern.  During this time I collected a number of freight cars...mostly kits (MDC, Athearn, Walthers, etc )  I collected 50 hoppers for Southern and renumbered them all to numbers I had actually seen locally.  I began to build an 8x10 layout shortly after my first marriage in a spare bedroom, only to have to stop construction and eventual dismantle it after finding out a baby was on the way.  I met a group that was building a large layout, with no particular theme, time period or road names, and helped them on that layout for a couple years off and on, but other obligations and eventually moving caused me to abandon that. 

<>I am now married for a 2nd time, with 2 boys from my previous marriage who come to visit periodically.  My youngest son got a Lifelike trainset a couple years ago from  his "new" grandmother.  This past Christmas he asked for more trains to go with it...so I got on the web and started price checking...and in the process found out that there were a LOT of locomotives now offered painted for Southern.  I'd built and painted 7 in the past, plus bought 4 that were pre-decorated (2-SD24, 1-GP9, 1-GP18), but when I saw Athearn's GP40X's in Southern I couldn't believe such an obscure model (esp. in high hood Southern) could be offered.  I got those, then got the 3 non-DCC SD35's in Southern that Atlas put out not too long ago.  (Since then at train show's I've found two other SD35's, in Southern and Southern/C of G ).  I also managed to find an Atlas B23-7 and 4 of the 6 numbers of GP38's they also released over the years in Southern.  I was lucky to get a Southern GP30 also.  I'm still on the lookout for numbers that I don't have in Southern.  I'm not really all that interested in anything much prior to GP30's.  I would like to find the MP15DC's that Atlas did in Southern, and I'm awaiting PCM's release of the SW1500's, as well as BLI's eventual release of SD40-2's.

I don't currently have a layout, but when I get around to building it, it will follow the same theme that my last layout would have had if it'd ever been finished.  It is a fictional world where Southern never merged with N&W, and will continue on up to present day running the locomotives that Southern had without using the modern day power.  Eventually I would like to add a few other road names in, but at the moment Southern is the priority, especially since they disappear off the store shelves almost immediately.  I've always liked CNW's paint scheme, as well as UP's, BN's (I'm not a fan of BNSF though).  I'm not crazy about CSX either, but I do like Chessie, B&O, and some of the other CSX subs.  On my railroad no equipment from BNSF, NS or CSX will appear, but there may be plenty of their predecessor fallen flags.

<><>I am currently working as a locomotive engineer for NS, and I get to see plenty of late model engines and rolling stock, and don't care to model them.  I do like some of the newer tank cars and covered hoppers and such, but I don't want any of them in merger names...private company names are good though.  All my other cars will be Southern, NW, C&O, B&O, BN, SF, SSW, CNW, so forth and so on...the only exception is Conrail...I do like cars decorated in CR.  This is probably because this is what I saw growing up...so I guess I do confirm the myth...although many others here have gone against it. 

[ACLMark]

I guess I'm a hybrid modeler, modeling what I remember from my childhood and then what I was never exposed to a few years before I was born.....and the decision to model those places and times were not made at the beginning.  At first my plan was to model the current or near-current, which at the time would have been the mid-80's and SCL/Family Lines/Seaboard System.  But that begged the question, 'what scope to model of the vast system'.  Then I realized I would be missing out on the equipment I really loved....passenger, with heavyweights and some streamliners, the E and F units.....and my memories of those and riding on those from the late 50's and early 60's.....and specifically, the ACL.  My mind changed, and at the same time, my scope was defined.....Wilmington, NC and the diverging routes.  But then came the pangs of wanting some steam, which I never experienced.....so I slid my timeline back to the transition period of the late 40's and early 50's.  And why the ACL in Wilmington?  Thats my home, my memories are from there, my dad worked for the ACL for 35-plus years......and then I worked for the SCL/FL/SS/CSX for a while.......that's my story.

 mvh 

[Norman]

Yep.  Grew up in Nashville during the 1950's and 1960's, spending a lot of time with a grandfather who worked for the L&N from 1908 to 1959.  So naturally I (am beginning to) model transition era L&N.  Nothing too elaborate, which is probably good, since the equipment is hard to find.  Has anyone tried to buy an L&N caboose lately?  I wish you luck!

Honestly, my HO efforts have gotten a bit sidetracked since last summer when I got involved with "grand scale" railroading. http://www.littletootrailroad.com/ Here's a short video of yours truly having more fun than I've had in years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kemNkIdWnA

 

[sfcgadget]

Yes and no. Being born in Providence, RI in 1952 exposed me to the New Haven. I remember as a kid, stopping at Union Station to watch the trains. Back then there was a lot of action in the Providence area in both passenger and freight. Then a trip to one or both of the hobby shops in the city would end up in some kind of purchase, more likely than not, of something related to the New Haven. It didn't have to be expensive, just a little something new to build my empire. Now at 54, I still love the New Haven. It is easier to get good equipment now. I model in N-scale in the basement train room and G-scale in the back yard. I have plans to rebuild both in the near future. The N-scale basement layout is leaning towards a compressed area from Allens Ave and the shipyard, Olneyville, Providence, Charles Street engine facility and the Northup freight yard. All this work with my favorite railroad does not stop me from including other roads. I like to include some logging with geared locos on the G-scale layout. It might not be accurate, but hey, its my dream and I can imagine what ever I like. I say, do what you want with your trains if it makes you happy.

[davidh48]

I do.  I grew up on the beachfront south of Mukilteo, WA. and spent my summers ('50's-'60's) on the beach/water watching GN trains go by.

We always waved to engineers and conductors, and people in the Empire Builder (especially the dome cars!), and they always waved back.

Now I model the GN (in HO) going over the Cascades, but I've moved the line north to allow for some artistic license (like a car ferry.)  Watching the model version of a W-1 come around a super-elevated curve is great.

My family homesteaded in that area in the 1870's, so I've got lots of pictures to work from.  Given our rainy weather, a black and white picture is pretty realistic <grin>

Those days are long gone, except in memories and models.  Today is just fine. 

[CP5415]

Ya I do.

I grew up in Agincourt Ontario. Home of the CPR Agincourt Yard.

Lived there for 18 years. I model the CPR but I'm surprised by the fact that I've included the D&H.

I know it has to do with the fact that Canadian Pacific owns the D&H but I'm finding myself leaning towards wanting to modeling the D&H part of the CPR empire.

Maybe it has something to do with the PA's? I don't know

Gordon

[steveo62]

Actually, yes I do model the railroads that I grew up aroud.  Being from, and still living in the Louisville area, I grew up around the L&N,Southern, ICG, and K&IT.

 My layout time frame is set in October of 1982, 2 months before the creation of that joke called Seaboard System/ aka CSX.

 I remember when L&N had there huge South Louisville Shops not far from my house when I was a kid, and I used to ride a bicycle over to the fence lines to watch the show. Now I go there to watch UofL football games at the site, since it is now known as Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium.

 K&IT was pretty cool too, espcially with thier huge Ohio River bridge to New Albany Ind. This was the switching terminal for Louisville until they were merged into Norfolk Southern in "82

[mopac57]

More or less. I grew up in East Texas during the late 1980s, when Missouri Pacific blue was quickly being replaced by that awful UP yellow. One day, the local rolled into my little backwater town led by mopac gp38-2 #2242. The engineer probably took pity on me because I was trying to keep up with the loco as it performed switching moves, so he gave me my first cab ride. I'll never forget it. I was hooked on mopac from that moment on. After a little research, I found myself interested in MP in East Texas during the late fifties, well before I was born. But the era has everything, and I could get away with including Cotton Belt locos in black widow paint, too. Plus, I've long been obsessed with 1950s politics, culture, etc. So it was a perfect fit. But today I live in Utah--far removed from MP and SSW in East Texas during the 50s. That's OK--my imagination and the layout transport me there anytime I wish. Man, I love this hobby.

[Anonymous]

I had a lot of exposure to Chessie, but never liked the disco-era paint scheme.  I always regarded the Chessie System as the Plaid Leisure Suit of the railroads.

Heh heh heh. I worked for Chessie, and I didn't like the paint scheme either.

[AztecEagle]

I Live In Mansfield So I See Quite A Few UP/BNSF Freights On A Daily Basis.

Every So Often,I Go To Midlothian and Watch The UP;BNSF and Texas Central Business Railroad Do Their daily Business As Well.Plus,There's A Nice Little Hobby Shop A Few Miles Outside Of Town That I Visit As Well.

Write Back Sometime!!

[AztecEagle]

Wow!!A Man After My Own Heart!!I Grew Up In Flatonia So I Saw Pretty Much Everything The Espee Had From 1974-96;Including RS11's;GP20's;Most UBoats;The GE B&C36/23/30-7's;Tunnel Motors;SD40&40-2's;The GE AC Units;SD60's&70's As Well As Lease Units From GE;EMD;Helm;Oakway as ell As BN and ATSF Coal Trains On The DALSA Line and The Shiner Branch;Not To Mention Run Through Units From CNW;CN;CP;CR and Even NdeM!!!

Now That Being said,Having Grown Up In Flatonia,I Also Saw The Katy In LaGrange and Smithville;Mopac in Hearne and ATSF in Brenham As Well!!But as Far as Having A Particular Texas RR That's A Favorite;Truth Be Known,I Pretty Much Loved Em'All!!

 

[Brian A.C.M.E.]

Somewhat. I grew up traveling on Canadian National and Canadian Pacific while growing up in the 1950's here in Ottawa. Most of the trips we took were to visit relatives in Nova Scotia. I now model Canadian National and the Dominion Atlantic Railway as they were in Nova Scotia in August 1956 on my Atlantic Coastal Maritime Eastern (A.C.M.E.) RR. Does RR stand for RailRoad or RoadRunner?

[UNIONPACIFIC4018]

I guess I would have to say yes I model the railroads I grew up with. When I was little my Grandpa would take me to the Age of Steam museum at Fair park in Dallas and he'd go on an on about the Big boy there. He also took my brother and I to see the then numbered 8444 and we got to go up in the cab of the loco, pretty cool stuff. My  parents had a boat shop in Mesquite near the UP mainline so I could go and watch the many freight trains that passed through town.

I now live a block off of the KCS so I get to hear the horns of the trains day and night. 

[thrbryanclan]

I think it can be anything that catches your eye.  I always liked trains and trucks. But as I get ready to restart my Ho train I am switching from the Santa Fe to the Penn Central.  Which is what was going on in my area growing up in Indiana.

 

[wm3798]

Yes, and yes.  My earliest independent modeling efforts were based on early Conrail.  My first fan trips were up to Enola or down to the NEC in Southwest Baltimore to watch GG-1's pulling freight...  Man was that something to see. 

 

 

I had a lot of exposure to Chessie, but never liked the disco-era paint scheme.  I always regarded the Chessie System as the Plaid Leisure Suit of the railroads.  Funny to look at in pictures, but better off left hanging in the closet.  I also knew a number of B&O and Western Maryland men through my dad, who was a traffic manager.  They generally didn't have kind words about the little sleepy kitty, and the morons who ran their railroads into the ground, especially the WM.

In '77, I rode the Chessie Steam Special to Harper's Ferry on a customer appreciation trip.  The WM had been largely abandoned two years earlier, so WM through trains were then using the B&O main.  This was the first shot of WM equipment in action, taken on that trip...

I was a member of the WMRHS since 1983, and I helped build the first N scale display layout at the museum in Union Bridge, but I never seriously modeled the WM myself until 2000, when Atlas introduced the SD-35 with DCC on board.

Back in '83, I had seen these engines still in their old paint, pretty ragged out, but running on the B&O near Shenandoah Jct.

The die was cast.  I sold off all the Conrail stuff, and started prowling Ebay for RS-3's, GP35's, GP-40's and BL-2's and Life Like steel cabeese.  The decals were flying, and I went through several large cans of black spray paint, and I was happy again...

Lee