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

[Anonymous]

Well, err, sort of. I hoboed around the country, in the summer of 1962, after I got out of the Air Force, came home, and the old crowd was gone, moved, married, etc. Totally bored. So I left Detroit on the Wabash, headed west. Jumped on the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, in East St Louis, and headed south to Mobile. Took the L and N to New Orleans. Bummed around awhile,then moved on. Great fun if you are young, and in good shape. Wouldn't want to do it now. Got rides in locos and cabooses on many occasions. Train crews seemed genuinely concerned for our safety. Several times a friendly train crew said, "climb up in the second unit, and don't touch anything. You'll be safer there. If anybody asks, we didn't know you were there". A conductor once said, "I've got a son your age. C'mon back and ride in the caboose".

Lots of F-7s E-6s, 7s and 8s, GP 9s, etc. I was standing on the platform, in Biloxi Miss, late one night, when the L&N Pan American pulled in. I noticed a dark pullman right behind the engine, and ahead of the baggage cars. It was being deadheaded somewhere. I tried the door, and it was unlocked. I quickly climbed inside and closed the door, and hoped no one had seen me. A few minutes later the train left and quickly picked up speed. I pulled a flashlight out of my duffle bag, and folded down a bed in the car and fell asleep. I woke up the next morning, on a siding in Montgomery, Alabama, after a good nights sleep. The car was sitting there all alone. I got out of the car and started walking back to the train yard, looking for another ride. I really can't recall any bad experiences. A couple of railroad dicks, took my buddy and me to breakfast one morning, at a diner nearby the trainyard. Then they drove us back to the yard, and explained that we should stay on the edge of the yard, and the trains would still be going slow enough to get on. They showed us a place to wait for a train. They explained that we should stay away from the autos, and we would be OK. That was before all the auto racks were enclosed, and theft and vandalism was a big problem. Nice guys!

There were always several "riders" on freight trains, back in the 60s. And nobody was ever prosecuted for trespassing. Definately a by gone era. The worst experience I had, was in Montgomery,Alabama, when a railroad dick loaded me in his car and drove me out of the yard, and dropped me off on a desolate highway, at 3am, and told me to start hitchhiking. As soon as his taillights disappeared, I beat feet back to the trainyard, and jumped back in the train I had been waiting in, just as it started to move.

Back in the 60s, you could go to any catholic church, find the priest, and get some meal tickets to a nearby restaurant. Usually it was just a small business card, rubber stamped on the back, "good for one dinner special". Interesting times, the 60s.

 

Southbound on the GM&O, somewhere in Tennessee.

 

[ericboone]

Yes and no.

I grew up in the 80's about 1/4 mile from the Chessie System (formerly C&O / Pere Marequette / Chicago & Western Michigan) mainline.  My grandfather worked in what were the main shops for the Pere Marquette and still major shop facilities for the Chessie System until 1984 about 5 miles down the track.

I will be modeling that segment of track, but in 1946 when steam still ruled. 

[Charlie]

I model the railroad I watched here in Topeka in the 80's ATSF, SP and UP and one excption, the BN which was in KC. Main focus is their business fleet.

Ch

[stokesda]

No... not yet, at least. I'm still venturing out into the hobby for the first time. Right now, my focus is on generally western RR's, because I enjoy the scenery and the look of the west. I decided that when I get my basement empire going, it will be a D&RGW theme, loosely based in reality, with some UP, ATSF, and BN in the mix.

Recently, however, I have become interested in the rail operations in and around my hometown of Plant City, FL. My first exposure to trains was as a kid during the early 80's. Probably because of nostalgia, I thought it would be really neat to have a layout that included Plant City as it appeared in the early 80's. This was a time when the SCL was around - in the short time between the ACL/SAL merger and the eventual morph into CSX. Plant City itself doesn't have a whole lot of industry, but it gets a lot of traffic coming and going through it. Last time I was home, I saw some CSX engines pulling the Tropicana juice train through town, on their way from Bradenton to somewhere north. The key railroad feature in town is the train station (now museum) next to the 90-degree diamond crossing. I think that would make a really interesting modeling subject, but would also be challenging to do with 4-way traffic without taking up a lot of modeling real estate. The other main drawback of modeling something as specific and familiar as my hometown is I would feel compelled to get as much of the town as accurate as possible, and I'm not sure if I've got the patience to be that nitpicky.

[jrbernier]

  I grew up in the 50's, and did my 'serious' railfanning in the late 60's/early 70's(about 30,000 slides...).  What I model is in the 50's for my layout(Milwaukee Road branch lines with a 1950 date).  Sometimes I think I should move up to the late 60's as I was a teenager and was 'mobile', and chasing trains.  But I still remember hearing Rock Island steam climbing out of the Mississippi River valley a couple miles away when we had an east wind.  And family vacations 'Up North' in Minnesota always meant seeing Missabe steam.

  I did a lot of railfanning on Milwaukee in SE Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, so I have lots of photo's for research.  The 1959 date is when the renumbering of the diesels took place, and I have 'streached' out the last run of steam.  The layout was all diesel until the Spectrum      2-8-0's and BLI 2-8-2's arrived on the scene - They are just too tempting with sound!

Jim

[reklein]

A great big YES. The GN when it was green and orange. I went in the Navy then moved to Alaska in 72 and haven't been around trains till I moved here in 2000. Still catching up.

[trianman707]

Yes.  I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California and lived most of my life five blocks from the SP Main Line.  SP Main also ran behind my office in a neighboring city.  It runs along Hwy 99 from Sacramento to Bakersfield (and more).  Nothing could be finer than pacing a SP freight up or down the freeway.

Pictures of my SP rolling stock can be found on our website at http://www.heather-ridge.com

 

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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. 

[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?

[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!!

 

[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!!

[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.

[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.

[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

[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

[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. 

[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.

[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

 

[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 

[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. 

[frisco kid]

Yep. The Frisco. Springfield, Missouri 1950's

[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

 

[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 .

[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.

[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 

[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 

[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 

[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