Any Freelanced RRs out there?

[Anonymous]

Hi-

If you have a freelanced railroad you would like to share its "history", this is the place to do so.

Here's mine:

The Prototype

In 1982, a group of businessmen put together a route composed of short lines, new trackage, and lines spun off from larger railroads. The line stretched from Palmer, MA, to Albany NY, with a branch to Northfield, MA. They called their new empire the Springfield Central Railroad.

The secondhand fleet of locomotives carry the reporting marks "SCR", and consist mainly of 2nd generation diesels. The railroad leases several C40-8s from Conrail to haul the Z Train, a hotshot intermodel train running from the Springfield Intermodel Terminal to the rest of the country. The Lake Shore Limited, tired of delays on Conrail, also runs on this route.

The railroad's steepest grade is Pittsfield Pass over the Berkshires. Helper units are often needed on this 4% grade.

The Model

The layout is about 12 by 24. The modeled portion is from Blue Lake Falls, MA to Phoenix, MA (both fictional towns). The era is between 1995 and 1997. The layout's main yard is in Phoenix, MA. In between Phoenix and Blue Lake Falls is a town I havn't named yet. In its temporary state I call it Rockville, but on the finished layout it will be something else.

The track plan is pretty much a loop. There is a double ended staging yard between Phoenix and Blue Lake Falls. The layout is mostly single track mainline, but in Rockville there is double track, becoming the yard lead going East into Phoenix. In Blue Lake Falls it switches to double track going into the staging yard, whitch will probobly have 5 or 6 tracks.

The engine fleet is pretty small. I have a U23B, an SDP35, a GP9M, a C40-8W, and another C40-8 which I am waiting for the seller to reply to my Email. The Lake Shore Limited has a P40 or P42, I can't tell which. [%-)]

If you want more info, visit my site at:

http// 

 

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[beegle55]

My Bald Mountain RR is freelanced. Would share the history but its around 3 pages long. Roster includes 2 GP38-2's, 3 GP40's, Plymouth Switcher, retired F unit, and a couple unidentified engines that I just purchased.

 -beegle55

[GAPPLEG]

Here is my freelance part of my layout, History is on my website , not well written and needs more detail of course.  This the TMI fleet:

 

But my SP fleet is much bigger.

[beegle55]

I always have liked your TMI fleet, cool paint schemes too!

 -beegle55

[BRAKIE]

The Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry is owned and operated by the CDB Industries and is one of 8 short lines owned by CDBI.The C&HV came into existence in 1978 when CDBI bought the old Athens sub-division of the Chessie System.During this purchase 2 other short lines was bought,the Parkersburg & Ohio Valley RR that ran from Parkersburg WV to Athens Oh and the Ohio Midland Ry that ran from Jackson,Oh to Newark,Oh.These 2 roads was quickly merged into the new C&HV.By purchasing these roads the CBDI finally had the long sought after southern Ohio coal fields and industries.The CDBI relaid the track from Nelsonville to Athens which had been removed by the C&O some years ago.The old Logan yards was rebuilt and upgraded during this time as it would serve as the home shops and the only major yard on the C&HV since it was centrally located on the line.The second yard would be located in the old C&O(nee CHV&T) Mound Street yard and would require trackage rights over the Chessie to reach..A agreement was struck with the Chessie for those rights.The former P&OV yard in Parkersburg was upgraded as was the OM yards at Jackson and Newark.
The C&HV connects with the following roads.
Chessie(c&o) at Columbus.
N&W at Columbus.
DT&I at Jackson
Chessie(b&o) at Newark.
Scioto Valley Lines at Lancaster.
Ironton Northern at Athens.
Chessie(b&o) at Athens.
Commodities haul: Grain,Lumber,coal,coke,steel,fly-ash,food stuffs,sand,glass,corn sweetener,corn starch,vegetable oils,scrap,pipe,chemicals,paints,news print,pulpwood,wood chips and other general freight.Total cars handle 32,584 a year
Thanks to a aggressive marketing team freight traffic has climb a staggering 33% since the CDBI started the C&HV.

CDBI owns the following roads.
Cumberland,Dickersonville & Bristol Ry.Cumberland to Bristol VA.The CD&B is the flagship road.The CDB in CDB Industries is the same.
Kentucky Central.Cumberland Ky to Maysville Ky.
Artemus-Jellico Artemus,Ky to Jellico TN.
Toledo & Southwestern. Maumee Oh to Fort Wayne IN
Cincinnati & Lake Erie.Cincinnati to Toledo.
Detroit Connecting.Detroit MI.
Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry.
Huron River Ry.

The CDBI is looking at the 9th road but this is still in the negotiations

 

[CSX_road_slug]

If you have a freelanced railroad you would like to share its "history", this is the place to do so.

OK, here's a few brief facts about my Iron Belt:

It's a remnant of a former [fictional] Class I railroad, officially listed* as Chicago & Lake Erie, whose fortunes rose and fell along with the iron and steel industry of the United States.  It slowly disappeared thru the 1980's until its only remaining right-of-way was between Conneaut, OH and Youngstown, OH.  This trackage was acquired by CSX Corporation in 1990; but the locos and rolling stock were kept in their original paint schemes (see signature avatar below).

* NMRA Pike Registry

I gave a presentation on it at Independence Junction in July 2006, the slides can be viewed at http://ironbelt.net (PDF or HTML format)

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My free-lanced road is the Midland Gulf Railway. It exists only on my layout. Here's it's history in a nutshell. The MG assists in the moving of freight between northern Arkansas and the Louisiana Gulf Coast, sharing track with KCS, UP and to a small degree, BNSF.

[BRAKIE]

My free-lanced road is the Midland Gulf Railway. It exists only on my layout. Here's it's history in a nutshell. The MG assists in the moving of freight between northern Arkansas and the Louisiana Gulf Coast, sharing track with KCS, UP and to a small degree, BNSF.

 

Jeff,Is that a paper railroad own by UP and KCS? Or do you have engines and cars lettered for the MG Ry?

 

The reason I am asking I study freelance railroads to include "paper" railroads that use equipment from its parent road(s) You see I have give clinics and have done topics on short lines and "paper" short lines.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff,Is that a paper railroad own by UP and KCS? Or do you have engines and cars lettered for the MG Ry?

The Midland Gulf Railway is a fictional road of my own creation and is based on the old Midland line. I have one loco (GP38-2) lettered for the MG Ry.

[beegle55]

I guess I'll go ahead and throw the history of the BMRR into a nutshell... it started around 10 yrs before the transitional era, when steam was still king. Bald Mt. was a boom town of sorts that provided a rest stop area for conductors and engineers passing through the area, and it also provided a coaling tower and sanding tower to replinish fuel sources and needed equipment on the passing trains. Other small industries popped up along the Ohio River Valley, causing the need of a small switching road. Hence the BMRR being formed. The BMRR suffered financial hardships during the transitional era, not having gained much profit from the industries after purchasing their steam roster, and they did not make it past the transitional area. The BMRR was reformed and became a division of CSXT in 1991, and now has a small leased loco roster, still awaiting the delivery of the first diesel in the BMRR livery. Small industries and mountains surround the BMRR, and a new industrial switching section of the BMRR is being built.

Wow, thats a nutshell?? :) There you go...

 -beegle55

[WCfan]

Here's my freelanced Rock Creek Sub. (I haven't built it but it's on the drawing board.)

The Rock creek Subdivision is a Joint line from the Former Chicago Northwestern (CNW) and Milwaukee Road. (MILW) The CNW side consists of Clarksville and the Steep Clark grade(3%). The termatiting point is Wausau where it re-enters the main. There is also a Juction where the CNW use to cross. The MILW road route is abonded south of Wausau. The line goes through the towns Juction City where it splits off on a branch to reach the paper mills at Brocaw. After Juction City the line cuts through the rock creek valley and then blasts through Brocaw Hill. It re-enters the main at Iron ridge. There is a large paper mill and a Branch to a Iron Ore mine. Soo bought the MILW trackage, and after it's Lake States Transportation got sold to Wisconsin Central(WC) they had the northern half. After years of struggling, CNW finaly sold it to WC to make the Modern day Rock Creek Sub. Most of the Traffic is Paper and Pulp, and Lots of coal from the Powder River connection that splits off the Juction at Wausau To get on the Superior connection. Some times there's an Ore train and maybe a unit grain. The helper locomotives are GP-40 3005 and a GP-38-2 2003. Most locomotive consits are SD-45s and a SDL-39. Switching is done by SD-35 2500 at Iron Ridge. And Two Fromer CNW SW-1500 55 and 82 switch at clarcksville. Former Soo GP-9 2552 Switch's at Wausau.

[EspeeEngineer]

My freelance layout will be fictional division of the south central California region of the Southern Pacific RR. There are 4 daily through freights, one of which drops and picks up cars from the local crew in the 5-6 track yard, one daily Amtrak California train and possibly (I'm not sure if I want to add it or not) one Metrolink commuter train from LA.

The local crew works with a GP35 (SP 7415), an MP15AC (SP 2699) and a shoving platform. There is a Grocers warehouse, ADM Grainer, team track, propane distributor, plastics plant, building supply distributor and manufacturing plant (not sure of what will be made there yet). 

I will be working in a 12' X 15' room, so hopefully it will turn out nice! It will be DCC and I will post a track plan when I finish designing one.

[coborn35]

The North Shore Terminal and Transfer Railway Co. is owned and operated by the North Shore Transportation System, which also owns North Shore Maitenence, and North Shore Trucking and Delivery. NST&D bought out UPS, Fedex, DHL,USPS etc and owns ALL delivery and transportation systems in Duluth, MN.

The North Shore Terminal and Transfer uses an SW-1 to switch out on line customers one every night around 2000hrs , with a DMIR SD45T-2, BNSF GP60M, GN SD45, and UP SD90/43MAC used in various pairs for the nightly 2400hrs yard job which sorts the 5-7 nightly BNSF,CN,UP and CP transfers in our 33 track yard.

We interchange directly with CN, BNSF, and the NSSR.

We have a large executive fleet, with 2 Great Northern F-7's in the freight scheme, and one in the passenger scheme to make up an A-B-A set of F's, with the UP SD90/43MAC and BNSF GP60M as backup power. We have one heavyweight business car, the Leif Ericsson, which is painted GN but lettered in the top corners NSTT in gold, and has brass railings. We also have a  heavyweight GN diner, the "Ackerton". A GN Empire Builder streamlined diner rounds out the executive cars. As for club cars, we have two more GN heavyweights, one a coach, one a combine converted into a bar car. A CNW bilevel turned party car is a favorite on most outings. An interesting car we have is our instruction car, a former GN heavyweight painted black and gutted except for desks. As silver round end observation is stored awaiting wheels and couplers, and one BN streamlined diner stored servicable, as well as one BN RPO stored unservicable.

We ship any commodity, and have cars to do so, and also lease ALL our equipment out. 

 

[Anonymous]

I'm still writing the history of my Railroad but basically the railroad lies on a mountain and travels in a loop delivering supplies/Passengers between the two points. while my lines history is not complete the history of my loco's is complete (yes all my trains have back stories.)

 

No.464

• - Saved from scrap and restored to original condition including paint scheme. Previously served on the Central Vermont Railroad.

 

No.5972 "Hogwarts Express"

• - Castle Class Locomotive painted to resemble the Hogwarts Express. Was bought to run special "tourist" trains on the mountain, but due to the tight curves of the railway this engine remains on display by the front station.

 

No.605

• - Purchased from a scrap yard to replace No.105. This engine had a very short operating life pulling a total of zero trains. Upon arrival the engine would not heat up properly, after many attempts the loco was sent back to the scrap yard a week after it's arrival.

 

No.105 "Stanley"

• - A refurbished 4-4-0 Central Pacific locomotive that was converted into a 0-4-0. This engine was one of the first engines on the line. It was known for riding roughly on the rails. When a second Locomotive arrived this engine was pulled from service and set on the side of the tracks as a display. There were some attempts to correct the "rough riding problem" but all attempts failed. Due to some financial problems Stanley was sold off to the scrap yard were it sits next to No.605. Both engines are kept in running order in case a spare part is needed.

 Maybe I'll post a pic later.

 

 

[tomikawaTT]

The Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo (Richstream Valley Railway) is the freelance feeder to the protolanced Nihon Kokutetsu Nichigeki Hon-sen (actually the Chuo-Nishi Hon-sen in disguise).  To explain how things got to be the way I'm modeling them in September of 1964 I wrote a long, complex history of the area starting back in the sixteenth century.

In a nutshell:

• The Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo built up the valley of the Tomikawa to tap a newly discovered coal field.  In order to avoid major tunneling and expensive bridges, the line was laid out using a snake for a straightedge.
• In order to open a new route, the Imperial Government Railways took over all but the extreme uphill end of the TTT.  The newly nationalized portion was rebuilt (with the big bridges and long tunnels previously avoided) and extended, culminating in a really long tunnel under the Nichigeki Pass and a downhill run to the port of Minamijima.
• After starting with steam, the IGR decided to electrify the route from Minamijima th Tomikawa, the junction with the truncated end of the coal-hauling TTT.  In the meantime, the TTT had built farther up the valley to a new coal mine, since the original coal seam was almost mined out.
• After the Pacific War (aka WWII) Minamijima began to expand rapidly, especially along the rail line to the Nichigeki Tunnel.  The (by now renamed) Japan National Railways responded by double-tracking the line and introducing suburban MU service.  After a second tunnel was pushed through parallel to the first, double track (and EMU service) was extended to the end of catenary at Tomikawa.
• The TTT reached the end of the valley, at the site of a new, even larger coal mine.  A modern coal cleaning plant and extensive rail facilities were built.
• By 1964, the JNR had introduced a few diesel-hydraulic locomotives, had begun grading to double track (and, eventually, electrify) the remaining single track and was in the process of replacing jointed rail on wooden ties with heavier welded rail on concrete ties.  The TTT was still hauling coal, using bigger locomotives and high-capacity cars to supply coal to a large power plant in the Minamijima area while still shipping loose cars to other customers (including the JNR engine terminal at Tomikawa.)

In condensing several thousand words I left out three other rail operations (which will be static background if they appear at all) and all of the other commerce and industry that generate traffic on the rails.  The end result is (I hope) a totally believable slice of might-have-been.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[galaxy]

The History Of The Grimey, Black & Sooty Railroad.

The G, B & S is a steam operation, and covers a (broad) span of steam service time. Basically it would be around the turn of the last century....but the smaller railroads at that time kept and used equipment well, not always being able to afford new and scrap old. They also frequently bought the older equipment from the major railroads. So an 1860-80 4-4-0 loco might pull up along side a 1900 or a 1920 shining beauty. (as I understand it today cars can be in service for up to 40 yrs, being repaired and updated and re-labled- so this would not necessarily be amiss).

Virgil Grimey acquired a very large land parcel in 1850. (The general area would be middle upstate NY and NE PA.) Upland was a semi-flat spot where he laid out the plans for a township. The hillside and natural rock cuts were very darkish in color, and from a distance looked like black cliffs, the direct opposite of the White Cliffs of Dover, from whence Virgil came. The small city was, aptly named, at his insistence, Grimey. Grimey was described as "a perfect little hamlet set upon the black cliffs of a fair country side". By offering a  discount on lots in town, he was able to attract some folks to settle there.

Virgil's son, Hiram, knew he had to do something to make the town prosper. In 1860, at the age of 16, while away at school, becoming one of those ‘ed-i-kated folk' he became aware of the railroads, and the profits to be made on the trails of the rails. He convinced his father that if the railroads came though, it might mean a good deal to the town. Hiram began to talk to the railroads (any and all who would listen) and was told a mainline could go near through there if there was a place to service the engines. They would need to take on water and coal, and perhaps a repair or two. In 1865 and the imminence of the war and all, things were tight. If Grimey had a place for such a ‘service station', then perhaps they could travel through there.(Sounds like an off-ramp on an interstate)

It was finally set out: If Hiram Grimey could build a service yard, the railroad would furnish it with the intent to acquire it from them. All Grimey had to do was prepare the land and space, and build in water service, and the railroad would lay the tracks. Hiram also offered to build at least one engine service shed, and the coal tower if  the railroad would also run passenger service to the fair city of Grimey, even if it was at a higher elevation. This would ensure people would travel through from down state, Pennsylvania, Chesapeake to the upstate Finger Lakes Region and Erie canal.

 Virgil died that year, before this vision was realized. He left a hefty some of money to Hiram, who then decided to start a small line railroad to bridge the gaps of the larger ones, thusly ensuring that railroads would come through.  HE would own the service yard and lease to the railroads as they traveled through the fair land his father had set eyes on many years ago. The Grimey Black Cliffs Railroad was begun. With the service yard was set out below the town, it was first called ‘Grimey Junction'. This, however, caused problems with the passenger service depot also called ‘Grimey Junction'. When a yard foreman brought this to Hiram's attention (for the last time or ‘else I quit'), he sought out a new name. Since the area had first been a meadow, he thought perhaps "Meadow Junction". His five year old son Matthew reached down and picked up a hand full of soot fron near the ashpit and said "but daddy, it's all sooty!". Thus, out of the mouths of babes, was born a new railroad, and a new service junction. The Grimey, Black & Sooty Railroad. And it would henceforth hereto after forever more be ‘Sooty Junction'

The G,B&S leases out runs to other passing through railroads; most notably the B&O and all its incarnates; and services their trains on contracts, in addition to running as a go-between for railroads and shipping and delivery. The Upstate small farming communities were very pleased. All railroads have been impressed by the record and quality service they receive at Sooty Junction. Some have tried to get Hiram to set up other such sites. But, alas this was still a time when railroads "owned" all such things and processed as cheaply as possible. Only because Hiram was able to set up and operate his own short line were the larger railroads to enjoy his superior treatment.

 

Hiram died in 1917. He developed a cough, a cold, an infection, and secumed to the call of his maker. Matthew, having also received an ‘ed-i-ka-sion', decided to carry on his father (and grandfather's) legacy. He had a chance to work with one of the Brokerage houses in NYC, but he loved the trains. He really wanted to be an engineer, but his father thought he and his expensive education deserved better. But by 1939, with the great depression, broke, he sold out to a larger railroad, which dismantled the G,B&S, tore up tracks, and left a ghost town where Sooty Juntion had been. In 1942, Matthew was discovered keeled over in a corner of a bar. He had been there since it opened at noon, and apparently drank himself to death.

 

There. (can't leave a story unfinished, now can I?) If anybody wants to see a better ending CLAP!!!!

(after all, I have to explain the F-3 that occasionally runs on my small pike, right???)(The Ghosts of Hiram and Matthew Grimey laugh)

[nbrodar]

Although, I model the mid-1970s version, here's the complete history for my Penn Lake System. My locomotive fleet consists of Atlas RDG and D&H RS3s, 11s, and 36s, and C424s, with some C420s on order.

History of the Penn Lake System

During the mid 1920s, the Delaware & Hudson and the Reading Company, began to purchase the stock of an anthracite shortline named the Penn Lake Railway, in an attempt to increase their anthracite traffic. While neither road was successful in gaining complete control of the line, together they acquired the majority stake in it and were able to prevent the PL from falling into the hands of either the Lehigh Valley, or Lackawanna. However, the ICC prevented either company from exercising operational control. As a result, the Penn Lake continued to operate independently, much like the ACL and L&N's Clinchfield.

Through the steam and early diesel era, Penn Lake's locomotives carried Penn Lake marking, but followed the motive power policies of it's parents. By the mid 1960s, Penn Lake's independent image was disappearing. As it's own equipment wore out, PL's parents provided hand-me down equipment from their own fleets, primary Alco RS and C series road switchers. By 1970, PL operated completely with Reading and D&H locomotives. Penn Lake quickly gained a reputation as an Alco lovers paradise.

On April 1^st 1976, the Reading's interest in the PL transferred to Conrail. Conrail, uninterested in the line, soon sold it's holdings to the D&H. The D&H integrated PL's operations into it's own, but never bothered to formally merge company . During it's purchase by Guilford, D&H lost control of the PL to a group of Pennsylvania and New York investors.

The new ownership consolidated the Penn Lake Railway with other Conrail spin offs and renamed the line the Penn Lake System. Built during the late 19^th Century, the PL had generous clearances. The PLS quickly rehabbed the track and instituted double stack service from the Port of New York/New Jersey.

The PLS, using it's Anthracite Speedway slogan, developed a reputation for fast, on time service, and prospered. By the early 1990s, PLS and it's lucrative traffic from the Port of New York/New Jersey attracted the attention of the expansionist CP Rail. CP began to acquire interest in the PLS. In 1996, CP acquired 100 percent of the PLS, and merged it back into the D&H.

Nick

[METRO]

The backstory for my freelanced railroads is also quite long and involved but both are local railroads in the fictional metropolis of Selene, Ontario in a modern day. 

The Selenian International Port Commission (Called Interport, reporting marks INT) is a belt line and terminal railroad in and around Selene.  It interchanges with the Canadian Pacific, Canadian National and CSX by way of ex-Conrail trackage.  Motive power consists of a variety of first and second generation power including GP38-2s, SD9s, RSD15s, SW1500s and a couple ancinet RS1s.

The Selenian Lines Commission (reporting marks SLC) is loosely based in operation on the NYC MTA but with enough changes to make the line original. The heavy rail system consists of several lines connecting Selene to her suburbs and connecting with GO Transit for service to Toronto.  Power consists of P40s, P42s, F40PHs, and a few old F7s.

The SLC also runs historical trains, much like the NYC subway does, but mine are heavy rail. For that I've got an Alco DL109 and a freelanced USRA-style NYC 4-8-2 Mowhawk (which I kitbashed together because nobody makes a deciently priced NYC Mowhawk.)

Cheers!

~METRO 

[on30francisco]

My freelanced railroad is a narrow gauge logging line set around the turn of the century (plus or minus 20 yrs) in the Eastern part of the country. It also has other light freight and very limited passenger service. There is also 15 inch gauge industrial line that serves a small mine and other small industries. The equipment is mostly freelanced based on prototype practices although I use a mix of Eastern and Western narrow gauge equipment such as trucks and details - as long as they looks plausable. For the 15 inch line I use On30 trucks and built the small gondolas and bulk end flats. Modified Bachmann On30 mining cars and other equipment are also a posibility for the 15 inch railroad.

[perry1060]

 

Website

http://home.mchsi.com/~ironmaster1960/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

 

 

 

[GeneMoser]

Virginia Tidewater and Piedmont Railroad

    The Virginia Tidewater and Piedmont Railroad is a private or fictional railroad based on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Southern Railroad.  The layout is set in the late summer/early fall of 1957 as steam fades for all railroads, to include the VT&P, which recently bought its first diesel.  
    The VT&P has an eastern terminus in Gloucester, Virginia and interchanges in the west at East St. Louis, and Chicago, Illinois, and Memphis, Tennessee.  This layout represents the Blue Ridge sub-division of the Mountain Division where the VT&P gives trackage rights to the C&O for an additional crossing over the Blue Ridge Mountains.  
    The staging yard represents trackage coming from Gordonsville, Virginia to the east and Sugar Grove, West Virginia to the west.  The major town on the layout, with a yard and engine facility to service locomotives going over the Blue Ridge and make up trains from interchange and coal mines is Leesboro.  Just to the east of Leesboro is Basic  City.  Other communities are Bradyton and Nicksburg to the east and Hannahville to the west.  Noah Junction, while not heavily populated, is a major interchange allowing C&O, B&O, Southern, and even N&W trains to appear on the VT&P right of way.  
    South River Yard in Leesboro has a full steam facility to include a 130’ turnrtable, allowing it to turn the C&O H-8 and the N&W Y-6B and A articulateds and all VT&P locomotives.  It also has diesel facilities, though these are spartan.  

 

The layout is currently under construction in a detached 26x20 building.  The layout is 26x17 with two penninsulas with staging below the main layout.  

Gene 

[jecorbett]

The NYO&W, Erie, and DL&W all were influences for my railroad but none of them had all the elements I wanted so I conceived the New York, Binghamton and Western RR. It operates from Buffalo across the southern tier of New York, to the Hudson River across from New York City. It was formed by the consolidation of several smaller lines and gained access to New York markets through traffic rights over the NYC's West Shore line to the yards at Weekhawken, just as the NYO&W did although my interchange point with the West Shore occurs in northern New Jersey rather than Cornwall New York. Later, major branches to Syracuse and Rochester were acquired. My railroad is set in the mid 1950s and the system map is much like the New York-New Jersey portion of the real life Erie-Lackawanna which was formed around 1960. Unlike the EL, my railroad never operated west of Buffalo on to Chicago. Following WWII, the railroad fell on hard times as trucks began taking business away from it. As a result, the railroad lacked the capital to continue with its dieselization program that had begun prior to WWII. As a temporary measure, the NYB&W began leasing late steam locos from other eastern roads that would have otherwise sent them to the scrap heap. A hodgepodge of steam power continues to operate alongside F3s and RS3s which had been acquired in more prosperous times. Despite its struggles, the NYB&W is a takeover target of the NYC that would like to add it as a parallel line to its Water Level Route through upstate New York. The NYC is already a major stockholder and leases some of its surplus steam power to the NYB&W in exchange for trackage rights over the trunk line to Buffalo. The NYC runs sections of some of its New York-Chicago passenger trains over the NYB&W to Buffalo where they are combined with the mainline trains. It also uses the NYB&W as an alternate route for through freight service to Buffalo and beyond.

The modeled portion of the railroad is set in northern New Jersey and southern New York. All of the towns are fictional but it interchanges with real railroad in real places that are represented by loop staging yards on opposite ends of the layout.

Later on, the NYB&W would be fully absorbed by the NYC prior to the Penn Central and Conrail mergers. I suppose I should add a chapter for the CSX takeover but that occured after I had written the original history of my layout. Maybe it will someday be part of the UPBNSFCSXNS railroad.  

[BRAKIE]

Heres my other short line..The Huron River Ry operates over a fictitious CR branch between Huron Ohio and Barberton,Ohio..The HR is one of eight short lines owned by CDB Industries.

The last 3 first generation locomotive own by CDBI operates over this line.Those are 2 GP7s (#s 40 & 45) and  1 SW7(#33). These units are scheduled to be retired later this year.

 

[dragenrider]

My railroad is the Cedar Branch & Western.  It runs through the Ozark Mountains on a former Missouri Pacific branch line.  The time period is around 1970.

With the expansion of the Weyerhauser plant in the town of Cedar Branch traffic has exploded.  The Cedar Branch & Western RR is hard pressed to keep up with its old GE & SW switchers and has recently purchased some bigger used EMD products.