My favorites would be Monon and Erie Lackawanna. Both ran on the CWI within a few hundred yards of where I grew up. Monon had C420's on everything, including the "Thoroughbred", and EL had RS3's on locals and transfers, with mostly a variety of SD45 models on the through freights.
Within my hometown, the C&NW and CA&E. Nearby, CGW, IC and the the CB&Q, which ran steam excursions when I was a teen.
5632 was a magnificent machine.
https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/e1hbgk/cbq_5632_steaming_through_the_highlands_commuter/
it is too bad one of the survivors have not been restored.
Since I missed this thread before... D&H of course, "We were doing Precision Scheduled Railroading when Hunter Harrison was in Kindergarten!" -Some random T-shirt I saw online
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
The Nickel Plate wasn't a part of that, it was Wabash to Toledo and then the W&LE on east toward the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal.
ccltrains My favorite railroad is the hard luck Wheeling Pittsburgh Terminal. When Gould was assembling his transcontinental railroad he had a gap that he had to build. His transcontinental rail line consisted of the WP, D&RGW, MP, Wabash, NKP, W&LE, WPT, and WM. He had a gap between Pittsburgh Junction Ohio and Connellsville PA. He assembled this group of lines and built the WPT between Pittsburgh Junction and Pittsburgh. Then a financial panic hit and Gould lost his railroads. Several years later the stretch between and Pittsburgh and Connellsville was completed, but the Gould transcontinental idea had died.
My favorite railroad is the hard luck Wheeling Pittsburgh Terminal. When Gould was assembling his transcontinental railroad he had a gap that he had to build. His transcontinental rail line consisted of the WP, D&RGW, MP, Wabash, NKP, W&LE, WPT, and WM. He had a gap between Pittsburgh Junction Ohio and Connellsville PA. He assembled this group of lines and built the WPT between Pittsburgh Junction and Pittsburgh. Then a financial panic hit and Gould lost his railroads. Several years later the stretch between and Pittsburgh and Connellsville was completed, but the Gould transcontinental idea had died.
I grew up on an Illinois Central branch line in Southern Illinois and loved the IC. However, it was a floundering railroad in the 1970s...barely survived.
The Chicago and Eastern Illinois has not been mentioned here. It is not the most obvious FF, but consider this...the merger and splitting of the C&EI allowed two railroads - L&N and Missouri Pacific to reach Chicago. By the time of the merger, the original intent of the railroad - coal hauler was pretty much over but what was left became two important mainlines to Chicago. Not bad for a small railroad that only ran in two states.
Ed
I like the BNSF. It has double. triple even quadruple track portions of its lines and is working on finishing double tracking the rest of its northern and southern trancson lines. It does not have to worry about Wall Street, Warren Buffet just lets its team of great mangers just run the railroad. I like mountain railroading so my favorite section of track is the Pikes Peak subdivision from Pueblo to Denver Colorado. They still use manned helpers for those very long very heavy trains to get over the Palmer divide. From Denver at 5280 feet up to the divide at 7980 feet then down to Pueblo at 4690 feet.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.