How did you choose 'your railroad'?

[south_tyne]

No doubt like many my railway interests are many and varied, something which often leads to keep flitting between projects. I have long had a passing interest in American and Canadian railroads and have always thought that, at some point, I would like to have a go at a smallish switching layout.

 

However one which has always held me back is the question of choosing the right railroad to model. Obviously the need to properly research and learn about my chosen subject is very important in this.

 

So my question really is... How did you go about chosing the railroad(s) and locations you currently model?

 

Obviously there could be many varied reasons for the choice. For those in North America it may just be the local railroad or past memories etc. For those of you in the UK it will be different.... A holiday? An inspirational book? Family connections? Something else?

 

It may be a silly question (and feel free to say so if it is!) but I'm just interested in how people have come to the decision?

 

My own embryonic interest is in railroads of New England but I want to learn more before commiting and wasting money on the wrong things!!

 

Looking forward to hearing some thoughts.

 

Thanks,

David

[New Haven Neil]

Locomotives with my initials on the side 'writ large'.....NH!  So the New Haven it had to be.........

[roundhouse]

We had made a few visits to Florida back in the early 90's and searched out the local railraods when travelling around different parts of the state.

 

One day we vsitied Naples and Fort Myers. We came across the Seminole Gulf Coast Railroad where it used to run the dinner train from Venderbilt, just North of Naples. The train was sitting there getting ready for the evening trip. The operators invited us onboard to have a look round the Budd cars. The loco livery on the GP 9's (and nowadays newer units) is quite striking - I got hooked on it along with CSX and the units still in Chessie, Family lines etc that we saw at the time. Also a chance meeting with some local railfans in Orlando who took us out to Wildwood and showed us all the different details on the locos sitting there.

 

So that decided it for HO scale modelling.

[Gilbert]

Two words - Paul Dolkos - his articles in Model Railroader on the Boston and Maine were inspirational - it was also something of a challenge I relished as there was not much about that was correct and RTR for New England roads in the 1990s - I also received a lot of info and encouragement from some members of the NMRA who went to enormous trouble to get me background material long before emails and pdfs made it easy!

I've only recently sold my HO layout "Gilbert Junction" but I've kept all the stock as most of it is kit built or repainted and I can't bear to part with it!

Chris

[Talltim]

A combination of factors, but stemming from liking Guilford's paint scheme, their rubbish track work and GP40 2Ws. The fact that 80s and 90s Guilford spent as little money as possible make it very attractive for the modeller, who obviously doesn't have to put up with either working for them or being their customer.

I think also I like the balance between the familiarity of New England and it's unfamiliarity, there are so many place names I know, but in the wrong places, interspersed with Native American names. South Western USA is just too alien for me.

This goes for all US railroads, but I like the fact that I can model wagonload traffic and the equivalent of pickup goods, but in a modern era.

[trisonic]

As Tim hints at study the country first. Both Canada and the USA are bigger than Europe - I suspect that they have more diversity in geography too.

If you are unfamiliar with the USA a book such as "Railroad Maps" published by Kalmbach (ISBN 978-0-89024-994-9) in 2013 is useful.. Not only are the various lines detailed but it provides  an idea of the loads carried.

If you want to model the desert South West you really don’t need Boston and Maine owned locomotives down there. Although nowadays you’re as likely to see consists led by a NS loco heading across the southern BNSF Transcon as a BNSF loco.

Use holidays or business as research trips...

Oh, HO gauge track is basically correct too and not narrow gauge - seriously that is what got me interested in HO 40 years ago...

 

Good luck. Pete.

[switcher 1]

I'm going to be the odd one out here - mine is (going to be) mainly freelance. (An I.S.L.)

Having had an interest in the model diesel locos & freight cars in the 70's is what really brought me to the dark side.

I just started buying what I liked at first, & then realised they were mainly Southern Pacific, so I guess that's my 'Road'.

Of course, the fact that American outline models run better than British outline is a bonus.

[south_tyne]

Thanks to everyone for their replies so far, it is really interesting.

 

I appreciate in many ways this is a bit of a naive question, as Pete says, given the reach, scope and diversity of the USA but i still find it interesting.

 

I have visited the USA on a couple of occasions, hence looking to New England as an area I at least have a little knowledge of.

 

As has been outlined above, the thing which really makes it so attractive for me is the freight aspect of US railroading... That traditional 'wagonload freight' (to use a comparable UK term) still exists into modern times on byways of the network. This is my kind of thing! I do find Shortlines interesting and would like to know more about them too.

 

The suggestion to aquire the atlas is a good one, I'll follow that up.

 

I look forward to any further contrubutions!

[trisonic]

That’s OK. Anywhere from the northern parts of Virginia up to and including Massachusetts is basically an England lookalike so far as vegetation and crops  are concerned. Once you get into New Hampshire and Maine the big, dark,  woodlands begin to look alien again. Similarly from southern Virginia south you start getting the tropical type stuff like Kudzu (particularly prevalent along rail lines) and then Spanish Moss.

Simplistic, maybe, but handy as a guide.

 

Best, Pete.

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear South Tyne,

 

For me, it's usually a prototype image that grabs me by the imagination and won't let go. "Brooklyn : 3AM"was unashamedly inspired by a shot of NYCH #11 and a railbox boxcar curving around the corner between 41st St and 2nd Ave in Trains magazine. It took almost 10 years on and off stumbling across various pieces of info before I hit "critical mass"and the build began.

 

Currently there are a number of similarly inspiring images currently rolling around the brainpan. As to which one will hit crit-mass first and wink into resistance is anyone's guess, although too be honest a lack of kindred modellers to discuss the finer details of scene and layout design development in the local area tend to stifle "spontaneous build"missions...

 

Happy modelling,

Aim to improve,

Prof Klyzlr

[shortliner]

If you fancy dipping a toe in the water. and fancy something in the New England area, the current issue of Model Trains International #112 has a reprise of Julian Andrews "Eastport & Calais" - a tiny switcher with 3 turnouts and in 4'3" x 9" in HO (5' x 12" would give a little more room). If you are interested in obtaining a copy - PM or email me and I will send you details - several of the guys on here are subscribers.

Best

Jack

[Gilbert]

Julian Andrews "Eastport & Calais"

One of my other inspirations - superb little layout

Chris

[Allegheny1600]

Hi David,

I didn't really used to like US/NA railroads at all, then the front cover of a late 1989 CM inspired me! It was a picture of a Santa Fe "hotshot" with a big powerful red & silver 'warbonnet' and I had to have one. Initially I bought anything & everything but later settled into the Southern Pacific however after a while, I realised that I really loved Alco's.

I did some research and found that the C&NW ran big Alcos into the eighties so that did it for me and the Espee stuff and all the superfluous stuff went too.

I didn't stay 100% loyal to the North Western trying out big steam C&O stlye, modern diesels KCS style and early diesels NH style!

Most other stuff has since gone but I've kept all my C&NW stuff as I've had it for so long and acquired loads of books, videos etc.

Through a good online friend, I also built up an interest in the Texas & Pacific too!

My one & only visit stateside co-coincided with my interest in SP and CNW so I took in Chicago, LA, S-F and a portion of California.

Hey-ho! One day I'll get there again!

Cheers,

John E.

[dave1905]

I started with a freelance railroad, the Lenape RR which ran in the area near where I lived and belonged to a club that was freelanced, the Schuylkill Valley RR (southeastern Pennsylvania).  I then started modeling the PRR and changed to the PC because it was in may area.  I then decided the PC was too big, and chose the LV in the 1970's because it was more colorful.  However the more I studied it, the more I found it didn't have a lot of traffic in that era and very little coal.  So I changed to the Reading Co. in the 1970's era.  I chose the Cattasuaga and Fogelsville Branch because it interchanged with the LV, LNE and CNJ. That layout was dismantled when I moved and I back dated to the 1948-1952 era and changed to the Wilmington and Northern Branch because it was a single track line that had reasonable traffic.  Later I changed again and backed the W&N Branch to 1900-1905 era and we are moving again, hopefully for the last time, so I will be rebuilding the 1900-1905 W&N Branch in a new location.

 

What I find interesting is what seems to be rarely modeled in the UK.  That is pre-1950's operations.  Since you generally have less space, modeling era's with shorter cars, smaller engines and more carload switching would seem to be more suited to your limitations.

[Adrian Wintle]

For me it was living within earshot of the CN main line and being able to see trains from my high school (2nd floor classrooms at the front of the school), occasionally travelling on CN (not VIA) passenger trains in my youth, and seeing them occasionally pushing covered hoppers around the local Dupont plant that initially got me interested in CN. When I came back into North American railroads I was travelling intovarious areas of the North East USA and it spurred an interest in the PRR and its successors (PC, CR, NS). Then the interest in NS spurred an interest in its predecessors (SR, N&W), then I needed run-through power...

 

And then this happened: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69563-modern-n-scale-locos/

 

Adrian

[alfsboy]

I llke the Railways of LA like the LAJ ,SP ,ATSF PE  etc depending on period.I also like The Frisco and the Pennsy  but cant do them all so I have settled on a switching layout with potential to run through based on LA in the 50's but will sneak in 70's models LOL.

[PhilH]

2am, red wine, ebay, a C&O Proto sound equipped switcher for £43......

[Spitfire2865]

I chose the NYC partly because its my home state. After research, I loved the Hudson type and the coach colors. Now off at college, I end up taking the NYC mainline a good way going home and back.

[298]

When I was 11, A friend of my Dad from his model airplane flying club knew that I was into trains, and gave me a Lionel loco he'd had for years. Curious as to what it was, I took it to a local exhibition where a vintage layout was advertised, and spoke to it's owner. He sold me a circle of tinplate track to run it on, and when we went to collect it, he also gave me a copy of Sept.85 RMC, that had an article about the loco.

 

In the same magazine were drawings for the Yakima Valley Line Car, and something about it must have impressed me enough to remember it. Fast forward to 2000, and I'm looking to build a small home layout, but can't find anything that would suit the excessive number of 4mm scale AC electrics I had. Thinking a change to the dark side would be good, I remembered the YVT and the quirky Line Car and set off on a voyage of discovery.

 

Since then, I've been to Yakima three times, built two layouts, and become good friends with the author of the original article.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

... it chose me!

 

 

the very first locomotive I saw back in 2003.

 

and my second love, seen a few days later....

 

 

eleven years later, still mourning the demise of these two.

 

 

 

 

[Robatron86]

Colour scheme and New Mexico lead me to the Santa Fe.

[roundhouse]

Filthy SP locos in California got me into modelling them in N scale. I particularly like the coast hence why I enventually had to model Santa Barbara and would like to model Sand Diego but that would entail more locos in BNSF!!

[ChrisH-UK]

My reason wasn't at all superficial, I'd been visiting the US for a few years and was 'blah' about US railroads until two shiny blue locomotives came past one day in Conrail Quality and Operation Lifesaver schemes and that was the beginning.

[Talltim]

My other (long term) RRs are the PRR, Union RR, P&LE and the B&O in 1912. This was purely due to one photo http://www.shorpy.com/images/photos/pan0.jpg (huge file) The choice of railroads was completely subordinate to the location, but I'm growing to like PRR locos of the period. The choice of dates was due to my father modelling South Wales valleys in 1912.

[Oldddudders]

Rand McNally, a US publishing house specialising in maps and atlases, has published, maybe still does, a railroad atlas. The version I have somewhere gives lines as they were many years ago, so you can follow the routes of railways long abandoned or absorbed by larger roads.

 

My first taste of US modelling was at a London exhibition in August 1971, where a Western-themed layout in HO showed just how impressive articulated locos could look. It also had pairs of geeps and other more prosaic power, which seemed to run better than some of the finescale OO elsewhere that day. When I took up US HO seriously in 1984 I initially liked then-modernish diesels, buying a UP SD40-2, but more study took me back in time, so 1950 +/- a year or two is my timeframe, and Rio Grande and Rock Island, with a hint of Missouri Pacific and Santa Fe, are the roads that took my fancy. Eastern Colorado is the general area. 

 

I like passenger trains, and big early diesels in their smashing liveries, but also seem to have rather a lot of workaday steam, 2-8-2s and 2-10-2s. Then there are the F-units....