Do you run "local" railroads?

Zug

New Member
Do you run local railroads on your layout or locos from a different area?

I started out with Santa Fe when I got back into trains 1.5 years ago, I then got a couple CP's a couple months ago, while they great looking (SD90 & SD40-2) and run well, I can see real CP at the local CP yards, SF on the other hand I have never seen in person.
 
I model a fallen flag railroad. The Western Pacific hasn't been seen here for 20 years or better. I also use a freelanced railroad for the power that WP didn't own and that I like. :D

Greg
 

IAIS 604

Member
I model a Rock Island regional road in 1996, but my fictional RI has the same "business" as the real IMRL and Iowa Interstate roads had in that year.
 

RailRon

Active Member
I'm building a fictitious narrow gauge line in the Colorado Rockies, with a connection to a standard gauge line. Of course the prototypes RGS and D&RGW are showing through!

There is some mining (Fantasium ore :D) involved, and so I am borrowing also some ideas and rolling stock items from the EBT (e.g. some metal hopper cars).

Ron
 
For a long time (years!), I tried modeling prototype roads - some of which I had never laid eyes on outside of a magazine - and in parts of the country I had never seen. It just didn't work, at least not for me.

When my current layout is finished, I will have two railroads, the Central Missouri & Southern and it's subsidiary, the Osage Valley Tie & Lumber. The CM&S is/will be based on a combination of M-K-T and Mo. Pacific practices. The OVT&L is/will be based on typical Ozarks logging and tie rafting practices. So I guess I could say mine is "local."
 

Ray Marinaccio

Active Member
I model mostly fallen flag railroads. Don't need to keep up with the latest motivepower and changing paint scemes.
There isn't a railroad for miles in this area anymore . All the tracks are ripped up.
 

Matthyro

Will always be re-membered
I run my own fantasy railroad (MAT)with interchanges to Catts GVR and a few other friends. Also interchange with the real CN and CP
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
The closest answer for me is "No...", but I do run names that would have been seen "around here" - CN in south/east Ontario, in the 1920s and 30s. However, I do not go as far as to check if the locomotives I have actually carry numbers form the engines that worked here. They could have been assigned to work in Winnipeg...?!

Andrew
 

TomPM

Another Fried Egg Fan
I run locos from local railroads on my layout. They just happen to be from a different era.

I grew up next the B&O, then Chessie, now CSX Philadelphia Subdivision in Delaware County, PA during the sixties and seventies. Back then the B&O owned a big part of the Reading and CNJ, and of course the C&O owed a part of the B&O and Western Maryland. As a result I would see locomotives from the B&O, C&O, Western Maryland, Reading, and CNJ. Since my model railroad connects with the Philadelphia Subdivision I run all of them or will once I get a CNJ locomotive. I also run Lehigh & New England power. I never saw any LNE power but they ran in the Lehigh Valley and northern New Jersey. When I run trains from the seventies and eighties I run Chessie locomotives. Since the PRR now Amtrak NEC was a five minute walk from my house I also run PRR. Penn Central, Amtrak, and SEPTA. At some point I hope to acquire some Conrail power.
 

spitfire

Active Member
My layout is based around a very specific local industry, the now-demolished Massey Ferguson plant, so I have almost entirely CN motive power. Like Andrew I don't concern myself with road numbers - if it's CN it's close enough. Rolling stock in these parts (at least nowadays) is from all over, so I have wide leeway there.

However, when I extend the layout into the surrounding "countryside" I plan to run a NYC Hudson passenger train - I think they passed through some part of Canada at some point in time - so that's justification enough for me.

Also, if I could ever think of a road name that I like for more than a day, I plan to create a fictional RR as well.

cheers
Val
 

brakie

Active Member
I have the C&O,C&O /Chessie and of course my own C&HV.
Lately I been leaning toward the C&HV as my main interest road and slacking on buying C&O units.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
I model British trains in Canada, so that's at least a 6-hour flight away. And at least a 55 year time jump to the era I model.
But I still have a few models of CP, CN and TTC stock that don't run very often!
And I model some fictitious stations in Britain.
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
Seeing as how I am so new to railroading, I decided if I invernt my own road, I will make fewer mistakes. I run the Canyon States RR, and borrow equipment from many other roads until we become financially solvent. :cool: I saw on another forum where people were taken to task for having the wrong shade of a color for "that road, and that model engine", or for using the wrong equipment. :rolleyes: I couldn't allow myself to bear that burden, so now no one but me judges whether my paint scheme or the equipment used is correct.:D :D :D :D

Don
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I model Santa Fe on the modular club, which is local. My switching layout in the spare bedroom will be Los Angeles Junction. also local, and definately a "local" railroad since the entire railroad is located in an area 5 miles wide by 5 miles long.
How ever, my next railroad project will be the Arkansas & Misouri, including some modules with scenery modeled after the ptototype, if I can locate enough pictures or get the opportunity to visit the area and take my own pictures. I like th local railroads, but I like the idea of a contemporary railroad running a 100% Alco fleet.
 
Originally posted by ezdays
[I saw on another forum where people were taken to task for having the wrong shade of a color for "that road, and that model engine", or for using the wrong equipment. :rolleyes: I couldn't allow myself to bear that burden, so now no one but me judges whether my paint scheme or the equipment used is correct.:D :D :D :D

Don [/B]

I ran into a couple of those nitpickers once on a layout tour. I asked them about their layouts and mentioned that I'd really enjoy seeing one such as they must have. They got sort of quiet and then admitted that neither had a layout. I freelance, although I do rely on Soo Line plans and practices quite a bit. I have also done some contest modeling. I simply enjoy seeing other folks layouts because I can appreciate what an effort goes into one that runs well and looks decent. 100% true-to-prototype has never been a big deal for me. And most of those critics, well, their hobby seems to be criticizing the work of others rather than doing any themselves! --Stu--
 

Bob Collins

Active Member
I started out in my planning with a specific railroad and era to model and abandoned the idea about 20 minutes into the beginning of construction of my layout. I grew up in a community where you just took your choice of railroads: UPRR, CNW, CGW, Milwaukee, Rock Island, Wabash, IC and CB&Q. I have mostly UPRR motive power, both steam and desiel and basically run whatever I want without much concern about era. I'm sure that makes the purists faint away, but I got back into it to have fun and I'm having a ball:D :D

Bob

Hi UP_STEVE; Certainly enjoyed my visit to your fair city a couple of months ago to attend the Rotary International Convention. The folks in Brisbane, and all of Australia were great hosts.
 

zeeglen

Member
I live in Texas; what a thrill just after moving here from Canada to walk into the local hobby shop for the first time and finding those CN and CP N scale boxcars and locomotives (and what a hit the poor old cr card took that week!). Even ones with 'Winnipeg' and 'Manitoba' on them (my old stompin' grounds). Also model SP (local proto RR) in N and Z, and GN in Z scale; but have been known to mix a few odd roadnames into the consists from time to time. I'm not a proto perfectionist; I just like to see trains run for the pure pleasure of seeing trains run.
 
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