Does anyone like modeling michigan or indiana shortlines? i model my fictional HO scale shortline Leelanau County Railway after segments of Manistee & Northeastern, C&O, and Ann Arbor track in northwestern michigan. My line serves Lake Leelanau, Cedar, Interlochen, Thompsonville and Copemish.
My last layout modeled the Lousiville , New Albany & Corydon Railroad in Southeast Indiana .
Do you have any photo’s of your old layout that you can post? I am just starting to work on a version of the Monon myself. Having a lot of fun researching the line and its history. Hope to get to Southern Indiana later this summer to do some additional research and get some pictures of the actual route.
John
Well, mine will eventually doub;e/triple/quadruple as several places, one including a part of the 25 mile stretch of (City of) Madison RR. If you get down into Jefferson County, poke by the Proving grounds. Ask for a tour, they have free handouts and might invite you to watch them switch cars.
While I don’t actually model the Indiana Railroad I simply could not pass this locomotive up…
Hey don’t forget to add a spur running to Leland to pick up Smoked fish and fudge!
Chuck.
Can you tell from my moniker where my interest lies? [:D]
I’m with John as well - the Monon was an interesting line and it’'s been a lot of fun just researching it, plus there are still traces of its former presence out there for the finding for those who know where to look.
Indiana is actually a very good area in which to base a model railroad - it’s flat north and hilly south so there are plenty of scenery options, and all manner of revenue-generating industries (coal, grain, limestone, etc) to model or at least represent with rolling stock, plus all that traffic on its way to/from Chicago or St. Louis or Detroit. What’s not to love?
Jim
Except, if you have any of the SPV atlases, there’s absolutely no room left for a fictitious model railroad. I wish there were, but the real roads got it all.
I know someone doing the MC line from South Bend to Benton Harbor in N scale, he switched from HO NYC, selling off some prized NYC brass.
I will model the South SHore, well, thats an interurban but also runs like a shortline with its freigh t operation.
I don’t know if I’d call it a shortline but the next layout I’m planning is based on Wabash, PM, and Pennsy passenger operations in Detroit… Both freight and passenger on the Wabash.
I model the fictional East Central Indana running from Anderson to Westport. Both towns are real. The railroad is not. 
The rail line from Anderson to Westport was real until PC closed it out. I model it as if it never went out of business. The ECI is a 70s/80s short line operating out of fictional Anderson in North Central Indiana southward over the ex-New York Central (CCC&StL) Michigan Division/PC North Vernon Secondary purchased from Penn Central and Conrail. The ECI runs through Emporia, Rushville, Greensburg and terminates in the Southern Indiana town of Westport.
If I had the space I’d model the Port Huron & Detroit They have a lot of interest for me - interchange with the GTW & C&O at Tappan, coal-fired power plants in Marysville & St. Clair, auto and related industries, salt, sugar, alcos in a cool looking paint scheme, etc. The GTW tunnel and C&O car float to Canada are also near the PH&D terminal, so they could be included too. Unfortunately my 10x18 space won’t fit enough of what I’d want to do with the PH&D, so I’m doing a small part of a fictional PM/Chessie direct line from Saginaw to Grand Rapids.
If you’re interested, here’s an older article on the PH&D:
Here are a couple of photos of my old layout .
I don’t actually model IN/MI shortlines, but when I was a teenager, my first exposure to shortline railroading came from a Doug Leffler article in RMC (circa 1981, I think) about his freelanced southern Michigan shortline. He basically modeled the prototype Lenawee County RR, operating in and around Adrian, MI, but he called his the Lenawee Central and operated it with an Athearn GP-7 instead of the Lenawee County’s Alcos. The article contained a lot of info and photos of both the layout and the prototype. As I wrote above, that article was my first introduction to shortline railroading, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
In fact, I lived in Sturgis, MI, just an hour or so down the road from Adrian, for a few years after I graduated from college, and spent a lot of time photographing the Michigan Southern RR that ran through Sturgis. Even got cab rides in all three of their Alcos.
If I ever decided to give up my western prototype shortline layout, I would definitely consider modeling the Michigan Southern.
Tom
It’s not a typical short line and most of the trackage is in IL, not IN, but the IHB is a great Class 2 road to model. All industrial districts and switchyards. Bridging traffic from almost everywhere in North America. Interchanges with 16 other roads in less than 40 miles of track. (And a lot more if you go back a few years.) And lots of gritty urban trackside scenery.
I grew up in LaGrange Park, a block away from the Harbor Belt’s mainline. Spent many hours sitting in a car at the Harding Avenue grade crossing waiting for the trains out of LaGrange yard to clear. Had an uncle who drove for them. I’m working on a layout based (loosely) on Norpaul yard in Franklin Park.
If it moves by rail, the IHB probably handles it.
Bridging traffic indeed!
Welding the IHB/ATSF/B&OCT diamond at McCook, IL.
Just crossed the diamond…
I live alongside the old GTW Cass City Sub right-of-way, just south of town, now a bike path (the Polly Ann Trail http://www.pollyanntrailway.org/ , nickname of the Pontiac, Oxford and Northern - the original railway absorbed by the Grand Trunk many years ago). I often think that the PO&N, or the former MC/NYC/PC Mackinaw Branch through town, would make for a great shortline. Both roads serviced industrial areas and ran through large agricultural areas known for their high yields. The GTW was abandoned in '83, PC on Conrail Day.
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stations/CountyStations/OaklandStations/OxfordMI.htm
While bike riding the rail trail I paused at the junction site between the two roads. The diamond is still there off in the weeds, along with remnants of the NYC pole line, NYC landline markers and an old GTW milepost. Even the concrete bases for the approach/distant signals on the GTW R-O-W are present next to the trail path. Quite a bit of industrial archeology can be done along these rails-to-trails corridors if you know what to look for.
Seeing those artifacts made my mind wander about the possibilities of modeling my hometown as a “what-if” shortline. When the PC secondary main was abandoned, GTW picked up several pieces to serve local industy until the Grand Trunk even gave up on the lines. Say that a new operator assumed operation under the old PO&N flag and ran from a interchange with CN-GTW at Eames (Pontiac) up into Oxford, with branches into Michigan’s Thumb region on both the former GTW and NYC lines to serve agricultural interests.
It would certainly make for a neat (model) operation. Too bad I have so much invested in BN(SF), SOO-MILW, CNW and WC equipment - otherwise I would seriously consider it. I already have the Sanborn maps for Oxford and several photos. Res
Speaking of the IHB…
I’m not really into the era of “present” when modeling, but I have had thoughts of modeling the Adrian and Blissfield shortline on more than one occassion.