What is it with model railroaders that they name their railroads with such crazy long many words to name their railroads?
The Burton & Hilton Southern Mountain Valley East Sub Grandma’s Undies Railroad.
Mine is simple, easy to say and you can remember it. “Mile-Hi-Railroad”.
Whatever yanks their crank, I guess.
Haven’t even thought about a name for my slowly progressing layout.
Have fun,
Richard
Although my current layout uses mainly prototype names, my previous layout featured the Weeahpa Creek Railroad. The WC was supposed to be a struggling short line that was barely hanging on. I dropped the name when I started my new layout but many of my model railroad friends mourned the demise of the WCso much that I was “forced” to resurrect the few pieces of WC rolling stock I still had not repainted and also purchased a few more Accurail “data only” kits to add some more.
I model the Milwaukee, but it’s full name is the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.
Yeah, there’s a prototype for everything.
Is there a RR equivalent to Bob Newhart’s airline bit on “The Grace L Ferguson Airline & Screen Door Company”?
On structures, I’ve enjoyed coming up with fun company names for the signs, inspired perhaps by the Woodland Scenics “Sicken Tire Company”, which is in line for construction this winter. A couple of Cornerstone kits sport the “Wholly Mackeral Seafood Company” and the “Smelley Gas Works”. The grandkids like such things.
Probably becuase once upon a time, back when railroads were popping up all over the country, a great many of them added the name of every town, county, farm and dog between one place or another with the hope that adding the name would bring in finanacing, business, and so forth. Then add & Pacific to the end of it to make it sound bigger than it was.
Since modelers tend to like funky shortlines, calling it the Mayberry, Hooterville, Bugtussle, & Pacific falls right in line.
Or you could do like my favorite: Southern. One word, 'nuff said.
Mine are very simple: Borracho Springs RR , a western themed narrow gauge layout, and the Gothom Transfer RR, a NYC harbor terminal themed layout.
A lot of that is also mimmickry of the full name of actual railroad sections.
If I’d gone a slightly different direction, i’d have ended up with the Pennsylvania Railroad Conemaugh Division Butler Branch.
I have a rather bit of a stew of names, but if there’s a brand name, it’s the D&RGW Four Corners Division. This mythical Rio Grande division was formed when the standard gauge line from Grants to Moab and on up to connect with the old Rio Grande main across Utah was completed through Durango after World War Two as the region became increasingly important to the, ahem, national security needs of the nation.
While standard gauge seems to be the wave of the future, the narrow gauge has survived, too, thanks to a favorable tax structure and the defeat of the road-builders cartel in the wake of the big Interstate bribery scandal. While four-lane roads can often be found back east, it’s still two-lane blacktops from California to Kansas City. High gas taxes, while some grumble, also help keep people more than happy with economical, safe railroad service.
The modeled portion of the SG lines runs from Carbon Junction just south of Durango to Dove Creek, Colorado, near the border with Utah and home of both URACAM (formerly known as Uranium Corporation of America before it was reorganized following the tragic accident that irradiated 1/3 of South Carolina), a large mill that operates under AEC auspices (and that’s about all I can say) and the neighboring giant quarry and cement plant, Colorado ConCrete Products, or as it’s often called, the CCCP plant.
There is a connection to the Rio Grande Southern, which still limps into Durango from the west, but on the best track its ever run on, the dual-gauge line that usurped much of it’s old right-of-way west from Durango.
Durango serves as a transfer point for traffic moving between gauges, much as Alamosa does at the other end of the line to Chama. Much of this traffic is processed in Durango, like the oil from the Chama fields processed in the Oriental Refinery, so the break in gauges presents no economic disadvantage. A steady passenger business is underway, used by both locals and tourists, with 3 trains each way
Truth can be stranger than fiction. If you look in some older ORER’s you will find a private tank car owner named The Head On Colision Line. Perhaps it was a good thing they only owned some cars and did not try to run a railroad.
Charlie
While Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo might seem innocuous, there’s a rather salacious double-entendre there which I’m NOT going to detail.
The Nihon Kokutetsu is the name the Occupation authorities gave to the Imperial Government Railways, but the Nichigeki Main Line honors Tokyo’s Nichigeki Music Hall, home (until the 1980s)of some rather risque reviews.
While there is a real Tuxedo, NY (once served by the Erie), the Tuxedo Junction was a model railroad thet took the name of a Glen Miller record. Its predecessor was the (honest Injun) Moonlight and Violins.
To (dis)honor the Lackawanna and bemoan his financial state, one WWII era modeler named his railroad Lackawampum.
As it expanded across his basement, John Allen’s “Gory and Defeated” didn’t strike him as so funny any more, so he pulled a Santa Fe maneuver and simply used the reporting mark, G&D. At about the same time, John Armstrong presented a layout plan entitled, “Tortured and Triumphant.”
Of course, after Quanah Parker named a town after himself, he just had to found a railroad - the Quanah, Acme and Pacific. The prototype does this sort of thing, too.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I named my RR " Pennsylvania " because I live in Pennsylvania.
I got that problem solved, Michael.
My railroad doesn’t have a name.
Rich
Page 23 on this down load has some interesting information on railroad names and nick names.
www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/m/c/mch/railroad/RAILROAD.DOC
I thought your name passenger express was called the "Fuji Flyer".
Cheers, the Bear.[:-^]
A old friend of mine freelance railroad was "Hooten Hollow,Big River & Western Tennessee Ry.
He finally shorten it to Hooten Hollow & Western since the initials(HHBR&WTRy) was to long to fit the tenders of his 1890 era 4-4-0s.
Nah, that’s just the nick name, not the official name.
Rich
Simple name for mine. L&A. Louisiana and Arkansas. Copied it from a relatives layout of the same name.
Named mine 20 years ago Santa Fe “Knowcents” Division. This way I can model ProtoLance.
I modeling the old Soo Line (ex Wisconsin Central) P-Line between Portage and Plover WI. After it’s purchase (fictional) as a branchline, the name was change to the Portage & Northwoods Electric Railroad (P&NWER) 1919 - 1948, then to the Portage & Northwoods Railroad (P&NWR) 1948 - 1953, and finally the Portage Northern Railroad (PNRR) 1953-Present. And even though the “Electric” portion of the name was dropped, the wire never came down, and the juice is still on.
Years ago, I had a 1900 era model railroad. It was named Grimensoot Railroad. It served three towns named Hither, Thither, and Yon. … The layout did not survive multiple moves between houses.
My current railroad is a fictional dvision of CB&Q RR. The CB&Q served a large protion of America’s Heartland, and hence that is what I named it. (Heartland Division). I do include whimsical names in this layout. For example, one town is named Valley Heights. To me , that is funny because vallets do not have heights.
edit valleys not vallets.
it is hard to type in these post bodies