Better yet ,what did you name it after ? I myself , thought long and hard about what to call it. Then one day ,I thought…hey what if I could get my wife involved in my hobby. She paints very well,so back drops are her job,seeing I suck painting back drops.
I asked her,what I should call my road.She told me,name it what ever I want.So back to square one,nothing new.
I thought and thought and thought,finally it hit me like a ton of furnace bricks.You see my wife collects dragons,any kind of dragons.Dragon River Steel Corp… its got to get her involved , that’s sure to get her involved.Wrong again !!!
This isn’t the first time I’ve ever been wrong and not going to be the last time I’m sure. But I did get a cool railroad name out of the deal. My railroad is served by norfolk southern,after the mill switchers,pull their loads of finnished products to the main line.
How did you fine folks come up with a name ?
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Making HO scale steel by the ton!!!
A mate of mine thought up the names for a series of layouts. Because we just
muddle through we call the layouts LITTLE SAVVY so this 1 will be called
LITTLE SAVVY CA. it will be a small town with yard served by the santa fe
The Grey Mountain & Dalton RR
I built my first layout while in high school, and used the "new technique " of hard shell scenery, pre-colored gray; so the Gray Mountain and something Railroad was an obvious starting place, and GM&D seemed to have a nice ring to it. Situated in NE PA coal country, I searched for a city starting with D and found Dalton. As I began to letter cars I changed “Gray” to “Grey” to conserve A’s in letterset packs.
My pike was named after my home town of Waukegan Illinois. Before the city was incorporated, it was an indian settlement called “little fort”.Since it is located on the shores of lake Michigan, The name “little fort and shore line” was adopted. The LF&S is evolving as a freelanced C&NW and I AM having fun.
BB
I named Rock Ridge after seeing the Rock Ridge I built out of Tater Mountain. I also have always liked Blazing Saddles. My son named Train City after seeing all the trains you could get into a Western town.
The yet unbuilt Redwood Empire kinda sorta comes from the NorthWestern Pacific’s slogan “The Redwood Empire Route,” but the first two phases will be the California Western Railroad. But it goes throught the redwoods and will be my empire.
My RR is the "Autumns Ridge Railway & Navigation Co.
Autumn is my daughter and I like the mountains of Maine and since there’s a lot of coastline up there too I thought I’d incorporate that aspect with the navigation part.
I model the late 30’s and so the name is in keeping with the times. If I were modeling a newer period I’d probably go with something that has a little less of an “old timey” feel to it, ya know?
My wife raises seeing-eye dogs, the Dixie D was named after Dixie (Doggie), her favorite dog from batch #D. Good fortune for me that the name has a ring to it, I hate to think what I would have to name the railroad after a dog from batch #Z. Dixie currently resides in a jar on the dresser. Someday I will secretly incorporate Dixie into the Dixie D SL, maybe over by the waterfall…
It came about slowly over several years of planning the geology, geography, and towns of the ficticious area. Once the “area” is designed the elements become part of the railroad name just like they do in real life.
Pine Ridge & North River - A regional “link” railroad.
Pikes Peak Fossil Creek & Tesla - A shortline mainly serving the Tesla Wireless Power company near Colorado Springs.
I guess you can probably guess where mine came from![(-D]
For some reason I can’t begin to explain, I’ve always thought the word ‘belt’ was really cool. Maybe seeing giant cranes during my childhood with the name “Link Belt” on them had something to do with that (I’m also a heavy equipment fan)? Then I saw locomotives lettered for a prototype road called the Cotton Belt, then another fictional road called the Coal Belt, so…why not the Iron Belt for my steel-industry related modeling? That name was not listed in the NMRA pike registry so I grabbed it!
I chose my railroad name YEARS ago while I was still in High School. I tried to stay generic, not using the name of any major city that would restrict me to a certain area of the country. Also, I thought the use of the name “Western” was overdone.
I followed the color scheme of the Reading Railroad in it’s last years, but used a lighter green. I liked the really big number on the back of the main hood on the locos, too. The locos and some cars are lettered with alphabet sheet decals for the Samson, Burnton, and Southern Railroad.
For a short time many years ago, I thought about modeling the New York, Ontario, and Western. At that time. there was almost nothing out there for the NY,O,&W so a friend suggested that I buy decals (he was in the business of decaling and wheathering cars for dealers and individuals) and go that route. Since I was going to locate the pike in the heart of the Finger Lakes, aka: Seneca lake area and the fact that I live in Ontario county, I decided to call it the Seneca Lake, Ontario, & Western or S.L.O.&W. The railroad has also lived up to it name as it has been in progress for 25 years and is still not anywhere near finished… LOL
Oh, boy! I’m almost embarrassed to tell this one: Several years back I was despairing over my inability to decently paint an engine. One day I ended up with a neat switcher shell lettered “CB&W” and sporting a really cool paint scheme. The switcher was in an auction win from eBay.
I mulled over what CB&W actually stood for. I never could find a prototype railroad with those initials. So, I made up my own matching words-the Cedar Branch & Western. Over time, I’ve gotten where I can paint my own shells a bit, but the CB&W sort of stuck with me.
By the way, I did learn later that the switcher shell was painted for the Chesapeake Bay & Western, a railroad club near Chesapeake Bay! Here’s their web site: http://www.trainweb.org/cbw/
There was a single rail line out of the Jones Falls area of Baltimore running north. Since there are many valleys between that point and the Mason Dixion line; ergo!
My fictional Marlpost subdivision of Canadian National was named after the house my grandfather owned just south of London, England. The home and grounds are now a small subdivision… [:(]
John Allen had his funny two city name and I liked it as a boy. When I built my second pike I was new in the church business and we decided that everything went from the Sublime to the Rediculus. I had two mountains so the name stuck. I now am on my fourth pike, with Mt Sublime in Minnesota with a logging opperation and Mt Redikulas in Arizona with a rediculus gold mine. Tradition won out and the Sublime to Redikulas lives on. My daughter gave me a cap with the name on it so I guess it will live on into infamy in my family.
I’m a big buffalo (just ask my wife), so it had to be buffalo something or other. I started with Buffalo Creek and a quick search came up with an old railroad of that name. That would have been fine but upon further research I discoved that the logo was a flour sack. That just wouldn’t do so I changed the name to Buffalo Ridge.
