We have 6 great grand kids. I mentioned in an earlier post about changing a Campbell kit building name to one of them. Of course to be fair I had to do it to the others.
Let me hear about what buildings have been named after their kids, grand kids, etc.
Very neat idea! I’ll bet the kids love it.
On my layout, I have coal mine tipple and ore mine named after my kids and the steel mill blast furnace is named after the wife. The tunnel portals sport the birth years of my parents.
I had two one was Westover Chemical, named after my roommate in Grad school & was a chemist. His named graced the smokestacks of the coke retort and the processing building.
And then there was “Squashed Bugs” Used Cars and VW dealership. The blue garage was the dealership, this is unfortunately before it was detailed. The dealership was named after my nieces nickname and used with enthusiastic approval.
As I get businesses built they will all have names of friends and family. I will have my wife’s name on a Veterinary Hospital and her P/U truck, my friends name on an auto repair place, I will have to be creative with my kid’s names as they are not small shop kind of professionals so maybe a hockey shop for my son and a music or art shop for my daughter.
Only time I did that was when I built my first (and so far only) craftsman’s kit stucture, a wood signal tower. It was to go at the point on my old layout where there was a crossover. I thought about labelling it “Cross Jct.” but then I thought of my friend Jeff Krauss and called it “Krauss Jct.” instead.
I’ve gone a different route. I’ve chosen to name structures after some of the early pioneers of the hobby who have inspired me. For example, in one town, I have a John Allen Photo Studio (I know. He was a freelance photographer and as far as I know, didn’t have a studio). I am currently working on a large craftsman hotel kit which will be named the Westcott Inn in honor of Linn Westcott. My main classification yard is named the Ellison Street Yard honor of Frank Ellison, one of the earliest proponents of realistic operations on model railroads. I am looking for something to name after Allen McClelland.
One of the industries in the Thunder Bay Ontario part of my layout is called MINTARIO PAPER CO. “Mintario” was the fictional state/province that Al Kalmbach’s Great Gulch model railroad of the 1930s was set in. He pictured it as being along the Minnesota - Ontario border.
