Railroads rarely modeled....and what is the most popular?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Any Bangor and Aroostook modelers out there…or Florida and East Coast steam era? Obvioulsly manufacturers and importers produce what sells and understandably so. But there are so many really neat modeling possibilities out there. How about the D&H with their water tube fireboxes on 2-8-0s and incredibly fine scenery the railroad traversed through.

My guess would be for the most modeled roads would be…east coast…PRR; west coast…UP, and midwest…CB&Q. The least modeled class 1 railroad would be Bangor and Arrostook and Monon, albiet for a pacific and mike imported from Overland years back. Never modeled short line would be the Mississippi Central. I could be wrong as I have not researched this…only in my head.

HZ

2

I have always found the Keweenaw peninsula of upper Michigan to be a fascinating area. The smaller railroads that served this copper producing area were quite diverse and interesting. The Copper Range and the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic were two standard guage carriers. There were also several narrow guage railroads like the Mineral Range and Hancock and Calumet. Some of the mining companies owned railroads as well. One of the most popular was the three foot guage Quincy and Torch Lake. Although shut down in the 1940’s, the railroad remained intact and virtually untouched until the mid 1970’s.

I chose to model this area, but decided to add to the challenge by modeling in three rail O scale. Needless to say, it is not a scale model railroad, but rather gives the general feel of the area–at least I hope it does.

Karl

3

You’ll get half of your answer from this forum thread posted in Aug '18:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/271560.aspx

4

I suspect three of the least modeled railroads is the Western Pacific,Family Line and Seaboard System…

5

At one point I seriously considered modeling the L&N, pretty low on the manufacturers’ radar…

Sheldon

6

I’d like to see some of the mainstream manufacturers, (like Bachmann or Athearn for example) come out with some models of Colorado Midland locomotives and rolling stock. I’ve seen a few brass models of CM locos, but they’re nothing I can afford. So, I don’t have any right now, but I’ve been hunting for locos suitable for conversion to a CM loco at swap-meets and my local hobby shop. My favorite popular railroad however, is Union Pacific.

7

I enjoy the Providence & Worcester railroad in the Northeast. Known that railroad for as long as I can remember. Love there Orange and Black paint scheme. I’ve collected as much as I can off the stuff that is out there and every once in a while a manufacturer will release something in that road.

8

I’m learning about the Central of Georgia. There have been a fair amount of models painted in their schemes, but I doubt that detail accuracy has ever been emphasized.

Present day Norfolk Southern has a nice heritage scheme loco running the rails.

9

A couple that have been mentioned have regional followings but not widespread. I guess it kind of depends when you live. I model Rio Grande but live in Southern/ Norfolk and Western territory- so feel kind of lonely. When we lived in Indiana the Hobbytown in Indy had one endcap devoted to Monon. Outside of that area it is unknown. Western Pacific has somewhat of a following- at least for diesels. However some has been dumped at low prices so who knows. Jim

10

Howard,
At my club here in Massachusetts, the BAR is modeled by at least 5 members out of 60. These guys own at least 30 different models of BAR power (mostly GP7’s, F3’s, and GP38’s), according to our register of locos.

I don’t think you can call the BAR the “least modeled Class I” because the term Class I used to apply to over 150 different railroads. In the old days, you just had to have an annual income of over $1 million and you were a Class I. So railroads that I’ve never heard of like the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway, and the Midland Valley Railroad (names picked at random from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Class_I_railroads), were all technically Class I’s in 1950, even if today we’d call them a regional or a shortline. Heck, the successors of the BAR are considered regional RR’s.

The problem with finding the least modeled Class I is that you really have to define the parameters more precisely, else you run into a whole bunch of almost never-modeled railroads. BAR is at least famous enough to have their red, white & blue “State of Maine” cars made by Lionel back in the day (my father had one…and still does, come to think of it). Probably can’t say that about the Cambria & Indiana or a host of other Class I’s.

As for most popular roads, the PRR isn’t as popular as people think. Sure, it sells, but most popular eastern road today?

Several years ago or so, I compiled a list of all engines listed on the Atlas and Athearn websites (they used to date back to 1999). In roughly 15 years, Atlas made 40 PRR locos and Athearn made 31. By comparison the top three eastern roads Atlas made were: 110 CSX, 102 Conrail, and 65 Southern locos. Athearn’s top three: 137

11

Howard–

Remember my foray into Texas & Pacific? Nice railroad; very interesting history…but virtually nobody cares.

Also, based upon lack of interest in both Bowser big MLW’s and Rapido FA-2’s: nobody really cares about NdeM or FCP. Bowser was forced to cancel M636’s in Mexican flavors due to lack of interest, and I am the only person to date who has even asked Rapido about Mexican FA-2’s despite the hot yellow, blue and orange handrails paint scheme for FCP. There is “no chance” of Rapido doing Mexican FA’s. All the paint schemes they have announced are ones they received numerous contacts or requests about actually producing.

There is more NdeM stuff on Ebay by far than T&P. I’ve been watching…

BAR: the F3’s have somewhat of a following…enough that they are either out or coming…I think from more than one manufacturer…

I nominate T&P as being among the least favorite class 1 railroads of all time.

Lets add to that unpopular list: Minneapolis & St Louis, and Chicago Great Western.

John

12

I must be the only one in my train club to own a trio of ATHG MKT F3 A-B-A’s painted in the as delivered Red/Grey with the Sloan Yellow Nose. I also have a Sloan Yellow RND Outside Braced Wooden Crummy with metal wheels and kadee’s to go with the Katy F’s.

At one point I even considered modeling an L&N Transition Era freight train, but later dropped the idea as HO Scale L&N F7’s Diesels made by ATHG or virtually any other manufacturers are NEARLY UNIVERSALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND!!! Yes I’ve seen them on evilbay from time to time, but see what I wrote above!!!

So alongside SF, I went after MKT and might add some Mopac if I can find the stuff I like. For the time being it’s mostly SF and MKT. Since both roads went to the Lone Star State, the MKT is SF’s interchange partner. I have purchased a separate calendar from the Katy Railroad Historical Society.

Most of the guys in my club model western roads. At shows I’ve seen SF, SP, UP, WP, RG, GN, NP, BN, and BNSF models on the layout. I’ve also seen some MILW and a few STL-SF diesels. There’s this one guy who models CGW, yes CGW, in CA! and GM&O.

There are a few guys who do eastern roads: NS, NYC, PRR, B&O, C&O, N&W, NKP, and maybe SOU, that’s it. No L&N, No ERE, DLW, B&M, MEC, ACL, SAL, SBD, FEC, NC&STL, CHESS, CR, CRR, etc.

13

A short line I have never seen modeled would be the Chesapeake Beach Railway.

Among standard gauge short lines, the Maryland and Pennsylania seems pretty popular - at least I have seen models for it in N, HO, S, and O (maybe some in z or G that I don’t recall).

Paul

14

You know thinking about it- I have a nominee for the least modeled class 1- The Atlantic and Danville. It ran from Portsmouth VA to Danville VA. Parts were at one time 3 ft gauge. Only one book printed about it. The only commercial models made were a few boxcars- AHM and BevBel in HO and Atlas in N made steel boxcars and Funaro and Camerlango made a reisin kit of a wood boxcar. That’s it. Is there anybody that has ever modeled this? I live in Danville and nobody here in our club or in the regional area has ever heard of anyone who models it. Jim

15

When I used to ski in Maine, I always admired the shortline St. Lawrence and Atlantic. It’s limited enough to model.

But, I model with Milwaukee power and rolling stock now. Still, I like to represent other nearby roads like the Ann Arbor and the Port Huron and Detroit with foreign road boxcars.

16

You might try to find a copy of Playing With Trains by Sam Posey. It might not be a source of ready-to-run models but it does tell of his experience in modeling the Colorado Midland,

17

In narrow gauge, the D&RGW seems to be the most dominant, but hardly anything is available for the East Broad Top in PA or the Tennessee and Western North Carolina. There are pewter loco kits available for both roads, some brass r-t-r locos that come up, and rolling stock that’s available on eBay from time-to-time, some in Sn3 and others in HO. I’ve visited the EBT in Orbisonia, PA when it was running a couple of times and was just amazed at the steel boxcars and hoppers on the property. During my last visit years ago, one of the Baldwin-built mikes pulled a train consisting of an EBT combine, coach, and a caboose. And, of course, a friend and I rode in the cupola. The railroad is also listed as a National Historical Place. I just find it a shame that manufacturers are stuck on producing just D&RGW models. I’m sure that modelers would buy other narrow guage railroad products, like the EBT, in order to model Eastern narrow guage.

18

Back in the 1960s a guy named Adolf W Arnold had a sort of “round robin” newsletter group about the A&D, which was his special interest. That is how you shared information of that sort before the internet.
If you could find those newsletters you’d have some interesting information. I can’t seem to find my few copies and may have discarded them, unfortunately. I think it was he who interested AHM in producing their boxcar, which I bought.

One neglected class 1 is the Soo Line. Given that there are preserved Soo Line steam locomotives in operating condition , and others preserved in parks and museums since the Soo was generous in donating steam in the 1950s, I would not be surprised to learn if the there is a higher percentage of the Soo’s steam roster preserved and still existing than for any other Class 1. Somehow that has not translated into much modeling interest it seems.
Dave Nelson

19

I think location might have something to do with what folks model. For example, about 1/2 of the model railroaders around Plattsburgh, NY, model the D&H, because it used to run though town. There are the modelers who model the railroads from where they grew up, or a railroad they are fasinated with.

20

I’d say standard gauge D&RGW west of Grande Junction CO is rarely modeled, so I plan to be one of the few.