What qualities about your favorite railroad appeal to you? Is it the location, operations, equipment, paint scheme, etc?
I grew up watching the CP marshalling yard in Agincourt, Ont.
I would have to go with the Burlington Northern sans Santa Fe. I grew up on the BN mainline north of Galesburg, IL. Got the bug young and couldn’t shake it. Have a hard time accepting the SF and some of those early paint schemes. And don’t get me started on patch-jobs on BN equipement. [:(]
Erik
my grandfather worked on union pacific lines for 18 years back in the fifties. hard, labor intensive work and low pay was a large part of his life at that time, so thats my connection
Greetings,
I model Burlington Northern. That gives me also the opportunity to blend in the fallen flags rr. Great Northern, Northern Pacific, CB&Q, SP&S. And Frisco too.
Also growing up along the FW&D in Texas may be another reason. I always remember those big green and black locomotives going by.
Any other BN fans out there?
Mark in Texas
Milwaukee Road! went virtually thru my backyard. I remember hanging around the tracks during the summer as a kid. We would find pieces of metal banding and make whistles, looking at the cattle in the stock cars, find used up flares in the ditch. Putting pennys on the track and watch them get flattned
CSX is my favorite modern road because it’s local, has a colorful paint scheme, and a kitten in the logo. But I don’t model it. My favorite rr’s for modeling are the Pennsy, the Ma & Pa, and the WWF. It’s a combination of equipment and setting. I like the GG1, the Wiscasset waterfront, and the Ma & Pa gas electric to name a few of the highlights.
Enjoy
Paul
My favorite one is CN, for many reasons: it is widespread, from Atlantic to Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, brings almost every kind of cars from and to any part of the continent; it owns and share traffic with Illinois Central and Wisconsin Central -a good opportunity to bring in foreign colors !- and often carries loads for Union Pacific -with occasional appearance of their motive power. The CN mainline locomotives are very up-to-date, CW44-9s and SD75is ; branchlines and yards use a very wide range of locos, many of them unique to the CN.
Although I also model SantaFe, Union Pacific and Western Maryland, Canadian National remains my favorite one, mainly because I can see it every day.
Martin
Québec City
I grew up watching N&W from the front porch of my great-grand parents when I visited them. When I went to my grand parents we would see the Southern. My first train sets we Sante Fe. I bought alot of western stuff when I was young so it would “fit in”. Years go by and I decide I would rather model what I could go and see. I now model Norfolk Southern primarily. I have a few CSX since it is here also. I also model East Tennessee Railway.
Since I don’t model or especially like modern day railroads, I missed seeing “none”, “do not model modern railroad”, or similar as a reply option on the poll. The question is valid for any modeled prototype, so why was it limited to just modern ones?
I REALLY DO NOT HAVE A FAVORITE PER SE EVEN THOUGH I VOTED FOR THE NS DUE TO THE FACT I’AM MODELING THE OLD NS BEFORE THE MERGER WITH THE SOUTHERN THE RR I GREW UP ON IS THE FEC.AND WHERE I ONCE LIVED THERE WAS THE CSX YARD(STILL THERE) GOOD FOLKS OVER THERE BETTER THAN THE FEC PEOPLE.IT’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT THAT HORSE THAT I LIKED.
If we are simply talking about modern class 1’s, I used to follow UP because it was the consumer of my true favorite from childhood, MoPac. In recent years, however, I have become a big BNSF fan for two reasons. 1, because I love their color choices and paint schemes for their locomotives. 2, because I found an area in north TX on BNSF’s Wichita Falls sub that just begged to be modeled (mid-sized flat switching yard, interchanges with UP and short line Fort Worth and Western, the two largest grain elevators under one leg in the world, lumber distributor, pipe co, pertoleum dist, styrofoam producer, 3 other grain elevators, Trinity Ind’s covered hopper production facility, and numerous warehouses all withing 5 miles). How could I pass up such an opportunity?
Ron
The CB&Q mainline ran thru my home town, Ottumwa, IA,; so I grew up watching it. Several years ago I changed eras to “now”. It was logical to model the CB&Q’s successors, BN and then the BNSF. If I am ever able to build a layout, I will most likely model the BNSF/UP diamonds at Rochelle, IL. However, I am also giving thought to just building an oval of HO modules so I can “run” trains. That has some appeal since I could join a modular railroad club and get to actually operate some of my equipment. Once a year, I setup a loop of track on the family room floor and test run stuff. DCC is mandatory for operating such a small layout. I get a real kick out of setting up MU consists of 3-5 diesels. This year, I will experiment with custom speed tables using my laptop to program the decoders.
I’m a newbie, so, be kind!!!
[8)]
I grew-up with-in site of “SW Tower” on the old PRR mainline @ milepost 322, so it gotta be the Pennsy!!!
I voted CP but CN is also near and dear to my heart; my grandfather and uncle were engineers with CN. I just happen to like the modern paint scheme (love the Golden Rodent) of CP and my favourite loco is the SD90. I do a fair bit of railfanning in the Fraser/Thompson canyon and I get to see both there.
KCS is my fav because I own the prototype,
but only something like .00001% of it! 
Later…
CSX. I like the paint scheme and the locos are very impressive! Also, the first “big” diesel I bought in HO (A Bachmann Dash 8-44CW) was in CSX, so I’ll be looking for an Athearn Dash 9 to partner it and the Athearn AC4400 I’ve since bought.
Why wasn’t Conrail or Southern Pacific listed? I’m a Union Pacific fan, but those railroads are well known, too.
4884bigboy,
Conrail and eSPee are fallen flags.
Conrail was split between CSX and NS.
And Southern Pacific was merged with the Union Pacific.
It is nice how the UP retains part of the name of their merger partners, so the old corporate identity is somewhat retained. It took the UNION form Union Pacific and the PACIFIC form Southern Pacific to get the new name UNION PACIFIC. Sort of the way they took the UNION from Union Pacific and the PACIFIC from Missouri Pacific to get the new name UNION PACIFIC after the MoPac merger. Funny how it works out that way.
My favorite railroad is the Rock Island. Especially, the 1970’s in it’s last decade of operation and the railroad’s consistant inconsistency with all of the different paint and lettering schemes used on their locomotives and cars. The best part is any is possible when modeling the Rock!!!