Over on MRVP this month the Tracks Ahead clip centers around the O. Winston Link Museum. Mr. Link’s photography chronicled the Norfolk and Western in the last days of steam, and is considered to be some of the best railroad photography of the 20th century. But up until 20 years ago I knew nothing about the N&W, or Mr. Link.
As some of you may recall, I had the singular pleasure of getting married on a train. The locomotive that took us to Paradise (seriously, the Strasburg RR runs to Paradise, PA!) that day was ex N&W 4-8-0 #475 . Being a “train nerd”, I wanted to know more about the locomotive that was such a big part of one of the happiest days of my life, and I soon found myself immersed in the N&W’s history as documented by Mr. Link’s amazing work.
The N&W quickly became my second favorite prototype. My first shall always be the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. Having grown up literally next to the tracks, I feel attached to the PRSL, and it will always be number 1. Yet, the N&W has become a part of my life as well, and is a solid number 2.
So what is your second favorite prototype railroad and why?
I’m doing the UP currently for several reasons. My 2nd favorite would be either NYC or Pennsy. I started out in NYC so like the electrics as well as the diesel p
aint schemes on NYC. And the Pennsy GG1s were nifty.
Favorite…Chicago & Eastern Illinois C&EI Second…Nickel Plate C&EI bisected the family farm where I was a kid. Saw passenger and freight…end of steam there. Nickel Plate is a big part of Ohio where I live now, a very important line. Kinda romantic too.
My favorite is B&O on up to the Chessie System. Of coarse this will include WM and C&O, however I only include the C&O in Chessie. My 2nd favorite is the actual Western Maryland, love the “Fireball”.
I grew up with the Southern Pacific but D&RGW became my main interest in the mid-1980’s, so I guess that makes SP second best. That said, SP has gained a lot of ground on my roster in the past 6 years since Athearn, Genesis and Intermountain started churing out models that are a good match!
CNJ c. 1967/68.
I was around, but only as a toddler, so what I know is from images and books.
There was still an sizable industrial base for the CNJ to service, but it was wearing out - as was a lot of urban New Jersey at the time.
I find the Adele plan rather interesting, and not a bad idea in retrospect, although the downgrading of the former CNJ mainline from Bayonne to Aldene was poorly thought out (that would be more 1970s anyway). It seems CNJ finally got some support for it’s commute service by 1964, but still wasn’t much money for solid maintenance it seems.
Things were looking bad and beat, but the workers carried on the best they could - sort of reminds me of a real prototype “Franklin and South Manchester” (George Sellios depression era layout) moved to the flatlands and 4 decades into the future…
Favorite railroad, either PRR or NYC in the 1950s, depending on how I feel that day…
My favorite is the Chicago & North Western which is the prototype I am modeling. Most Friday nights in summer my railfan group gathers at a crossing on the CP for photography and railfanning before we head to dinner. So on Friday mights the CP is my second favorite. Some Saturdays I head to a crossing of the CP and CN so on Saturdays they are my second and third favorites in no particular order. Each June I go to Galesburg Railroad Days so the third weekend in June the BNSF is my second favorite railroad.
When I am browsing railroad historical society magazines, suddenly either the Milwaukee Road or the Soo Line become my second favorite railroads.
So I guess I have 5 second-favorite railroads. On the other hand, this last weekend I was scouting out the abandoned right of way of the Ahnapee & Western railway …
The Maryland and Pennsylvania is what I am modeling.
I don’t really have one second because there are a number of roads that I have a secondary interest in. In no particular order they are the 2 foot lines of Maine, the East Broad Top, the New York Ontario and Western, the Pennsylvania, the Washington and Old Dominion, the Chesapeake Beach, and the Baltimore and Ohio. I don’t really have a reason why these over others. They are located in the East where I live so that’s part of it. None of them exist anymore so I suppose that may be part of it as well.
I can’t decide what my favorite prototype is. I am split between the Kyle RR, and Norfolk Southern. Current day NS is my favorite, the heritage fleet and the regular black locomotives really look cool. However, I really like the simple blue paint scheme the Kyle RR had on their GP-40s not to mention the name.
After the Kyle RR and NS comes CSX. When fresh and clean, the YN2 and YN3 paint schemes look nice. In addition, Athearn recently posted a link (on their facebook thread they have on their homepage) to a photo of an ex-NS SD40-2 that CSX patched out. CSX did a good job, and the yellow on black looks great.
I grew up with Southern Pacific (my great uncle and namesake was a fireman for the Espee on helpers out of Truckee on the Donner Pass line), so it was always SP for me. Then in the 1960’s, I became enamoured of the Rio Grande (standard gauge) and it kinda/sorta took over, even though I lived in California. After many years of model railroading, I’d say that Espee and Rio Grande are split evenly as my favorites (steam, mind you, none of those diseasels for me). So if I had to choose a “second”, I think it would be either Burlington or more specifically, Colorado and Southern. I like the look of Burlington Route steam.