I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Who for whatever reason, has developed their own small, regional or multinational railroad? It makes sense if what you want to do is either not available, never happened, or you just wanted to own you own railroad.
I suspect that there are not that many, so if you know of somebody who knows somebody, I’d still like to hear about it.
I have my own Columbia Southern Railroad, a small Class 2 Railroad with freight and regional passenger service in Virginia.
Link is below…
I suspect that you are very wrong in that. There are probably as many Freelanced RRs as those based specifically on a prototype, maybe far more. This topic has been covered before in this and the Layout Forum. You can see my ECI HO Scale RR at: http://cid.railfan.net/eci_new.html
Aye!
Though Regional in scope I am making inroads as far as Texas and the Appalachians and have sights set for Foriegn shores.
Fergie
I think you’d probably be surprised at how many people do operate their own freelanced railroad. I think freelancing is a great way to go because you can be creative with type of operations, motive power, paint schemes, etc.
I have my own freelanced shortline railroad - the Delaware River & Western, which is currently undergoing construction in the guest room.
Kevin
My layout will be freelanced based very loosely upon prototype. That way I can run equipment of the two RRs that operated in my modeled area for things like passenger trains. Having my own gives me the luxury of not having people point out that “the N&W didn’t use those signals” or whatever. As I got started everyone would remind me that “it is your railroad do what you want” that goes even more so if you made it up. Mine is the Manassas Gap and Front Royal Railroad based loosely upon the Front Royal, VA area in the mid-1950s. I know other people who are freelancing as well.
i operate a small freelanced HO railroad under the name A.T.lines
My Grande Valley runs from Elkhart,Ind. all the way to Petosky,Mich.It also veers east at Grand Rapids,Mich.and runs to Port Huron/Sarnia where it interchanges with two Canadian railroads and another US one based in Ohio.
All of these railroads are freelanced and are modeled in N scale.I also connect with another road in Elkhart that runs up to Chicago.This railroad interchanges with another road that is based in Wisconsin.Yup these roads are freelanced too.
Personaly I think there are at least as many freelancers as there are prototype modelers.
Dang! And I thought I was having a semi-original idea. So now I have to come up with a logo and money for a printer that will do decals. Then I have to get an airbrush and study paint schemes.
Oh, what have I done. What have I done.
At least I can stick to PRR at the club.
My Allegheny Railroad (ARR) allows me to run non PRR prototype equipment. The Arr is slightly behind the time buying used steam and diesels as well as Vgn and NH electrics. IT has trackage rights on my PRR cooridor being owned in part by the PRR and following PRR pratices. It even has the ARR in a keystone just like its big brother. A fictional line that basically runs from the coalfields in West Virginia northeast to Stroudburg PA. The passenger trains take advantage of the PRR main while freight is rare but does happen when maintenance or wrecks close the ARR.
My railroad is the Illinois and Southern runing the old I.C. from Mattoon to Evansville.I had a lot of stuff in I&S on my HO version but a move to an apartment and N scale has me using mostly “2nd hand units” from other roads mostly “fallen flags” but I hope to get some relettered one of there days. Right now I’m using a x rock island GP 18 and a NYC caboose Witth a x S.F. 060 for railfan trips. Cox 47
I operate a small, private name, industrail railroad located somewhere in the anthracite (hard coal) mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. It serves an industrial complex that forges and machines large axles, crankshafts, and the like. It also serves a small mining area that supplies fuel for the forge, nearby power generating plants, and some for shipping out of the area.
I’ve built up my fleet of undecorated 1st generation diesels and a couple of old 2nd generation units, and I’m painting them now as I have time. A simple tiger orange and black is the color scheme, with stripes on each end of the engines.
I have enough equipment to justify an order to a decal maker like Railgraphics. I’m making the difficult decision now on the name of the railroad … something with my last name and forge and/or machine and/or mine and/or industrial and/or etc etc etc. I’m thinking of a herald with a tiger paw, something like Clemson University’s, or something like that.
The railroad interchanges with Conrail and CP.
A note of caution-when thinking about a name for your RR, consider what will be involved in applying the name to your loco’s and railway cars i.e. length of name, logo if any, letters required, font size, space available etc., individual letter decal’ing vs custom decals, dry transfers vs wet decals etc.
I’ve found that decal’ing “Grizzly Northern” on loco tenders by individual letter wet decals takes a lot of patience and time, and eats up a lot of decal sheets - only two zz’s to a sheet for a given size! I’ve settled for “GNR” on the GNR’s freight cars - much easier, and cheaper.
But it’s worth it-developing your own RR name and applying it to equipment is part of the fun for you and visitors! Writing a scenario and a history for your RR can also be a fun part of MR’ing.
I oversee the EAST COAST RAILWAYS.
A class 2 system that competes with
CSX ,NS, FECR, and AMTRAK along
the eastern U>S coastline.
By doing this, I have great flexibility in
a freelanced setting. It is also easier to
describe to family/friends who wi***o
purchase gifts or contribute to the railroad.
What are you using to print your decals. Are they white background, or clear background. I am hoping that I can use my HP photosmart 7960 printer to make my own decals. Then I can launch the tk7kt rr.
Tim
Falls Valley. A Fictional Railroad that is based near Baltimore and permits me to run WM, PRR, B&O and other equitment. A feature of the railroad is that I try to take trains to other people’s layouts and operate them as traffic to and from interchanges.
The actual railroad is only 2x8 plus a work bench but you gotta start somewhere! =)
Railroad Names are based on these types of conventions:
1- One location to another “Toytown to Whistlestop Railroad”
2- One location to a direction of service… “Steamville and western Railroad”
3- Geographical area to geographical area “The muddy river and Pacific Railroad”
Thinking of a name can be anything you want it to be. It’s your railroad.
I operate a narrow gauge line: The Jackson and Burke Railroad . It operates in the Carolina’s.
I use the ET&WNC as my inspiration, but basically do my own thing.
I operated the pittsburgh & slippery rock railroad in my dining room in Pittsburgh . Now seeing that I have moved to Youngstown, Ohio I am thinking of a new name for my freelanced railroad that i’m going to start building the new name i have chosen is the Pittsburgh,Beaver & Youngstown.
I run a freelanced railroad based in the fictional town of Deere Valley, CA. Here is a short “history” of the road.
Deere Valley & Western, without motive power or rolling stock of its own enters lease and trackage rights agreements with ATSF, SP, WP and UP after purchasing some little used and abandoned right-of-ways in California with financial backing of the John Deere Company. John Deere uses its own motive power and rolling stock on the DV&W tracks and is a financial contributor in construction and rehabilitation of the rail lines. The line serves the agricultural areas of California from Sacramento to Los Angeles and sees a tremendous variety of freight and passenger equipment on its trackage. The ficticious town of Deere Valley is located in the rural outskirts of Stockton, CA.
Construction is underway for a new John Deere parts distribution and warehouse center in Deere Valley.
The era is 1959/1960. A variety of soon to be retired steam and 1st generation diesels are common sights including the occasional UP Big Boy which is routed from Wyoming for special fast heavy produce freights to the East. A couple of times a Big Boy was even seen hauling a passenger consist when the diesel power broke down and no other engines were available to continue the run.
Photos of the current 4x8 (scheduled for demolition and replacement this spring) can be seen at Webshots. Just click on the link in my signature.
I am planning on doing a repaint on some of my locos to the DV&W scheme, (similiar to JD) and will likely print my own decal sets. If they turn out good, I will start getting some undecorated rolling stock and go from there.
Originally (decades ago), I had an expansive concept of a fictional railroad based I guess on the inital planned Erie Lackwanana competition to ConRail (which, of course, in the real world never came to pass)
However, eventually I sobered up, realized I like short lines and industrial switching, and so created a modern era shortline (Philadelphia Delaware Terminal) which services (real-life) branches and spurs in the Philadelphia and Bucks County environs which ConRail dropped the ball on (since ConRail never played with a mitt, it dropped the ball on a lot of lines). Indeed, this has lead to my current delusional belief that Class I railroads should be prohibited from local and terminal switching and transfers, just deliver long trains to terminal yards and let the Class II/IIIs and other shortlines/beltlines do the real work…
Back to the real world, I used the line drawings at the RailRoad Paint Shop (http://paintshop.railfan.net/home.html) to design the paint and lettering schemes.