Make up your own Railroad?

[jward]

i agree. west virginia makes a wonderful theme for a layout. i spent alot of time with my dad on the old western maryland out of elkins. he loosely based his layout on those lines, and took the name of the company that built them for his railroad name.

another theme that would make a good layout is the south penn railroad. urban legend has it that the pennsylvania turnpike was built on its right of way, but except for the tunnels this is mostly untrue. the actual south penn  would have been far more spectacular than the turnpike is. there were many more tunnels than the patp used, and several horseshoe curves which would have rivalled pennsy's. the roadbed was abandoned in mid construction, and you can see much of it from the highway if you know where to look.

[jward]

flory,
i syand by my comments. comparing route miles between a railroad with a single or double track mainline with one whose mainline had 4 tracks doesn't give the true picture. actual track miles would be a much better comparison, as even the support infrastructure like yards and shop facilities are so much larger. nother good comparison would be the size of the locomotive and car fleets needed to handle the traffic. in those cases it isn't just the pennsy, but all the northeastern roads which are much larger than route miles would suggest. for example a relatively small carrier such as the c&o would have have fleets as large or larger than much longer western or midwestern roads such as the mpoac or rock island. with the tide of coal moving out of the mountains, they needed them. norfolk and western's locomotive fleet BEFORE they merged with nickle plate and wabash and became a huge railroad, was similar in size to the frisco. this on a line which only ran from norfolk to cincinatti. when you have heavy traffic, you need the equipment and facilities to handle it. when your traffic is lighter, your infrastructure is smaller. and no amount of wishful thinking will change that. 

it is what it is.

[glennk28]

check out your local historical society/museum --you may find info on lines that were proposed but never built--there was a lot of financial finagling back in the early days.

learn to recognize the traces of a railroad having  been there--buildings shaped to fit along a track--loading docks that might have been at track side--

if you are still in school--this research might also be an enjoyable way of getting a paper or two out of the way.

gj

[phillyreading]

While the Pennsy RR was the largest traded company for a while, don't forget about the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and Mining Company near 1874, was the largest company in the world and the fed's and J.D. Rockafeller broke it up a few years later under some kind of anti-trust laws. Had coal mining and shipping rights for at least three states; Pennsy, New York, New Jersey and the Jersey seashore. Also sold coal to other countries.
The Reading RR started out as the Philadelphia and Reading railroad near 1832 and then as it grew it bought out the smaller lines in PA. The Philly & Reading RR replaced tug-boat travel along the Schukill River between Philadelphia and Reading PA.
The shops in Reading PA built and rebuilt some large steam locomotives, the Reading T1, 30 of the 4-8-4's was their biggest rebuild project.

Lee F.

[jward]

the reading was another of those lines small in route miles but large in physical plant. their locomotive fleet was larger than that of the mkt, kansas city southern or soo line. on a line where the farthest reaches were within 200 miles of each other.

[phillyreading]

The Reading Railroad had some impressive freight hauling figuires for the 1950's, as it was the fifth largest freight hauling RR during that time.
Also ran down to Washington D.C. area for freight traffic. Reading RR owned close 51% of stock in the Central of New Jersey RR, and had track rights over the CNJ.
The Reading RR was broken up into two catagories; 1) freight, Reading Lines, 2) passenger Reading Company.

Lee F.

[phillyreading]

the reading was another of those lines small in route miles but large in physical plant. their locomotive fleet was larger than that of the mkt, kansas city southern or soo line. on a line where the farthest reaches were within 200 miles of each other.

I think that you must be thinking of Reading & Northern RR, a regional RR in eastern PA. Who has 300 miles of track and track rights for a few more miles in PA. And currently is the third largest privately owned railroad in PA. www.readingnorthern.com

The Reading Company and Reading Lines were sold into Conrail in 1976. However not all of the Reading roster of engines and rolling stock went to Conrail. Some of the rolling stock became property of Andy Mueller, an individual who started Blue Mountain & Reading RR in either Hamburg or Jim Thorpe, PA.

Lee F.

[jward]

lee,

no i am thinking of the original reading. the rbmn can never be but a shadow of the original reading. having had a ringside seat for the creation of conrail, i am well aware that they were absorbed in 1976. i also remember the runthroughs they had with western maryland and b&o in the early 1970s. were you aware their diesels were numbered so as to not conflict with those of the b&o/ chessie system?

[GoCanes]

I once bought the Reading RR for $200. (ended up taking a mortgage on it and never paid it off)

[Ken]

    Having access to the 1945 Edition of MOODY'S  Steam Railroads which has 20 pages listed for Railroads  covered and 5 pages of Railroads listed but not in the book, will  never run out of names to put on rolling stock. Some RR have names longer then their total trackage  <G>,

  Ken
    GWN

[phillyreading]

I can't stand the butcher job that the Reading and Northern did on a historically intact GM&N 4-6-2.  That engine never was a Reading engine and never will be one, no matter how bad they want it to be one.

What if someone took one of the K-4's and did the same thing?

PF

Are you referring to the # 425 and given roadname Blue Mountain & Reading?

An engine that got butchered a lot was the old Reading T-1 # 2101, was repainted for the Chessie System and one or two other railroads as one of their engines was too large, too high for the tunnels, to run in the Northeast Corridore.

Lee F.

[ryeguyisme]

Well look at New Haven 3025, it's a chinese SY locomotive rebuilt and americanized to look more like a new haven engine

[Desertdweller]

florynow,

I can generally agree with that.  But the 2101 itself was "kitbashed".  Reading built that whole class of Northerns out of 2-8-2's.

So, it is not like she had never been "messed with".

Les

[jward]

I can't stand the butcher job that the Reading and Northern did on a historically intact GM&N 4-6-2.  That engine never was a Reading engine and never will be one, no matter how bad they want it to be one.

What if someone took one of the K-4's and did the same thing?

PF

actually, the only operable pennsy steamer, an 0-6-0, has had its bellpaire boiler replaces with a normal one. what an odd looking duck......

to be honest. i think we need to be grateful that these locomotives still exist in some form. they could be razor blades. now THAT'S a butcher job......

[uncbob]

What is just as sad is what happened at the RR Museum of PA in Strasburg
They had a K4--M1  -- L1 and H8

The EPA made them take the asbestos  covers off exposing all the rivets and instead of being inside they are out in the weather to deteriorate and act as a magnet for bird droppings
Whether the decision to put them outside was the EPA edict or the Museum's I don't know  but there is space inside if they get rid of the passenger cars in there