Make up your own Railroad?

[Jim Banner]

I named my garden railway "The Saskatchewan Railway and Mining Co." after a railway that was created by an act of parliament in 1888 and renewed in 1891 but never built any track nor acquired any assets.  Not only is it part of local history but the initials, SRM, are also the initials of the group I model with, the Saskatoon Railroad Modellers.  Makes painting the rolling stock easy - the reporting marks are SRM either way.

Jim

[GoCanes]

There's a few photos several years old of the Midland Western in the Yahoo LRMRG Group photo files under "Midland Western".

Here is a link to them.  The Arkansas, Texas and Southern is another short line that interchanges with the Midland Western in Midland.  Its engines sometimes go out on the MW.  PF

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LRMRG/photos/album/1962964877/pic/1529633843/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc

Cool.   I thought about doing an Arkansas line at first (The Fayetteville and Tahlequah  Central or something)

[uncbob]

Mine is in my sig

[rogertra]

Mine is in my sig

Nice job on the scenery.

[jward]

The MP North Little Rock shops and yards equalled Altoona in all respects but are not known well because so few railfans are in that part of the country.  The same reason makes the MP relatively unknown, although it was a nearly 10,000 mile Class I.  I've always thought its steam engines and equipment to be classic but the MP will always remain a bit player because of location, it appears.

PF

only somebody who never visited altoona or the pennsylvania railroad would say that. it is like comparing the bush in your front yard to the oak in the back. pennsy was such a massive railroad that out of necessity almost anything it did dwarfed other lines efforts. not a dig on the mopac to be sure. but altoona has built all 3 major types of locomotives, steam, diesel, and electric. and at least two battery powered locomotives to boot. the foundry there produced such things as handrail stanchions for bridges, grade crossing signs, whistle posts, etc.

remember, in the steam era, the pennsy rostered 7000 locomotives, roughly the equivalent of the entire modern day union pacific. only new york central came close to that grand scale.


like i said, i am not downing arkansas or mopac. i am partial to the frisco myself. and i have seen the locomotive shops on smaller roads do some amazing things (ever heard of pittsburg & shawmut?) but nobody did things on the scale of the pennsy, because nobody else needed to.

[TheJJ]

I know my layout isn't gunna be as big and fancy as most of you who love this...but
With my layout I have 2 main lines, a shed w/ turntable, and my layout is based off of strictly Pennsylvania engines.
I have my PA K4 (pre War), with 3 replica Strasburg Railroad passenger coaches.
A cheap dockside switcher with some generic Pa coaches.
And 3 PA diesels and multiple box cars, coal cars, etc.
I know most of you may say go back to T&F kid and stop with the short post but I'm just putting my word in.

[GoCanes]

Mine is in my sig

UNCBob, that is a neat site.  Love the (no offense) cheesy train musical score, and that is a pretty layout.

Duck under, eh?

[uncbob]

Yeah duck under and at 75 still no problem (:-)

[Michigan Railfan]

I believe some of you have 'paper railroads'. What are paper railroads? For those that dont know, they are your own railroad, just written down on paper (or the Internet). You create the scheme, and do all of the 'shopping'. You decide how many and what kind of locomotives and rolling stock your company owns. You also create train routes, trackage, etc. So, its really just owning your own railroad, without there actually being one. I'm going to create one soon... Just have alot of planning to do before I do start 

[uncbob]

I believe some of you have 'paper railroads'. What are paper railroads? For those that dont know, they are your own railroad, just written down on paper (or the Internet). You create the scheme, and do all of the 'shopping'. You decide how many and what kind of locomotives and rolling stock your company owns. You also create train routes, trackage, etc. So, its really just owning your own railroad, without there actually being one. I'm going to create one soon... Just have alot of planning to do before I do start 

Plan well or you will do a lot of impulse buying--like I did

[beampaul7]

Hi uncbob, I specificaly designed my Aimless Mountain RY with NO DUCKUNDERS for that very reason.  While I can still do it, the day when I can no longer is coming sooner rather than later.   

[rogertra]

The new GER will have no duck-unders.  Entry in to the room will be via a swing or lift bridge.

[BarneyJack]

My large scale line is based on the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad, which was a small interurban line that operated near where I live in Sonoma County, CA from 1903 to 1928.  At that time they were purchased by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad.  In my "alternate history", the P&SR absorbed the NWP to create the Petaluma Santa Rosa & Napa Valley Railway.  I borrowed the NWP logo "The Redwood Empire Route" and reworked it into the logo for the PSR&NV, or the "Redwood Empire Line". (look under my user name to the left) The "locals" affectionately refer to the line as the "Pisser and Envy".  It currently runs annually in our garage window as part of our Christmas display.  I have high hopes for future expansion, but that is still on the drawing boards!

Cheers,
John  

[Ken G Price]

John, how about a branch line coming up here to Lake County?

[Rangerover1944]

LOL does it matter? I live in West Virginia and you can go from city to city town to town, some modern, some like being in a long ago space and time. A friend of mine has seen my layout and one of the sections is mostly done, with scenery and houses on top of a mountain, dirt road, "1/2 mile to blacktop", and he said he could take a picture of it and tell somebody it was taken on a mountain in West Virginia. I've seen just about every kind of loco and train cars modern and some wooden and three truck shays pull into the station here in Elkins. Even some of the old wooden tressel bridges still being used, built back in the 1800's. Just right over in Phillipi is still one of the oldest all wooden covered bridges in the country, built before the civil war, in fact one of the first civil war battles fought there, to think that horses, troops, casson, both north and south crossed that same bridge back then, that you use today to drive your car into the city. Old wooden tunnel entrances going into the mountains, with wooden wings to keep the dirt and boulders from falling on the tracks. The old commnunties of coal mines and timber mills are still here, people still live there, though some of the mines are now closed, union halls are now community centers, timber community's are timbered out, but it's still all in tact with people. On one corner it's 2012, turn a corner or just down the road over that way it's the 1950's. So my layout is just like that, LOL I even got a NYC subway, so I don't model any particular era, it's a mix of everthing and I love it! Happier than a June Bug on a tommater plant. Jim