For discussion - how do you name your layout?

[Woodie]

You guys seem to name your layouts after the railroad company that runs on them. Just to throw a different slant on things, in Australia, we don't do that. We usually name out layouts after a town/locality/region, and not the railroad company. It's only recently here, (last 10 - 15 years) that there have been any railroad companies. The railways were owned by each state government. New South Wales Government Railways. Victorian Railways. West Australian Government Railways. And even as recently as the 1960's, there was even a change of gauge at most state borders. Most of the track has now been "sold" to Australian Rail Track Corporation. They own the track, and no rollingstock. There are now freight rail companies that own/lease rollingstock, that use the track nationally. Pacific National, Australian Short Haul Railroad, Freight Australia etc.
So our layouts are usually based on a town/locality somewhere (be that real or ficticous). Some of the major exhibition layouts, Brisbane Waters, Lambing Flat, Broadford etc. and that will be the name of the town, not the railroad company that runs on the layout.

I called mine Garahbara, which is ficticious, but means "meeting place before journey" in the local Sydney basin aboriginal language. A lot of towns in Australia have aboriginal names that describe the area. So the sign on my station platforn says "Garahbara", or on the pub "Garahbara Hotel" or "Garahbara Stock & Sales Agents" etc.

So there's quite a difference here. Our layouts names are not related to the railroads/locos/rollingstock that runs on them.

I note, sometimes, in discussion on here, that others refer to my layout as "The Garahbara Railway". It's just "Garahbara", and not a railway company. We don't name our layouts after companies, either real or ficticious.

 

[Ralph]

I loosely model the Penn Central's River Divison but since I haven't made an effort to accurately portray the routes, operations, or the communites along that line, but only suggest them, I call my layout the "Mid River Division".
Ralph

 

[jetrock]

One thing to consider is that you can certainly name your layout after a real railroad company, even if the towns, etcetera, aren't real--and you can also model real towns with the railroads that actually ran there, or real towns with unreal railroads in 'em.

Keep in mind that, aside from the occasional person with a gigantic basement, or someone modeling a really, really tiny railroad, modelers generally don't model the entire railroad. Thus, there are many people who model Union Pacific, but are under no obligation to model the entire Union Pacific system. You can model a small portion of a real line, in a real place or a made-up place. This kind of "proto-freelancing" provides a chunk of believability.

Personally, I am modeling a real railroad--the Sacramento Northern--in particular, the industrial belt line around Sacramento, CA, which I call "the Sacramento Belt Line." I live in Sacramento, and so have the opportunity to get close-up looks at where the railroad actually ran, and some of the surviving artifacts of its existence, but almost all of it is gone. I try to stick close to the prototype, but generally make use of commercial structures kitbashed to sort-of resemble the prototype rather than being really close. If I can get a feel for my hometown, I figure I have done well, rather than being exactly prototype.

If you do want to make up your own railroad company, you can also make decals, etcetera, for that company--although plenty of small companies operate used equipment and can be pretty slow about repainting it!

 

[petepuma]

There's always the little North fork of the Santiam...Afterall, it's in Oregon!!

 

[eightyeightfan1]

My Central New England was a real railroad that was absorbed by the New Haven.
My Central New England came about after the New Haven was absorbed by the Penn Central. Local buisness owners and manufacturers, afraid of losing rail service, got together when they found out the Penn Central was going under, bought the route from the PC and started the "New" Central New England. In MY world, its now a regional(sp) with bridge traffic, and local customers.
Just an idea........
By the way....There really is a Central New England, its a short line with a couple of railbased customers...and the still ply the original CNE line in Bloomington Ct.

 

[shaygetz]

I run mine as though it was a scenic short line/museum that runs on about 25 miles of abandoned B&O trackage on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Because there are some large grain mills and an electric power plant, there is a need for some freight interchange on a bi-weekly basis, first with the Penn Central in the 70s, then the Maryland and Delaware when it restarted freight ops after a 12 year hiatus on the peninsula when the PC belly upped.

B&MC can be several names;

---the initials of me and my beloved, very handy in train room negotiations

---the Baltimore and Mount Claire for those who beleive this is a serious hobby

---and...the Basic and Mostly Credible to reflect my rather laid back style of modeling in the areas of prototype fidelity and injected whimsy. :thumb:

 

[Catt]

My Grande Valley RR's name was a no brainer for me as I live in Grand Rapids in the Grand River Valley in Western Michigan.

The real Grand Valley railroad was on the other side of the state no wheres near the valley or river and was bought by the NYC just as soon as it was finished and never turned a wheel as the GVR.

 

[MasonJar]

Wow...

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions, as well as stories of how your railroads get their names.

I am interested so that my railway/layout will be believable, not necessarily prototypical. We all make concessions when modelling, whether it is selective compression, train length, details, track plans, etc.

After reading all your input, I think that I will go with something along the lines of "Marlpost Sub", as a part of Canadian National Railways. I don't know yet if it was built by some small line, as part of Grand Trunk (the largest part of CN) or someone else. Maybe we'll never know...

Andrew

 

[sumpter250]

Hey Sumpter250, Have you ever been to Sumpter Valley out here in Oregon? I'm curious were you got the name

I model some HOn3, and ran into a brass SVRY #250 in HOn3. That got me started on researching the Sumpter Valley RY, and lead to purchasing another 2-6-6-2 to be painted as SVRY #251. If I ever put together enough money, and layout space, I'd like to model the SVRY.
Aside from Ferrel's "Rails Sagebrush and Pines" I haven't seen much on the SVRY, and not too much modeled either.
Pete

 

[petepuma]

I model some HOn3, and ran into a brass SVRY #250 in HOn3. That got me started on researching the Sumpter Valley RY, and lead to purchasing another 2-6-6-2 to be painted as SVRY #251. If I ever put together enough money, and layout space, I'd like to model the SVRY.
Aside from Ferrel's "Rails Sagebrush and Pines" I haven't seen much on the SVRY, and not too much modeled either.
Pete

It might be worth a trip out to Oregon to check it out. They have abeen doing a little work on the line and have recently extended the trackage to the old Sumpter depot. Check out there web site. www.svry.com

 

[Pitchwife]

I model some HOn3, and ran into a brass SVRY #250 in HOn3. That got me started on researching the Sumpter Valley RY, and lead to purchasing another 2-6-6-2 to be painted as SVRY #251. If I ever put together enough money, and layout space, I'd like to model the SVRY.
Aside from Ferrel's "Rails Sagebrush and Pines" I haven't seen much on the SVRY, and not too much modeled either.
Pete

Pete, check out Sumpter Valley RR
(sorry petepuma, didn't notice that you already posted it. ops: )

 

[leghome]

The CEE Line serviing the length of Indiana from Chicago to Evansville through Emporia. Thus the Chicago, Evansville and Emporia RR. Emporia is 35 miles NE of INDY. The only two businesses are the locally owned Marathon Gas station and the Ag One/ADM grain elevator.

 

[petepuma]

That's funny!! No problem! I really hope you can make it to Sumpter someday. Great railroad and awesome country...

 

[tillsbury]

I think that naming comes down to getting used to it. I always wondered how everyone else managed to come up with such good and believable names, but I think it may be that their existence is their believability. I.e. once you have a website and a signature tag and a logo, then that's a railroad. Only your own name sounds silly to you, because only you know it's fiction. Others will have the same opinion of the name of your railroad as you have of theirs!

 

[ezdays]

I think that naming comes down to getting used to it. I always wondered how everyone else managed to come up with such good and believable names, but I think it may be that their existence is their believability. I.e. once you have a website and a signature tag and a logo, then that's a railroad. Only your own name sounds silly to you, because only you know it's fiction. Others will have the same opinion of the name of your railroad as you have of theirs!

Hey, if you get to name your own kids, you surely can name your own railroad....

 

[Papa Bear]

The AT&L RR in Oklahoma was actually named after the owner's three grandsons Austin, Todd, and Ladd. So there is a "prototype" for naming your railroad after family members.

 

[Will_annand]

Naming My Layout, it started years ago:

1. I started out wanting an old time layout, steam trains, pioneer to pre WWII era.
2. I used to live in Mississauga and hiked the Caledon hills area.

In the Caledon hills there are several ruins and an abandonned railroad line, as well as one active railroad line. I wa curious as to the abandonned ones. In the local library they had a NEW book on "The Credit Valley Railway" by James Filby. After reading the book I was hooked. This was 1974, I was about to start a new model RR. A change in living space occurred before I got started. Then a shift in interest to board war games and Role playing games side tracked me for many years. Then the desire for a model railroad again, but no space...

Finally, last year, my wife rearranged the apartment so I had room for an 11.5' x 6' alcove for my train layout.

Back to square one, I had to research the Caledon Hills and attempt to find that old Credit Valley Book. I found one at the local library again. (Last weekend I found a copy for sale at a local model RR show).

March 2004, the benchwork was started for the N Scale "Credit Valley Railway" through the Caledon Hills.

PS: On my CVR binder, the current layout is labelled "Phase 01". I am hoping to move in a couple of years (3-5) and hope to have more space available. Phase 01 takes in Cheltenham to Orangeville (18 miles). Phase 02 and 03 would be Cataract to Elora (27.5 miles) and Cheltenham to the CVR main line in Streetsville (38.75 miles). The CVR Mainline is Toronto to St. Thomas (121 miles), but I am not really interested in modelling that. Just the two branch lines, about 63 miles of track.

 

[shortliner]

It's been through various incarnations(and different layouts, but mine is the Ross County Short Line (RCSL)
Why?, well I live in the district of Easter Ross (they loose the final "n"- there is also a Wester Ross)) in Ross & Cromarty(aka Ross-shire) - the largest shire county in UK, here in the Highland region of Scotland. It is bigger than Belgium and parts of it average less than 2 people per sqare kilometre!
The local football(soccer) team is called Ross County - so the name sort of seemed obvious.
Shortliner(Jack)away up here in the Highlands

 

[spitfire]

After reading all your input, I think that I will go with something along the lines of "Marlpost Sub", as a part of Canadian National Railways. I don't know yet if it was built by some small line, as part of Grand Trunk (the largest part of CN) or someone else. Maybe we'll never know...

Andrew

That's the beauty of CN - since it took over almost everything, you can quite plausibly say that your RR was once a small local line, part of the Grand Trunk, part of the Credit Valley Ry or any of the many many lines that used to be in Ontario. And, if you ever do decide to model some freelance engines and/or rolling stock, you can say that rather than an outright takeover, your RR shares track rights with CN.

Val

 

[MasonJar]

That is the way I am leaning. Now I just need to do some creative writing!

The Marlpost Sub was once... fill in the blank

It was absorbed during the late 1910s / early 1920s when Canadian Government Railways was transformed into Canadian National.


Andrew