Freelancing Idea's

[marty w.]

I don't know if this topic should go here or not, but here it goes.

I model the Erie Lackawanna. I try to detail all loco's and rolling stock per every detail, a rivet counter, if you want to call it that.
Well, for me anyway this is no longer fun. I'm spending too much time on getting the horn or such just right. In addition, my track plan was made without reguard to the operations or location of the EL. I have considered scraping the existing layout and starting over. That's why I have bugged you guy's about helix's and double deck layouts. Due to room size limitations and even compression of EL track layouts, I do not feel it would represent the EL at all. Also, during this time period, I had the opportunity to attend a clinic on operations using a waybill and carcard system that I found to be very interesting.

So, why change the track plan and start over? I have done that once already to remove a duck under. The existing layout allows for continuous running with a yard, engine servicing facilities, industry switching areas, interchange track, and staging. The layout can be run point to point , so to speak, if the staging areas are the two points.

Freelancing may fit my needs. After much research on the operations and history of railroads in and around Indiana, I have come up with the following.:
Set in the mid-'60's, the railroad will run from St. Louis, MO to Indianapolis, IN to Cleveland, OH. The main purpose of this railroad will be a bridge line from St. Louis to Cleveland and to transport coal from the Illinois Coal Basin at Petersburgh, IN to the coal docks at Cleveland.

This would fit the existing track plan nicely. One staging yard will be St. Louis and the other Cleveland. The existing yard and engine servicing facilities will be Indianapolis with a branch line to Bloomington, IN. The EL will have running rights from Indianapolis to Cleveland.
Does this sound realistic?

Now a name.
Indiana Midland - Like this one the best so far.
St. Louis and Lake Erie - ?
Lake Erie and Southern - ?
Anybody have any other idea's?

If you have gotten this far in reading, Thanks for your interest and any suggestions you may have.

Marty

 

[Roger Hensley]

Originally posted by marty w.
Freelancing may fit my needs. After much research on the operations and history of railroads in and around Indiana, I have come up with the following.:
Set in the mid-'60's, the railroad will run from St. Louis, MO to Indianapolis, IN to Cleveland, OH. The main purpose of this railroad will be a bridge line from St. Louis to Cleveland and to transport coal from the Illinois Coal Basin at Petersburgh, IN to the coal docks at Cleveland.

This would fit the existing track plan nicely. One staging yard will be St. Louis and the other Cleveland. The existing yard and engine servicing facilities will be Indianapolis with a branch line to Bloomington, IN. The EL will have running rights from Indianapolis to Cleveland.
Does this sound realistic?

Now a name.
Indiana Midland - Like this one the best so far.
St. Louis and Lake Erie - ?
Lake Erie and Southern - ?
Anybody have any other idea's?

Let's see, the Central Indiana Ry was known as the Midland Route so that would fit as having something of a historic precedent. That ran from Muncie Indiana to Brazil Indiana just north of Indy. I expect that we might even be able to exchange a car load or two. I have the East Central Indiana Railroad (HO) based in Anderson Indiana and running North-South on ex NYC/PC trackage.

I like the name, but then, I would.

Roger

Roger Hensley – madisonrails@railfan.net
== http://cid.railfan.net/eci_new.html ==
== East Central Indiana HO Scale Railroad ==

 

[billk]

Why not do a free-lanced Erie Lackawanna? Or maybe name it something with the initials EL (Eastern Lackawanna, Erie Lackarooma).

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Marty while my R.R. is based heavily on the Murphy Branch of the Southern, it is freelanced. Like you I don't have any interest in getting bogged down with all the little details and I don't have enough room for a decent track plan. Your idea sounds very realistic to me and I would go with it. Your 1st choice of names is good also. Best of luck and keep us posted.

 

[jon-monon]

What, no quarries? No reference to IU, or Bobby Knight? I think you'll have more fun now, Marty.

 

[marty w.]

Roger- Your site was very helpful in comming up with a name and history. Once I nail down a color scheme, I would be happy to interchange with you.
billk - Erie Lackarooma Name fits great.
Tyson- I was hoping someone else would think it would sound right.
Jon- I have room for the IU power plant for coal loads, passenger service from Indy for IU football and basketball games.
Thanks all!
Marty

 

[jon-monon]

Hey Marty, that's a fantastic idea, PU here in Laf, er I mean Cobblers Knob, also has a coal power plant. I should model it.

 

[60103]

Marty:
I remember about half a century ago that someone called his underfunded model pike the Lackawampum.
You could always model a railroad that would have been merged into the EL if it had existed. It would have mostly standard EL locos and a few strange ones (an excuse for something that you bought because it was painted in EL colours and you liked a sharknose). You can leave some cars & locos painted for your road because EL hasn't got around to them and the local shop doesn't intend to do it.

 

[rockislandmike]

Or you could do like me and model a fictional merger/takeover. My Rock Island of June 1980 continues to survive (thrive is a bit of an overstatement), and, ironically, includes Erie Lackawanna. The story being that just before Conrail was established in 1976, the ROCK acquired E/L and all its assets, allowing runthrough access to the right coast.

It would be easy enough to do that with your E/L and any other railroad that exists - that way you can use all your E/L stuff, but include some others as well.

Or, along the same vein, have your fictional railroad (the one you just named) acquiring all the E/L rail assets.

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Marty,
Why not model a "What if".
My Central New England that I'm modeling used to actually run up until the early 1900's when the Hew Haven took it over. The NH eventually ripped up the tracks.But I'm modleing it as if it was still in exsistence through the Penn Central era(Albiet short). This gives me a "freelancers" license to run what locos and rolling stock and paint schemes I want.

 

[absnut]

Once upon a time, I actually tried to faithfully model a favorite prototype and I think that phase of my modeling lasted about 37 seconds. I love trains; I love N scale (since 1967); and I love our New England roads. Being left handed and quite "right-brained", being constricted by rules, real or imagined, kinda takes away the fun of it all for me. I try to model BAR, MEC, B&M, and NH. And, I try to be rather faithful to prototype when selecting equipment but, there's a lot of equipment I'd like that don't fit! If I wanted to geographically place these roads on some sort of a layout with even the most extreme "selective compression", I would need a gymnasium to house it! So, to accomplish all I wanted to do, I created my own "area", located in southern Maine, mainly served by my own Danville and Rigby Junction RR which, as fortune would have it, connects at some place or other with all four. Thereby, the existance of the 4 major RR's on my pike is justified. It has given me the peace of mind of not having to intrinsically count rivets to be sure I have it right and increase personal frustration..... it also allows me to tell real rivet counters, "It's my pike!" And, I've even broken a rule once or twice like when I wanted a Trainmaster (NH tested these) and thought, "What if BAR bought one... what would it look like?"

In short, this system makes me happy with my railroading. While I can try to be prototypical to some degree, I can apply the rule of "good enough" at times and also exercise the option of, "What if.....?" Life is too short to have even our liesure time activities controlled by hard and fast rules (and scale time clocks!)
There! I've said it and I'm glad!

Dick

 

[brakie]

Marty,Food for thought.How about Lake Erie and Western? There was a real LE&W that became part of the NKP and later the N&W,now NS. In your modeling world the LE&W did not merge with the NKP.You could still use your E-L units.As the LE&W is CONTROLLED by the E-L...Of course it would look better if you had some locomotive and cars lettered and numbered for the LE&W.

You see that is roughly how I am doing my Columbus & Hocking Valley. The C&HV is not controlled by the C&O but by the CDB Industries a short line holding company.The real C&HV was controlled by and finally merged into the C&O in 1930.In my modeling world the CDBI bought the track from Columbus to Athens including the Jackson branch from the Chessie...We then later bought the former B&O track from Athens to Parkersbugh W.Va. This track was being operated by another short line which we bought merged into the C&HV...

 

[marty w.]

WOW! Thanks for all the great idea's and suggestions.

Dick - I'm starting to use the "good enough" rule now.
David, Mike and Eightyeightfan - Cool idea's on "What If", maybe a SD60M in EL GMY.
Larry - LE&W interesting. I can picture a LE&W loco painted black with yellow stripes like a NKP.

Well you guy's have really got my mind going now. Hopefully I'll nail something down soon and I'll keep you updated.

Thank You All for the comments and help.

Marty

 

[Roger Hensley]

The LE&W was also known as the Leave Early and Walk. The local main line of it ran from Muncie Indiana where it interchanged with the Big Four through Alexandria (10 miles north of Anderson) on west to Frankfort Indiana and then into Illinois. The Frankfort into Illinois part is the part that Tony Koester (of Model Railroader) is modeling with his new NKP layout.

There are many possibilities as in the past, it interchanged with the Big Four (NYC), the Monon and PRR all are now CSX and the LE&W line is now NS.

Possibilities...

 

[sumpter250]

OK,
The Sagaponack Montauk & Cindys Harbor Railroad manages to operate between Montauk point, on the east end of Long Island, and Cindys harbor, Maine, somewhere down east on the coast.
It is owned by the Sag Harbor Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, which operates an industrial narrow gauge railway. The Cindys Harbor is a current, "working museum", carrier, running steam era equipment on Northeastern railroad's trackage, hauling "much less than carload" loads, contracted out by the northeastern roads, on a "whenever-we-can-get-there" schedule,
based on track availability.
The shipyard also owns a number of scrap yards, and has rebuilt several "scrapped" locomotives for use on the SM&CH. SHS&D has also recently acquired the Shinnecock Hills Lumber company, a standard gauge logging line, and the Wiscasset, Bucksport, & Schoodic point Railroad, a 30" gauge line, a bit further down east of Cindys Harbor. Ayuh, you can get theyah from heah, but the directions do get a bit complicated.
The net result is that I can freelance most everything, but I can also count the rivets, and model certain prototypes, as rebuilt for the road. The "museum" connection also allows for the use of other prototypes on the line.( a SM&CH freight was recently seen with a Western Pacific FT a,b F7a lashup on the head end, and a WP caboose at the rear.
The shipyard purchased right of way, for the short connectors between major railroads, to provide a more direct route along the coast. On these connector lines, there are provisions for railfan photo opportunities. One of these is the top of the Little Mashashimuet Creek bridge. Here, the dual gauge line can be photographed. The Avatar shot was taken at this railfan site.
The two BL20-2 locos, owned by the SM&CH are operated by the only full time employees, and are part of the agreement for trackage rights. They usually run light, behind the trains, so they can clear the mainlines, should the headend power have a problem.
Pete

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Marty,
Check out the picture of my C44-9W in New Haven paint. Its under"88's first photo"..thread. I posted it so long ago I forgot where. But its painted like a NH U-25B.
SD-60M painted like a NH GP-9.......
Hmmmmmmm..................................

 

[brakie]

Roger,Part of the LE&W is operated by R.J. Corman. That is a part of his Western Ohio Lines...The offices for this line is located at Celina Oh The line runs from Lima (Oh) to Portland Ind. There is a branch from St.Marys to Minster (Oh)...

 

[marty w.]

Larry - FYI - Hocking Valley Info Center www.chescweb.com/hvrail
This gent had a question on the EL list.
Eightyeightfan1 - I remember that pic. Looks great.
Pete - Great history. The museum idea has many possibilities.
Roger- "Leave Early and Walk"
Thanks,
Marty

 

[Roger Hensley]

That just goes to show that Marty could put together quite a model RR history using LE&W trackage as if he had acquired it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[brakie]

Your welcome Roger.
Yes,alot of freelance railroads can be put together by using the older railroad names and modeling them as a short line.Another thought is to model a given railroad say like the LE&W like it still exsists...There are hundreds of these types of railroads.I know a modeler that models the Toledo & Ohio Central as if still operated.He has all modern units and they look good in their Scarlet & Gray paint schemes. (he a big OSU football fan) Another friend models the CCC&St.L (big 4) set in the 70s.You should see his lighten striped GP40s. He has CCC&StL in the center like the old NYC. The sky is the limit on what one can do with the older railroads that was merged into some of the great fallen flags and still have a believable freelance railroad...