How Do You Name Your Railroads?

[Cannonball]

Very cool and interesting stories, guys.
I guess I'm gonna have to call mine the Crazy Eights RR since that's about all it does right now.

 

[Herc Driver]

Although my grandfather worked for the B&O around Johnstown, PA line, I chose to model a ficticious branch line off the Norfolk Southern line near my neighborhood and picked my neighboorhood name. But to honor his memory (he worked to clear the tracks after wrecks - which normally meant working in the worst of winter in western PA) I incorporated an engine refurb building so I could introduce engines from various RRs and eras. That way, I can have a PRR C-Liner running an excursion train along with my more up-to-date Amtrak or major RR diesels. (One day, I'm going to add a B&O diesel just for my grandpa.)

 

[fsm1000]

I just call mine "mine" LOL
It is called FSM RR. The FSM are simply my initials Simple eh? LOL

 

[AndyWS]

LOL good one Johnny! The MadCow!

My railroad is called the Grovemont Rail Link because that's the name on the Bachmann lighted frieght station we bought when I was about six. It has secondhand equipment from a bunch of (primarily Midwestern, like C&NW and MILW) railroads and its job is to connect Grovemont and one other small town along the line with the outside world.

 

[Cannonball]

hhhhhmmm.... There should be a way to catigorize the ficticious railroads so we know who's using what name. I know there are threads with your passes and stocks but is there one that just lists what railroad everyone is using?

 

[cedarcreekrr]

My railroad is called cedarcreek because I did not want to use the B & O or CSX that has a yard here. The name sounded right for a made up railroad and the creek runs close to here.

 

[Catt]

Mine is the Grande Valley Railway or GVR for short.I chose the name because I live in Grand Rapids,Mich.in the Grand river Valley.

The GVR's subsideraries(SP) are the MC&M rr (Muskegon,Cooperville and Marne- real towns in Michigan).The Grand Rapids Eastern (a real local shortline) and the K.C.C.rr, or Kent County Connecting a ficticious local shortline serving Kent county which is where Grand Rapids is located.

My model railroad has existed in one scale or another or even several different scales at the same time since 1978.The clouring sceme has changed several times and may change again but the name will remain till the very end.

 

[Ralph]

hhhhhmmm.... There should be a way to catigorize the ficticious railroads so we know who's using what name. I know there are threads with your passes and stocks but is there one that just lists what railroad everyone is using?

There are a number of threads in which some one has posted about their free lanced RR. Here's a recent one several people replied to...

http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=23365&highlight=fictional+railroad

Ralph

 

[shaygetz]

I just call mine "mine" LOL
It is called FSM RR. The FSM are simply my initials Simple eh? LOL

My first year of marriage had me introducing my beloved to these crazy little beasts designed to scarf up living space, unnecessary and otherwise. The simple cure was to come up with a road that combined my interest in the Pennsy and the B&O using our initials, B&MC. For rivet counters it represents the Baltimore and Mount Claire, a small Eastern Shore branch/tourist line that runs north/south on the Delmarva Peninsula on old Penn Central trackage bought up after they went belly up. For friends in the hobby, it's the Basic and Mostly Credible for its eclectic collection of steam and diesels and odd MOW, passenger and freight car assortments that try to stay reasonably close to what real shortline railroads would do without busting the time/money budget.

 

[doctorwayne]

I just call mine "mine" LOL
It is called FSM RR. The FSM are simply my initials Simple eh? LOL

Yeah, simple: now I'm simple too! The first thing that sprang to my mind was Fine Scale Miniatures, or, by extension, Franklin & South Manchester. George Selios is in our midst!!jawdrop Or not.:thumb:

I "own" a number of railroads: my first, in the early '70's, was the Elora Gorge & Eastern, named for the scenic gorge on the Grand River in Southern Ontario. I added the "Eastern" to make it sound a bit more "railroady", and I suspect there is a sub-concious nod in there to John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid. (I was unaware of the intended pronunciation until it was pointed out to me - I had always referred to it as the Gore & Daff-eight-edd. ) A couple of years later, I came up with the Grand Valley name. Actually,I had seen this name used by another modeller, Harold Honious, in an article in an old RMC, so I must give him his due. It was meant to be a competitor to the EG&E, running from (West) Dunnville, near the shore of Lake Erie, north along the west bank of the Grand to Mount Forest. The EG&E, on the east bank, continues all the way to North Bay. The road's reporting marks, GVC, are a nod to one-time ownership by the New York Central, one of my favourites.
Shortly after that, a LHS asked me to build a couple of the then-new MDC shays, both a two- and a three-trucked version, for display in the store. I was told to make up a roadname, and what I came up with was Erie Northshore. I liked it so much that I decided to use the name myself, conjuring up a history, and a background for the name. Just as the NYC&StL became known as the Nickel Plate, I reasoned that Erie Northshore became the commonly used name for the Grand River & Northern Lake Erie. Those initials, in small letters, are still used on the tenders of steam locos, a la NKP.
The final road is the Grand River Southern, a connecting road between the EG&E and the GVC. They own only one loco, an NW-2 that I built following an article in MR. Because I liked the old CNR green and gold paint scheme, I used a modified version of it on this loco. The place names on my layout and all of the rivers and streams, are named after actual places; however, I've moved them around to suit my purposes.
My modelled roads also interchange directly with two prototype roads, the TH&B in Port Maitland, and the CNR in Mount Forest, so I can model both prototype and free-lanced.:thumb:

Wayne

 

[RailRon]

I'm living in Switzerland, and my native language is (Swiss-)German. Now take the name of my hometown Trimbach: 'Bach' in German means creek, and 'Trim' sounded English enough for me - so the geographic name of Trim Creek was born.

Back in the 1970's when I started model railroading in earnest I decided to create a N scale freelance RR, and since I'm living in the South of our city it became the 'Trim Creek Southern'. Reporting marks were 'TCS'. There's a little bit of tongue-in-cheek included, because in Switzerland the TCS is the biggest automobile association!

Later, when I switched to H0, I changed the name to 'Trim Creek & Western RR'. (After all, the U.S.A. are a little bit to the West of Switzerland, aren't they?)
In its fictitious history the TC&W RR was founded as a narrow gauge line in the Rockies, connecting the terminals of Trim Creek and Marian City (can you guess what the name of my wife might be? ). In Ronville (LOL ops:) the TC&W interchanges with the standard gauge D&RGW.
The management decided to expand into standard gauge traffic, too, and so they started to buy secondhand standard gauge rolling stock. They gained trackage rights on the D&RGW, and so they incorporated a subsidiary RR company, called the 'Trim Creek Western' or TCW for short (note the absence of the '&'!).

The first two pics show some rolling stock from the N scale TCS (back in 1973), the others a second hand Baldwin sharknose and two freight cars of the TCW. Sorry - at the moment I don't yet have any rolling stock lettered for the TC&W narrow gauge...

Ron

 

[Cannonball]

Very cool!
Those cars look great! :thumb:

 

[fsm1000]

Another idea is to use the MEANING of ones name. For instance. I call my fav loco,which is my shay, Pearl 1. Because my sweeties name means pearl. Also that loco is my number 1 loco.
My name in full means:
Peacable Ruler [or king], keeper of hope.

Not sure I want a rr named that but maybe it will help you guys with ideas.

 

[CNWman]

My layout (the Riverside Junction) got it's name from the location boards on the station I aplied (it's the Atlas Maywood station, but I put the Riverside decals on it instead)

 

[firefighter1811]

I named mine after the toen I live in it is the Centre Hall Central Railroad. I live in Centre Hall pa

 

[Seaboard]

I called mine SAL's Savannah coast side system. I'm modeling the SAL route from Jacksonville Florida to Savannah Georgia. So there is a number of different names I could of called it, But I just chose one. I did however make my own road type in G scale called SEL (Seaboard Eastern Lines) and it only took me a minute to think up a name like that :thumb:

 

[steamhead]

My Las Cruces & Portales gets its name from 2 real New Mexico towns (I love to model the Southwest...). That's the only link to the real world. It serves these two towns and several trackside industries and interchanges with the UP & AT&SF at the town (only a yard, really) of Santa Rosa.

This is my 4-6-2 hauling a freight past the El Diablo mine.

 

[MilesWestern]

My Mission Valley and Pacifc (MV&P) was developed for the Central Coast of California, but I moved it south when I realized the real Mission Valley was near San Diego. It now plausably connects Perris, CA with San Diego, and the Imperial Valley to Yuma, AZ (or is it CA?) Most of the line from Perris to SD is former (real) abandoned California Southern (ex-atsf subsidary) trackage in the aptly named Railroad canyon. Steep grades out of the flatlands of Perris make the motive power interesting!

 

[DanRaitz]

For my HO railroad I used the name and route of a real railroad, the "Minnesota & International Railroad". I did do a couple of changes through, first, I kept it alive it DID NOT disappear into the Northern Pacific in 1941, second it is still running, circa 1990, and third I did a reorganization and changed its title to the "Minnesota International Railway".

For my Sn3 railroad I used the name of a purposed but never built railroad "The Nevada Midland Railroad". It was to connect Austin NV to Tonopah NV.