What railroad(s) do you model and why?

[princessofthecape]

Just a random question: what railroad (or railroads) do you model, and why? Do you have some kind of deep connection to that road, or did you pick it because it possessed appealing attributes that you wanted to model?

For my own part, my arrival at Southern Pacific as a 'focus' only came after years of dabbling in other roads. My earliest memories of trains come from skating with my mother on the town green in Brunswick, ME and watching short trains roll by, powered by still-Maine-Central-painted locomotives in the early 1980s. However, we didn't stay in that town for long, as for the first 20 years of my life my father was an officer in the U.S. Navy. As such, we moved all kinds of places -- Maryland, Delaware, Illinois, Virginia (yes, we somehow wound up in the Mid Atlantic quite a bit). Though neither of my parents liked trains, they both appreciated my fondness for them. And thus, over the years,I got to see my share of UP, CSX, BNSF, NS and Amtrak (TONS of Amtrak).

Perhaps because of my wanderings, I never really developed a strong connection to any one railroad. I loved (and love) trains, but not necessarily "railroad X's" trains. Ironically, in all those travels, we never did get stationed out west, and my lone visit to the left coast prior to adulthood was during a brief trip to Pasadena to march in the Rose Parade. I never saw a Southern Pacific engine until after the UP takeover, and had no real reason to gravitate towards them. I even recall -- distinctly -- thinking that the SP's paint scheme was 'ugly.' All that grey with crimson? And those poorly-maintained, 'clunky' old locomotives? Blech! They couldn't even keep the things clean! What were they thinking?

But time has changed all that. I now live on the west coast, and though I doubt I'll remain here (it's no New England), I really, really enjoy the scenery. The contrast of so many climatological zones piled up seemingly on top of one another -- desert, alpine, Mediterranean valleys, grasslands, volcanoes, the ocean -- is really in stark contrast to the East Coast (where it often seems like you can drive for days without the landscape changing appreciably). And Southern Pacific ran through all of it, almost as if it were a part of the landscape. Engines and rolling stock I once thought 'clunky' and 'old' now seem like they just belonged -- far more than the reigning UP does in their place. I've seen firsthand legendary places like Dunsmuir and the Santa Cruz waterfront and wonder what it must have been like to watch those old crimson and grey geeps and cadillacs groan and strain as they rolled heavy loads over dusty roadbeds.

I guess in some ways that makes me a bit of railroading's version of a 'poser.' I didn't grow up rooting for this team, and only adopted them recently. But I feel there's something 'right' for me in SP, even if I can't precisely put my finger on what that is.

Anyhoo, what's your story for picking what you did?

[fr8kar]

I grew up near Tower 55, which is the big interlocking in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. It's also the busiest crossing in a region covered with a spider's web of tracks and at-grade railroad crossings. Some of the railroads crossed Tower 55 and others terminated there. There were a number of transfer jobs that went from one railroad's yard to another connecting road and back again. Each railroad had a yard within five or six miles of Tower 55 and some had smaller yards right there at the tower.

It's a busy place today, even though the only railroads that use it are BNSF, UP and the Fort Worth and Western, but 30 years ago it was the wild west: Mopac, Southern Pacific, Fort Worth & Denver (BN) and Santa Fe all had yards right there at the tower. Katy had Ney Yard just to the south, Rock Island had the tiny Peach Yard just north of downtown and Mopac had the massive Centennial Yard to the west. BN's North Yard, Cotton Belt's Hodge Yard and Santa Fe's Saginaw Yard rounded out the rest to the north of town.

Santa Fe, Mopac and Katy provided lots of run through traffic at the tower in addition to the transfer traffic. BN terminated at Fort Worth but several coal trains were operated jointly with other railroads that continued south, such as the BN-Katy FPPX train and the BN-SP SATX train, so those consists could get interesting with mixes of the participating roads' power. The Frisco connected to Fort Worth via the old Burlington-Rock Island main between Dallas and Fort Worth. Southern Pacific's Fort Worth Branch terminated in Fort Worth at Broadway Yard and the remains of the International & Great Northern's Fort Worth to Waco main, including Ginnie Yard just east of the tower, were taken over by Mopac.

The early 80s saw the Frisco get absorbed into BN and the Rock Island disappear from the area (the main line was eventually taken over by the Katy), while the Cotton Belt in Fort Worth seemed to decline steadily during this time as well. Mopac was merged into UP and the Katy would eventually follow suit, so UP really emerged as the big road in the area. Still, Santa Fe and BN did lots of industry work in the area, so the transfer business with UP remained brisk and traffic levels at the tower stayed high enough to keep the place interesting.

Although it's nowhere near as chaotic as it once was since the downtown yards are all but gone, the place is still ridiculously busy today. Trains are still held out from the tower awaiting their turn to get through and when something goes wrong, the delays can really stack up. I work as an engineer for BNSF in this area and I've spent many, many hours sitting on trains waiting for my turn to go, sometimes not even turning a wheel. There is currently a massive ongoing construction project to modernize the tower, add lots of storage capacity and a third north-south main through the interlocking. I'm looking forward to the day I can run a train across the tower faster than 10 mph and have a decent trip. But at the same time I'm sad to see the ghosts of railroads past pulled up one rail, spike and rotted tie at a time, tossed into a gondola and recycled.

It was the volume of trains in this area that caught my attention as a kid, but the variety always kept it interesting. Today you can still see SP power on UP trains and BN SD70MACs and Santa Fe Dash 9s turn up frequently among the orange BNSF GEs, but the variety isn't what it once was. At various times I've seen Chessie System, Seaboard, NS, IC, Conrail and even CN and CP Rail power, in addition to the common stuff around here like Rio Grande, C&NW and KCS. Add those into the home roads of BN, Mopac, Katy, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and Cotton Belt (they had two separate operations here) and no two trains would ever be alike.

So, to answer the question, I model a pretty small geographic area between the early 80s and early 90s, but a really wide variety of railroads.

[conrailkid]

I model Conrail! As a chile my father had the contract from GE to service the "new" dash8 loco that had on board AC so he was assigned to Oak Island, Croxton, South Kearny, and North Bergen. when he knew he was working in Oak Island he would bring me on the roof of the old hump tower and i would just sit all day and watch the trains. I was hooked. I grew up on the river line and would always ride my bike along it form cp22 to cp10 with my life long friend. We didn't know much about photography at the time so our pictures form then are pretty interesting, but the love for BLUE has never faded away.

[princessofthecape]

Oct 26, 2013 5:03:33 GMT -8 conrailkid said:

I model Conrail! As a chile my father had the contract from GE to service the "new" dash8 loco that had on board AC so he was assigned to Oak Island, Croxton, South Kearny, and North Bergen. when he knew he was working in Oak Island he would bring me on the roof of the old hump tower and i would just sit all day and watch the trains. I was hooked. I grew up on the river line and would always ride my bike along it form cp22 to cp10 with my life long friend. We didn't know much about photography at the time so our pictures form then are pretty interesting, but the love for BLUE has never faded away.

Having never been a huge fan of NS or CSX's paint schemes, I heartily wish that Conrail survived still.

[bigblow69]

UP & CP. I see them everyday here.

[thebessemerkid]

CSX is interesting if for no other reasons than the myriad schemes they have employed.

Looks pretty good in the fall foliage in Appalachia (not as good as B&O/C&O, but overall not too shabby)

NS on the other hand (outside the heritage scheme) is soulless black. Not like PC black, which was wonderfully filthy most of the time, and a crazy-quit during the nascent Conrail years. Plus PC guys were friendly -"can I take some pictures?" "Sure, take whatever you want"

As my moniker hints, the Bessemer is my hometown favorite. Catching the Orange & Black before it disappears in a sea of CN red & black (which is still better than NS)

[stevef45]

NYSW, they were only 5 minutes from my house growing up in NNJ.

[Brakie]

I fear I model what ever fancies me..I have SCL,Seaboard System,Family Lines,Chessie,CSX,CR,NS,Southern,N&W,Ohio Central,R.J.Corman,IHB and my freelance roads,Columbus & Hocking Valley,Slate Creek Rail,Huron River and Summerset Ry.Plus seven short line CF7s.I also have a C&O RS1 and a Santa Fe Alco S4.

I use these engines as the mood strikes.

Why?

The why for is simple enough..I've became a *gasp!* operating collector in my old age.

[marknycfan]

NYC, NH, LIRR, PRR and several other regional railroads circa 1957-58. I grew up in the 'burbs of New York and it's just an era I like.

[Deleted]

At one time I was going to model the Great Northern's, Willmar Division, First Subdivision from Wayzata to Willmar, Minnesota in the fall of 1962. My track plan included the Willmar yard which was a tie for tie, bolt for bolt exact replica the real Willmar yard. Every town from Wayzata to Willmar was covered with the EXACT track plan of prototype circa 1960's. It was a triple deck railroad that filled a 2700 sq.ft. basement. My staging yard was 17 tracks and 48 feet in length. Then I moved and the train set ended up in a dumpster.......

That was seven years ago and I've got to say I've got nothing. No layout and I've got to admit that I don't feel motivated enough to start something. I have a lot of interest in Chicago commuter operations. I've bored you all to death with my various CNW, Milwaukee Road, RTA and Metra F7, FP7, E8 and E9's. I really like the Southern Pacific over Donner. Hence, why I've been building an SP SD9E snow fighter, which I can now finish as the necessary parts finally arrived yesterday.

One thing I can say about trying to model something you have never had any real personal contact is it is difficult. Modeling from others photos and writings is no where near the same as having been there. I traveled along the ex GN main line from Wayzata to Willmar over a dozen times, taking over 1,000 photos in the process. But my time looking at the line was about 1989 to 2000. I could see changes taking place when it went from Burlington Northern to Bean Sniff. I know the line has undergone changes from the GN to BN, mostly the Willmar line went from the primary main line of the Great Northern to a secondary much more lightly used main under BN. A lot of the double track sections have been cut back since BN and I imagine more could be lost under BNSF.

But at least I have SOME personal contact with the line. I could still see myself modeling that line but during the 1970's when many of the depots still stood and the track and online shippers were nearly the same as the GN.

I'd love to take a stab at Donner, but I'm a firm believer that if you want to model mountains, you need real estate for the layout or you might as well get out your foam Lionel mountain and wood train whistle. So scratch Donner......

I used to belong to a modular club named Midwest Mod-U-Trak(see the Naperville 2013 thread for a picture of the current Mod-U-Trak layout). It was based on generic midwestern scenery, but the modeling was top notch and everything was realistic and generally based on a prototype, like Rob Manley's "Halsted Street" module which was pure gritty near west side Chicago. The suburban module was anywhere in the Chicago suburbs in the 1960's. The small town modules were rural Illinois in the 1960's. You get the picture, no exact place was modeled, but boy it was de ja vu all over!

So for me at this time I think the generic Midwestern secenery set in the 1960's to early 80's is for me. Mod-U-Trak ran on Shinohara code 70 track, code 100 was deemed much too heavy and toy like and there was no commercial code 83 flex when the club started in the early 1980's. I like the code 70 and have begun to acquire some to start building modules. I will be laying very broad curves. 48" on the outside main and 46" on the inside. When Mod-U-Trak started in the early 80's they thought the 33" and 30" radius on the mainline were "broad" they quickly found out that even though the "experts" and the books tell you 30" and above is a broad curve, its still too tight on passenger cars, long freight cars and large articulated locomotives.

[atsfan]

ATSF ( and some BNSF).
Western Railroading in wide open spaces is where it is at.
Why, go anywhere on the mainline from Texas to San Bernadino.

[thebessemerkid]

Oct 26, 2013 13:43:31 GMT -8 atsfan said:

ATSF ( and some BNSF).
Western Railroading in wide open spaces is where it is at.
Why, go anywhere on the mainline from Texas to San Bernadino.

Love Texas

If only they put beans in their chili...

[roadkill]

EL (obviously ), PC, B&O, C&O, WM, some L&N & N&W. Grew up in Brook Park and Berea Ohio in the Seventies, both Cleveland suburbs were on PC's extremely busy ex-NYC New York-Chicago mainline. The B&O snuck through the back side of Berea with a branch from Sterling to Cleveland, saw much WM power mixed in with the B&O, C&O, and Chessie units powering their way to and from Cleveland. N&W's ex-NKP main ran 2 houses away from my paternal grandmother's house in Lakewood Ohio, and my dad owned 7 rental houses in Bellevue Ohio, so I was exposed to lots of N&W action in those two locations. EL was that "other" mysterious railroad that ran into Cleveland from the east side, saw the EL's ore docks several times as a kid and the road always intrigued me. As for the L&N, I have no idea , just like that road.

[bdhicks]

I grew up along the DME in SE Minnesota. I was pretty young when they bought that out from CNW, but they kept the CNW paint on the engines for a pretty long time when they were getting started, so I've got a small bit of CNW and DME equipment.

My main modeling focus is on the modern Twin Cities, mostly Minnesota Commercial but including just about anything else that operates in the area (I've got some BNSF equipment, and a few projects on deck to add some of the other local railroads). Besides the personal connection I have to the area from going to college there, the Twin Cities offers a wide variety of roads and railroading, and the Minnesota Commercial is known for it's oddball roster, with several Alcos still in use, older GEs, and at least 2 unique engines. (The Twin Cities also has the TCWR, which, per engine, is probably even more oddball than the MNNR).

As far as layout, I don't have one of my own, and the club layout I operate on is pretty far from what I would have built for myself. I've done the initial planning on a few small switching layouts and free-mo modules, but I've never actually pulled the trigger and built one. A few of the designs have been freelanced, but they've mostly been based on prototypes (right now I'm tempted to build something based on the DME's branch into southern Rochester, MN, although I would still operate it with my MNNR locos).

[atsfan]

Oct 26, 2013 14:20:58 GMT -8 thebessemerkid said:

Oct 26, 2013 13:43:31 GMT -8 atsfan said:

ATSF ( and some BNSF).
Western Railroading in wide open spaces is where it is at.
Why, go anywhere on the mainline from Texas to San Bernadino.

Love Texas

If only they put beans in their chili...

After Six Lone Stars it won't matter.................

[stevewagner]

Having lived in the Frankford section of Philadelphia until I was seven, only a couple of blocks from the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York Division main line, and after that in Havertown, only a half hour's walk or less than that by Red Arrow trolley from the Pennsy's Main Line in Ardmore, I should logically be a PRR modeler. Even more so because I've ridden more of the Pennsy's passenger routes than of any other railroad's -- New York to Washington, DC; Philadelphia to Chicago and as far as Richmond, IN on the line to St. Louis; plus a detour from Harrisburg to Tyrone via Williamsport. And the GG-1 remains my favorite locomotive. I do have a lot of PRR freight cars, some passenger cars, and one RS-3.

But, my favorite railroad is the Delaware & Hudson, and that's what I mainly model. Back in the 1950's my family spent every summer camping on one of the state-owned islands in Lake George, near Huletts Landing. Since my Dad didn't learn to drive or buy a car until 1960, we got there by streetcar, subway-elevated, the PRR to New York's Penn Station, two NYC subway lines to Grand Central, the New York Central to Albany, the D&H to Whitehall, and over the mountain to Huletts in my Uncle Johnny's 1948 Plymouth. I got into HO (from Marx and Lionel 0-27) in 1959-1960 and did my first "serious" railfanning along the D&H in 1962, only a year after it started painting its locomotives in the blue, gray and yellow lightning stripe livery.

My second favorite railroad is the Boston & Maine, primarily because after four years of college in northern Ohio (where the local railroad was the New York Central and I enjoyed seeing Nickel Plate locos on rare trips into Cleveland) I moved to the Boston area and have been here since, and I've always liked the B&M's color schemes more than the New Haven's. I've also been a regular workday commuter on the former B&M Fitchburg Route from Concord, MA to Cambridge or Boston since 1990. So I have far more locos and cars representing the D&H and the B&M than any other single railroads.

I do, however, have quite a few NYC passenger cars and locos, because that system and the D&H cooperated in New York - Montreal service and my own long-distance passenger travel has been more extensive on the NYC and its successors (several round trips along the Hudson and between Boston and Albany, and one between Boston and Chicago) than on any other line except the Pennsy. And I have a considerable liking for both of the traditional Canadian transcontinentals, because from the 1960's into the 1980's I visited all of Canada's provinces except Newfoundland and have especially fond memories of the CN at Jasper and the CP north of Lake Superior and in the Rockies and Selkirks. I have many CP and CN freight cars -- the D&H ran Paper Trains of them the length of its main line -- and many CN passenger cars, nearly all in the 1954 black, olive and gold livery. (I did get to ride the CN-GTW route from Montreal to Chicago both ways in 1970, which was the only time I'd ridden the D&H north of Whitehall). I do have some CP freight locos and lease units the CP used on the D&H after acquiring it c. 1991.

I also like the Rutland and its successors, the Erie, Erie Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley (all being friendly freight connections with the D&H, though more tonnage interchanged between the B&M and the D&H. Also the B&O, which I rode in 1963 between Baltimore and St. Louis. And the Reading, Philadelphia's other major railroad. I have at least one loco and several freight cars from those lines. I love cabooses and have representative plastic or wood models representing several railroads besides those already mentioned -- at least collecting cabooses is cheaper than collecting locomotives!

[thebessemerkid]

It's sort of funny, when I was younger I would stick to the roads I liked and ignore the others (oh for the photos I might have taken...)

Now, if it looks good and I like it, that's all that matters. I'll lean towards prototype stuff, but I have no qualms about sneaking something else in. One of the beauties of your own RR. Your RR, your rules

[Brakie]

Steve W:at least collecting cabooses is cheaper than collecting locomotives!
--------------------------------------------------
Lots cheaper..Collecting IPD boxcars is cheaper too.

[stevewagner]

Yes, Peddler, and I have quite a few of them. But I also have a strong memory of riding in my Uncle Johnny's car in the 1950's (or my Dad's first car early in the 1960's) along NY 22 about a quarter mile west of the D&H's yard just south of Whitehall in the 1950's and recognizing the only three brightly colored boxcars in it -- Bangor & Aroostook (red, white and blue "State of Maine"), Boston & Maine (blue and black) and Rutland (yellow and green) because Lionel had cars in those paint schemes in its O gauge catalog! Every other house car was one or another variety of drab red.

[princessofthecape]

Oct 26, 2013 12:17:14 GMT -8 @babalooey said:

Joe Fugate, of the Siskiyou Line fame, convincingly models mountains in scenes that are often less than 2 feet deep. Now, granted, his railroad is quite lengthily... but I think you could probably put together a few modules and come up with something pretty amazing in 12' x 2' or so.

[riogrande]

I grew up from grade school and well into college in northern California so Southern Pacific of the 70's and 80's was always a big favorite. In the early/mid-80's I took some trips to Colorado and the D&RGW became a new favorite. I've always collected some SP freight rolling stock since D&RGW hauled alot, so I stocked up on the Athearn Genesis PC&F box cars as well as the Intermountain FMC double door box cars - alot of lumber traffic from the Pacific northwest came across the rockies. When Athearn began producing the SP SD40T-2's and SD45's, I couldn't resist so I've built up a good 80's fleet of SP/SSW power now to the tune of 18 SD's, and a couple of Genesis SP bay window cabooses. Joe Fugate's Siskiyou line has always naturally been a favorite.

As for the SP, I saw it running when it was still more or less in it's glory, not the wornout beat up diesels you commented about. I lived in California from about 1967 thru 1984 but didn't really watch the SP until the early 70's. I prefer the California weather and scenery over the northeast, or New England. But to be fair, I think people tend to be biased toward where they grew up, so someone growing up in New England may prefer the falls, the foliage, etc. there. California is a dry hot state, but no snow unless you go up to the mountains etc. The mountains were great SP train watching territory.

[spookyac47]

I have probably written this many places in many forums.
I focus on the Pennsylvania Railroad during the mid fifties to the mid sixties. Currently I do not have a model railroad but operate my equipment on a club layout. It is out of place on a Southwestern themed layout.

As to the why part of the question . . . to be honest, I don't have a clue why I decided to focus on the PRR . . . especially if one wants to do it right in the timeframe I prefer, one has to add the handrails (Trainphone antennae and equipment) on the roof on the roofs of most of the rolling stock and cabin cars.

I was born into a railroading family, my grandfather a passenger train engineer making the rounds between Boston, MA and Portland, ME on the Boston and Maine Railroad. My father, also employed for a period of years by the B&M had worked up to the fireman position and spent most of his time on local service delivering and switching out various freight cars to local industries.
I spent many days and hours in the cabs of end cab switchers with my father and many round trips with my grandfather on the runs between Boston and Portland. I do recall being in the cab of, probably, an "E" unit, trips on the streamlined unit passenger train, the Flying Yankee and many trips on strings of RDC's. I remember vividly the Minuteman emblem on the equipment in the early years.
We moved to Southern California and I was exposed to ATSF, UP, and SP railroading.

With all that history, I do not remember the tipping factor that got me focused on the PRR but it has stayed as my primary focus.

The grand plan was to have a freelance shortline railroad, The Bear Creek Western Railroad, using equipment purchased or leased from the PRR and repainted for the BCW, connect to the PRR.
Decals were created by Miller Advertising in the old days, before they stopped doing custom decals. Some motive power and rolling stock was painted and decaled.

Frequent moves, especially during my military years, discouraged me from building a layout but I am rapidly approaching retirement . . . if I go to work one day and have a really, really bad day due to stupid people doing stupid things, I just sign my retirement papers and exit.

[chessie77]

Hello, I've always been interested in the C&O. I grew up in Ashland, Ky. Russell yard was about 6 miles down the Ohio river from Ashland. When I was young, my dad used to take me to have lunch on Sunday at the railroad YMCA at Russell. After eating he would play dominos with the railroaders there while I would go look at trains. Russell was at one time the worlds largest yard owned by a single railroad. Up river about 20 miles away was the C&O's locomotive shops at Huntington, W.Va. The N&W's mainline came up the Big Sandy river valley and crossed the Ohio river at Kenova, W.Va. It then went down the north bank of the Ohio to Portsmouth, Oh. From the back of our house I could see the C&O's Ashland yard and the N&W's mainline across the river. When I was 5 I road the C&O's Sportsman and during the 1970's we road the Cardinal from Ashland to Cincinnati, to watch the Reds play.

I model my own railroad which is called the Ohio Valley. The C&O held a controlling interest in it and it was folded into the Chessie System. I model my own railroad so I can model the Alco's that I like. My OV dieselized with Alco and FM products. The C&O controlled the OV starting in 1949 but it was allowed to stay independent. After 1949 the OV followed C&O painting practice for locomotives and rolling stock. I model the OV set in late 1975.

[espeenut]

...as my moniker indicates, I have a preference for the Espee, but I also model the UP and BNSF. With each of these roads there are predecessors and acquisitions so I toss a few of them into the mix just to make things a little more colorful, so I have bits and pieces from the Rio Grande, Santa Fe, Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Spokane Portland & Seattle, Burlington and Burlington Northern. I grew up in Portland Oregon and most of these roads made their presence known throughout the area. A while ago I became fascinated with the operations of the Portland & Western and have accumulated a collection of five locomotives that will allow me to play around with this classy little short line...

cheers,

Lorne Miller

[WP 257]

Well, my first train set was Santa Fe back during the '70's...but I've been interested in many railroads through the years and have changed my mind a few times regarding what I "model".

However, Santa Fe is the one I always go back to. It has something to do with their generally outstanding service record in the industry, the fact they washed even their freight engines at the western end of the system, and tried hard to keep their diesels in good paint (at least on the mainline). It's also the history of the region--I like the native Americans and also the rugged desert territory. Santa Fe was a generally first class operation in many respects, and I love the blue and yellow freight warbonnet.

So I've settled upon modeling Santa Fe during the late 1970's and early 1980's, and I'll allow a few Kodachrome units for variety...

[curtmc]

I primarily model 1978-2007 Chessie and CSX (long time favorite railroads since watching Chessie trains as a kid) although I also model run through trains of most other railroads. I have now revised my future modeling plans to not including any railroad operation that has been a burden to the US taxpayer (i.e. Amtrash and yes, poor customer service of that operation on my past personal trips may well have a lot to do with that). The city/segment I plan to model (in part) has a passenger depot but has likely had close to 250,000 freight trains since the last regular service passenger train stopped there over 8 years ago.

[princessofthecape]

Oct 26, 2013 21:52:01 GMT -8 curtmc said:

I primarily model 1978-2007 Chessie and CSX (long time favorite railroads since watching Chessie trains as a kid) although I also model run through trains of most other railroads. I have now revised my future modeling plans to not including any railroad operation that has been a burden to the US taxpayer (i.e. Amtrash and yes, poor customer service of that operation on my past personal trips may well have a lot to do with that). The city/segment I plan to model (in part) has a passenger depot but has likely had close to 250,000 freight trains since the last regular service passenger train stopped there over 8 years ago.

You can't have passenger railroads -- particularly long-distance passenger railroads -- without them being subsidized. I'm not fan of pork, either... but I'd much prefer to have Amtrak as an option than no passenger rail at all.

[atsfan]

Oct 26, 2013 21:52:01 GMT -8 curtmc said:

I primarily model 1978-2007 Chessie and CSX (long time favorite railroads since watching Chessie trains as a kid) although I also model run through trains of most other railroads. I have now revised my future modeling plans to not including any railroad operation that has been a burden to the US taxpayer (i.e. Amtrash and yes, poor customer service of that operation on my past personal trips may well have a lot to do with that). The city/segment I plan to model (in part) has a passenger depot but has likely had close to 250,000 freight trains since the last regular service passenger train stopped there over 8 years ago.

Every railroad has and does benefit from the US taxpayer so you better quit the hobby.

PS airlines and highways do also so I guess you stay home now?

PPS and don't you WORK for the government (aka US Taxpayer) ?

[Brakie]

Oct 26, 2013 18:38:02 GMT -8 chessie77 said:

Hello, I've always been interested in the C&O. I grew up in Ashland, Ky. Russell yard was about 6 miles down the Ohio river from Ashland. When I was young, my dad used to take me to have lunch on Sunday at the railroad YMCA at Russell. After eating he would play dominos with the railroaders there while I would go look at trains. Russell was at one time the worlds largest yard owned by a single railroad. Up river about 20 miles away was the C&O's locomotive shops at Huntington, W.Va. The N&W's mainline came up the Big Sandy river valley and crossed the Ohio river at Kenova, W.Va. It then went down the north bank of the Ohio to Portsmouth, Oh. From the back of our house I could see the C&O's Ashland yard and the N&W's mainline across the river. When I was 5 I road the C&O's Sportsman and during the 1970's we road the Cardinal from Ashland to Cincinnati, to watch the Reds play.

I model my own railroad which is called the Ohio Valley. The C&O held a controlling interest in it and it was folded into the Chessie System. I model my own railroad so I can model the Alco's that I like. My OV dieselized with Alco and FM products. The C&O controlled the OV starting in 1949 but it was allowed to stay independent. After 1949 the OV followed C&O painting practice for locomotives and rolling stock. I model the OV set in late 1975.

My old stomping grounds.I had many greasy meals in the Russell RRYMCA since I worked out of Russell on the C&O under the Cat.

[jlwii2000]

UP because that was my first mainline steam encounter (844). BNSF because it runs with UP occasionally. KCS and IAIS because they are in the area I live in currently. NS because I grew up in a NS area. Amtrak because it runs through everywhere I've been. Plus steam locomotives UP 844, UP 3985, UP 4014, SP 4449, NKP 765, PM 1225, and ATSF 3751 because I've either seen them in person or they're currently operating steam locomotives. Norfolk and Western 611 because it may be back soon.

I was originally just UP, and then it spread with wildfire to other lines because of all of those associations.