How did you name your railroad?

txronharris Sep 7, 2013

  1. RBrodzinsky

    RBrodzinsky November 18, 2022 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    The JACALAR is Jacquelyn Anne (wife); Cheryl Anne (elder daughter); Laurel Anne (younger daughter); Rick (me). I had made that name up years ago when contemplating starting a small programming sideline, but never went anywhere with it. Works perfectly for the RR.
     
  2. Calzephyr

    Calzephyr TrainBoard Supporter

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    The Burlington Rio Grande & Pacific is essentially the three roads which supplied motive power to the California Zephyr.
    Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (Burlington)
    Denver & Rio Grande Western (Rio Grande)
    Western Pacific (& Pacific)

    The 'Pacific' portion also alludes the Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific, Missouri Pacific & Chicago Rock Island & Pacific... which are also part of the power pool in my 'model railroad' world of the 1950' thru 1960's.
     
  3. Backshop

    Backshop TrainBoard Member

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    wow, seems like a million years ago when I had "made-up" railroads. After some nameless layouts I built one based on a Western US theme, a subsidiary of a Class 1, called it the "Altamesa, Trestle, and Santa Fe" -- which meant I didn't have to repaint or re-letter my extensive numbers of Santa Fe equipment.
    A layout or two after that came the "Chatauqua, Conneaut, Cleveland and Southern Ohio", which was located roughly in the West Virginia panhandle, with the modeled towns Wheeling(at the end of a branch), Steubenville(industrial area), Canton (main yard) and fictional towns of Farmers City, Belleplaine, Salineville, and Lockport (a mining branch). None of the towns or trackage resembled anything of their real-life namesakes. Hidden staging tracks held trains bound for Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Akron. Never made up a paint scheme or logo for the layout, but I might have done one open hopper in black with large white lettering "CCC&SO" on the sides.
    Then I lost interest in fictional themes. This layout is based on the PRR passenger operations out of Chicago, with a few Q commuter trains thrown in (both RRs ran out of Union Station). The only vestige of the John Armstrong School of Clever Town Names on this one is the west Chicago suburb commuter stop (for the Q) Sur Claire, which has the flavor of other anglicized French suburb names like Des Plaines or La Grange -- the joke being the station is located on a narrow half-circle of benchwork, thus being circular.
     
  4. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    Nope, I didn't know, since I'm a transplant. But I figured there would have been one. And I'm not surprised in the least bit that you have paperwork for it. :)
     
  5. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Well I surely enjoy the concept of fictitious names. It can be fun! For instance, The Carnage, Maudlin & Balderdash is a play on the initials of my kids that helped build this layout. Its loosely based in Montana. The CM&B is a subsidiary of Milwaukee. There is also a shared track for Great Northern during the rainy season... And yes, we charge them an arm and a leg! Payback is fun.

    Sent from my Commando
     
  6. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    I thought that you just liked peanut butter and jelly.....
     
  7. casmmr

    casmmr TrainBoard Member

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    IL took my initials, C, A, S, and looked for cities in the WV and OH area that could be used. Charleston, WV, Athens, OH, and Sandusky, OH, hence the Charleston, Athens and Sandusky RR Co. I use basically a C&O/B&O color scheme for my engines, cabooses (cabeese) and rolling stock. I interchange with the C&O/B&O and in Chessie, C&O, B&O, WM, share with CAS. Works for me.
     
  8. jpwisc

    jpwisc TrainBoard Member

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    I followed the prototype: St. Croix Valley Railroad (SCXY). There is plenty of good reading about it on my blog below!
     
  9. JamesHetzel

    JamesHetzel TrainBoard Member

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    Is this a "tounge-in-cheek" (happy coincidence) reference to peanut butter & jelly?
     
  10. PaulBeinert

    PaulBeinert TrainBoard Supporter

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    I do like Peanut Butter & Jelly but is just a happy coincidence ..
     
  11. LOU D

    LOU D TrainBoard Member

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    My main whole room railroad is the Lehigh Valley Wyoming Division,because that's what it is,LOL!! It models the area between Coxton Yard and Penobscot Mountain in the early 70's.It will have elements of all the railroads that ran here,LV,EL,CNJ,PC,D&H,ETC..
    I'm also working on another portable 2-1/2 X 5 portable called the Lopez and Bowman's Creek.It's a 20's-30's freelance ice/timber backwoods railroad that mimics the operations of the LV and New York & Susquehanna railroads between two towns the LV did operate through in Northeastern PA.It's being built to be a place where my little freelance steam will live..I'm also kicking around a RR in my basement,just for modern stuff,but that's a ways off if ever..If I do it,it will be pretty simple,just a 3x12 or so,with an intermodal yard & some mountain scenery,maybe two sides walk around..
     
  12. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    my wife named it "the piece of crap that looks like a 5-year-old built in the garage"
    *facepalm*
     
  13. SP&S #750

    SP&S #750 TrainBoard Member

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    When I build my SP&S layout it'll just be called the north bank road. If I decide to build another layout(to model the PSAP, a local shortline) I'll probably call it the PSAP, and for a fictional railroad I'm in charge of... DRST- DuPrey rail service transportation.
     
  14. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    My railroad is a freelace shortline. It connects to the Northern Pacific at Logan, MT and runs south to Gallatin Gateway, MT. The town are all real places. In Gallatin Gateway, it connects to the Milwaukee Road, and then runs south to West Yellowstone, MT where it connects to the Union Pacific. The last section to West Yellowstone actually goes into hidden staging. Being that the railroad starts in Logan, MT, and runs through the Gallatin Valley, it was named "Logan Valley".

    I wanted to come up with a simple paint scheme with a family look, and this is what I ended up with, all custom painted almost 20 years ago.
    0020.jpg 0021.jpg

    I also have a number of simple Athearn freight cars that were custom painted and lettered fo the Logan Valley.

    IMAG0265.jpg IMAG0263.jpg

    This is HO scale, not N, but I had started out in N scale and changet scales in the late 70's because the quiality of the locomotives were primative compared to what is available now, and very few road name were vailable at the time.
     
  15. JNXT 7707

    JNXT 7707 TrainBoard Member

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    Got to be the best description yet;)
     
  16. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    don't encourage her...
     
  17. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

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    Some years ago, when trying to find a name for the "big-city terminal" on my dream model railroad, I thought of the Santa Fe's southwest, mission-style stations and and of the number of Southwest Spanish-flavored town names on the Santa Fe with some religious connotation.
    Vacaville, California had been in the news about a prison controversy, and the name "Santa Vaca" suggested itself as a Spanish-sounding name that didn't refer to any specific actual place. But "Santa Vaca" means "Holy Cow" doesn't it? And my model railroading started with the electric train set under the Christmas tree, so there has always been at least an indirect connection to Christmas.
    The various elements melted together into:

    The Legend of Santa Vaca
    At one of the early Spanish missions, the priest was trying to explain to the native Indians why they should give what they could to God even if they didn't have much. He used the example of the cow who gave up her feeding stall temporarily to become the crib of the baby Jesus. Her gift was humble compared to the gold, frankincense and myrrh brought by the Wise Men, but it became the very center of the Christmas scene. "See how God uses your simple gifts," the priest said. But the Indians took the story to refer to a bovine spirit in their pre-Christian mythology. The church tried to correct the error but it stuck and gave the village its name, Santa Vaca. And to this day, in the stained glass window of Santa Vaca Cathedral, in the background behind the images of the baby Jesus with a halo and the Blessed Mother with a halo, is the cow with the halo.
     
  18. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    close, very close, but it really means "A Female Saint named Cow", holy cow is "Sagrado Vaca" or "Sacra Vaca"
     
  19. MioneRR

    MioneRR TrainBoard Member

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    Well, once upon a time many, many years ago, in a land far, far away my mind was in free thought mode. You know, just drifting. The name of a town in the foothills of the Sierras floated into my conciousness. That town is Ione (pronouced "I own"). Then the letter M drifted by and bumped into Ione. They merged into Mione (pronounced "my own") I added Valley and the Mione Valley RR was born. In Mione Valley I do what I darned well please.
    At first, I was freelancing a bit of this and a bit of that. Now I'm proto-freelancing. With 6 railroads on the layout, I couldn't use just one of them. Besides, if a nitpicker shows up, well it's Mione Valley and I do what I want!
     
  20. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    In addition to my fictitious tourist railroad, my NTRAK modules also acquired the name Sugar Land Route, although I did not coin it. That was done by Bob Hundman who used to edit N Scale Magazine and Mainline Modeler. In the April 1997 issue of Mainline Modeler he referred to a photo that I had submitted as being on the Sugar Land Route. Some of my friends started calling my modules that and it kind of stuck.
     

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