Short Line Railroads

jtomstarr Feb 28, 2014

  1. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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    Anyone here model either a active or abandoned short line railroad from their hometown or from their parents hometown… or has created one within their own large layout with extra locomotives and freight and passenger cars ? As an example from my mother’s hometown it would be the following.


    Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern Railroad > Abandoned


    All out of curiosity of course.

    Tom
     
  2. jimil

    jimil TrainBoard Member

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    oops, wrong thread somehow...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 28, 2014
  3. RatonMan

    RatonMan TrainBoard Member

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    Ever hear of NCat?
     
  4. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yes and No.
    No, I never modeled an existing or fallen flag shortline. I have built into an over all layout a shortline of sorts. I always saw the 'Grey and Grandure' as a shortline through the 'Grandure Valley'. It gave 'running rights to the Canadian Pacific, Great Northern and others thus allowing me to run those names.
     
  5. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    Wow, JW&NW Jesus Wept & No Wonder.

    I even did a GE 70-tonner on that one as a demo for my kit. Had decals made, too. Not a full layout of course, but a Salzberg-schemed GE 70-tonner has to count for something.

    My Hickory Valley railroad module was well-photographed by John Sing at Bedford:
    See http://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/image/137618527 and see http://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/n_scale_wkend_2011&page=all
    Every building on that module is scratchbuilt based on the actual buildings at Endeavor during that period. That 'white house' building was the mill office, my father worked in that building between 1928 and 1965 and met my mother there.

    The Hickory Valley Railroad between Endeavor, PA and West Hickory PA about 1920; my great-grandfather, grandfather, grandmother, mother and father all worked for various parts of the Wheeler & Dusenbury lumber empire at Endeavor PA.

    I've organized as much of the mill and railroad history as I've been able to find here: http://www.randgust.com/wd1.htm is dedicated to the prototype operation.

    At one time my grandmother was the oldest resident in Endeavor that was born in the town and never lived anyplace else; she lived to 91

    I've managed to scratchbuild almost every locomotive they ever owned in N scale, it's only taken me since 1975. I'm still trying to make a more accurate 47-ton Heisler. What geared steam they didn't have (Climax) the adjacent and connecting logging railroads did.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 28, 2014
  6. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, I have heard of NCat. However I was looking at The Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern Railroad as a whole, especially here Passenger operations ended November 30, 1947 following the death leading members of the Broadhead family. The line began diesel powered freight service with a pair of GE 70 Ton locomotives which continued until January 21, 1950.
    Note; H.E. Salzberg took over theJ.W. & NW . RR at that time 1947. I know this because my late mother was best friends with the H.E.'s Secretary.

    Tom

     
  7. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    One of the two JW&NW 70-tonners ended up out in Iowa, in the same paint scheme and number, with different lettering.

    This is by far the best picture you'll ever see of it, and what I used as my own color guide.

    http://trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/shortlines/DCIR.htm
     
  8. SP&S #750

    SP&S #750 TrainBoard Member

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    Had a locomotive I painted and Decaled for the Puget sound and Pacific. I'd like to get some F units to paint and letter for my DRST. I was thinking of a Blue and Gold to match the family colors in an almost SP&Sish style of the Broad stripe.
     
  9. jpwisc

    jpwisc TrainBoard Member

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    I model a Small Shortline. It only has a prototype roster of 4 engines. I have three of them built already, plus a nice fleet of other lease locomotives. You can read more about my ongoing adventures in my blog (linked in my signature).

    Here are the ones I built:
    [​IMG]
    Here are the real ones:
    [​IMG]
     
  10. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

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    On my former layout, an N 3x7 which represented a Santa Fe line in East Texas, I had a short line which represented a line owned by a logging company, "Big Piney." For various legal, regulatory and financial purposes, it was operated as a common carrier, Johnston & East Texas. It interchanged with the Santa Fe at the courthouse-square-town of Johnston.
    [​IMG]

    I had one diesel and one caboose painted for J&ET, both in colors very similar to the real Texas South-Eastern, a green Alco S-2 switcher and a wood caboose originally owned by the Southern Pacific. (with a dog serving as the assistant to the conductor!)
    [​IMG]
    The pike was also influenced largely by the Moscow, Camden & San Augustine, whose steam mixed train I was able to ride once.

    My fictitious company also had logging cars lettered for Big Piney, which it handled as a logging tram operation, partly over J&ET tracks and then using trackage rights over the Santa Fe to reach "Neola reload," an operation based on Kirby Lumber Co. in the Silsbee area.
    [​IMG]

    Besides the lumber and mill-related loads J&ET carried for its owner, it also served J.J. Stone gravel pit (named for the radio DJ personality name of fellow N scaler Jim Burkett).
    [​IMG]
    The Santa Fe supplied gondolas and ballast hoppers for J.J. Stone...
     
  11. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    That's where my transplanted Turtle Creek comes in. I had the abandoned Goldendale Branch on the SP&S purchased by Weyerhauser ( spelling?) and run by the Turtle Creek as a common carrier serving the mines and logging plus the small communities on the line. Thus the Dashing Turtle makes an appearance in Washington State interchanging with the SP&S or later BN.
     
  12. alhoop

    alhoop TrainBoard Supporter

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  13. Logtrain

    Logtrain TrainBoard Member

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    The RR I model is the Chehalis Western, which is a Weyco subsidiary. The CW was not a common carrier in the real world, but in my world is a common carrier. The reason for this is that the CW also hauls out finished timber products, which it did NOT in real life. My CW also hauls grain, and fertilizer to and from a local Cenex grainery. It also hauls occasional loads of aggregate from a local rock pit. My CW made it through the fall of the timber market in the late 80-early 90s and now is a bustling common carrier RR that is thriving. It is thriving so well that Weyco decided to keep this RR from the sale of all its other RRs from Patriot Rail in the late 2000s.
     
  14. txronharris

    txronharris TrainBoard Member

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    Hello. My name is Ron and I'm a short-line-aholic. My shortline is the Texas Farm Link and its loosly based on MKT/BNSF trackage in the North Texas/Oklahoma area. I'm using the MKT green with my logo replacing the MKT on the locos as a nod to the herritage of the line. I'm only going to have three locos in my paint scheme and the other three will be various locos that were bought and not repainted yet. Just getting things started (recently nailed down my track plan for the 2x8 layout in the layout discussion forum) and will post more as I progress.
     
  15. MioneRR

    MioneRR TrainBoard Member

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    I have three shrtlines on my layout.
    The Central California Traction runs north from Stocton to Lodi, but it's main business is at the Port of Stockton. It used to go all the way to Sacramento.
    The Stockton, Terminal and Eastern handles switching to the east of the UP and BNSF mainlines in Stockton.
    The Tidewater Southern was a WP subsidiary that went south out of Stockton.
     
  16. Bob S

    Bob S TrainBoard Member

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    Ahnapee & Western; 33 mile shortline from Casco Junction to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. I was the US Navy Supervisor of Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay 1977-1980; the railroad was abandoned out of Sturgeon Bay in 1969 but still operated to Algoma while I was still living in Door County, now abandoned entirely. Owned and operated by Green Bay & Western at various times in it's life. Never had more than three locomotives on the roster at any one time ... , no signals, no CTC, makes it easy to operate!

    Resp'y,
    Bob S.
     
  17. YoHo

    YoHo TrainBoard Supporter

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    Cool. We just sold our cottage in Washington Island Township. Wasn't practical living on the west coast, but I miss the area dearly. The video of the last car ferry run to kewanee is still one of my favorites.
     
  18. CharlesW

    CharlesW TrainBoard Member

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    I don't model a specific shortline in layout form, but I've been collecting/painting locomotives and cars for a shortline that CSX purchased 30 years ago (the Port Huron & Detroit Railroad) as well as the shortline I blame for my interest in trains and a CSX spin-off (the Huron and Eastern Railway). I haven't gotten very far with modeling the actual PH&D's track, but I've developed a small, module-based switching layout I want to be able to take to the PH&D Railroad Historical Society's events as a display eventually. I haven't (and don't plan to) modeled any of the Huron & Eastern's scenic features, but I'm working toward a semi-complete roster of visually recognizable locomotives and cars that are appropriate for the line (mostly boxcars and covered hoppers).

    One of the railroads that was merged into the Huron & Eastern several years ago was the Saginaw Valley Railway. I was able to get custom decals for this line made up and modeled two of the 3 locomotives rostered by that company accurately. The third locomotive (GP38) never wore the red paint scheme, having gone straight from NS black to RailAmerica red/blue/silver and eventually became New England Central 3869. I may eventually change one of the Atlas 3869 models to the Saginaw Valley 301, but I prefer my version instead.
    [​IMG]

    In an ironic twist, before Genesee & Wyoming purchased RailAmerica, the Huron & Eastern wound up with another New England Central locomotive, the 3852, which was easily modeled with Atlas' unnumbered NEC model:
    [​IMG]


    I prefer to run my models with a traveling layout group I belong to. At least one of our annual events is close enough to the Huron & Eastern to garner appreciation from other fans of the line. One of my goals was having the right mix of units to be able to mix and match units to get the right feel of the railroad, even though I don't believe it's possible for me to model every single one of the company's locomotives. Here's an example of a successful mix and match.
    [​IMG]


    Unfortunately, with the G&W takeover, all of the Central Michigan locomotives were renumbered to Huron & Eastern numbers and several were scrapped or sold off. I don't plan to renumber the units on my roster to match the G&W changes, at least for a good, long time. I'm sticking with the railroad as I see it in my mind's eye as well as most of the photos I've taken of it over the years.
     
  19. Logtrain

    Logtrain TrainBoard Member

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    Nice ideas here for shortline RRs. My logging RR is the Chehalis Western. However, my fictitious RR is named the Cowlitz, Cascade & Pacific. The paint scheme is patterned after the BN. Instead of Cascade green and black the locos will be Blue Angel blue, with UP grey. The white BN barricade stripes on the nose will be used as well as some will have the front face of the cab white as well as white barricade stripes.

    The cabooses will be CB&Q red trimmed out in white for high visibility at crossings. I need a color that will stand out as there will be 2 industries that will require the train to be shoved into the industry and across a RR crossing.

    When I get some done, I will post pictures.
    Ryan
     

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