My thoughts, too. I do like the Mopac look, but the Texas & Pacific had some fine looking locomotives....steam and diesel alike.
I am avoiding working on my layout in my garage...since it is 106 at 7:00pm...but I am working on a standard gauged Pacific Coast Railway if it survived WWII and was bought by the Southern Pacific
Wow, with that kind of heat it would definitely turn into work! After looking up the Pacific Coast Railway, it sounds like a very cool railroad to model. What types of locomotives will you be running?
Thanks for the interest, I am currently using a Bachmann 2-8-0 for power. I modified the cab and made it a oil burner, I have a great amount of SP hoppers and boxcars, I need a reefer or two, a caboose or two, a few passenger cars and a lot of tankers
dak94dav, your schemes are really great. They're believable and they look right which is half the battle when coming up with a freelanced system. I'd buy a loco in any of those schemes, which is the barometer I use when looking at one. The others here are great too. I've not got a renewed interest in getting my freelanced N scale railroad back up and running. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks for the nice words! I like the challenge of coming up with something that's (at least in my mind) decently realistic. Motive power, plausible paint schemes, traffic types, believable routes....I enjoy it and it helps me to learn more about the real railroads and how they did things. Best of luck with your layout and please share it with us when you have the chance!
I really like these. For me it takes all the maga mergers back and lets us model some of these RRs, like they never went away.
And to that end I would like to offer the following images of the more modern Frisco and QA&P. An SD70 Frisco A QA&P, SD40T-2 A QA&P GP60 A Pre QA&P Acme Red River & Northern CF7 Thanks for looking.
Those Frisco/QA&P/RRA&N units look awesome! Hopefully we'll see your railroad published in a magazine some day....perhaps it would inspire some to rewrite history and model modern versions of the greats that are no longer with us. Yes, I hate the mega mergers. For me, it took all the character out of railroading.
My layout started with my Dad many years ago. He called it the Dorado and Silver Mountain. It was steam era set in the 1930's. After his passing I inherited it and since I am more modern the story goes that the D&SM was on its last leg and was purchased by the Utah Railway who then was able to reverse the downturn and is now a booming railroad in their system known as the Silver Mountain Sub. I built a whole new layout on this theme. There are still whispers of the old heritage of the D&SM still visible.
I don't have the actual painted up locos yet, and don't have the talent to post slick color drawings like some of you (anyone want to help me with that? Lol), but here are the two versions of my logo for my short line. Plan on using MKT green with yellow lettering. Will also do some covered hoppers and maybe a couple boxcars too and re-letter a loco or two. Only planning on about 4-6 GP38 locos and a few cars since it's a switching layout, but renumbering/relettering will give the identity of a short line I'm looking for. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I will have to see if I have any of my dads layout. Mine is still getting built. Have one scene almost finished.
Sounds great! I'm a proud Texan and farm raised, so your concept is right up my alley. As for those drawings, I like to use Trainiax. You can go to their website and find a ton of different locomotives and rolling stock. Use them with Microsoft Paint. Can be time consuming sometimes if you're a detail freak like me that wants every speck painted, but super easy. Many of the locomotives even have differences like dynamic brakes options, snow plows, and lots more. It's easy to get exactly the look you're wanting, right down to the horn and bell placement. Where in Texas will your Farm Link represent? BTW: a while back, I thought about venturing into a small N scale layout.....a Texas shortline I called the Red River Belt. It would be situated somewhere near Wichita Falls with lots of agriculture based traffic. Mostly GP38-2s/40-2s and a few SD40-2s in a Western Pacific inspired scheme. Would've probably been very similar to your line. If I ever do start that project, it might be fun to model a connection between the railroads, or a hopper or two from each other
Man, that's a great scheme too! The level of creativity here on TB never ceases to amaze me. My railroad will be a modern independent short line in the North Texas Area, close to the Red River and will serve the area between about Sherman west to about Vernon. I haven't looked at the map real close, but will pick something where there was/is some exiting trackage so it makes it more plausible. I want to include some trees so not too far west where everything gets flat, but the premise will be taking over an old MKT branch line to serve small elevators and towns in Texas and some border Oklahoma towns. You're right your scheme would for right in, so maybe get that N scale project rolling and we can do a rolling stock swap. I'm definitely always up to trade a private road covered hopper to others once my decals get made. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For mine, I thought of N scale because it would fit my current space better. As for a track plan, I considered the Salt Lake Route project layout that was in Model Railroader a few years back. Cut down to single track. A grain elevator surrounded by crop land and pastures on one side of the backdrop; the outskirts of a town with a couple more industries and a small locomotive facility on the other.
Very similar to what I wanted, and sounds great too! All I have now is HO equipment but I've been wanting to dabble with N anyways. This would be a great way to start. Can't wait!
