UNUSUAL OR WEIRD TOWN NAMES FOR A LAYOUT

Carl Sowell Oct 9, 2015

  1. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

    6,266
    6,246
    106
    In that case, I grew up in Bong Leach, CA
     
  2. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

    13,965
    6,903
    183
    Be careful with Bellows Falls, VT....:rolleyes:
     
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,732
    653
    Uh oh. Nice one, Hank! :)
     
  4. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

    2,749
    524
    52
    I saw a freelance layout where the owner turned a prototype roadname around a little so he could use mass-produced decals. His line was the "Cork Island."
     
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,732
    653
    I've seen several folks who transposed a railroad name, to come up with Pacific Northern. Not exactly weird, but....
     
  6. greatdrivermiles

    greatdrivermiles TrainBoard Member

    667
    422
    27
    Enumclaw.

    Did see a few this week.
    Boring, OR
    Drain, OR
    Curtin, OR
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2015
  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,732
    653
    Used to know that place quite well. My wife's home town.
     
  8. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

    1,065
    581
    30
    Well thanks!! You all helped to motivate this morning to finally come up with a name for another town.. I will admit my town names are corny but they do well to describe my kids, my friends, family and life in general, from a humorous satirical view.
    I will let you figure out what it all means. Carnage, Maudlin, Balderdash and Muzzy.. Along with all the fun names like idgits creek, cake mountain, etc etc..
    I think it makes a freelance railroad more personal, friendly and interesting for folks who view it.

    As for real towns? We got one I remember well. Knoke.. They have a sign coming onto town that says "Knoke, next three exits"
    Of course, it's three gravel streets, about a block long each..

    Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
     
  9. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

    4,587
    16,153
    90
    Where's that one at?

    Out her we have Ismay, Ollie, Ekalaka, Mink, Mingusville, Skull Creek, and Glendive, itself. Interesting story how that name came about. Seems there used to be a 'roadhouse' here back in the early days, pre-railroad, called Glen's Dive by folk. Maybe. Either that or that Scottish fella that trapsed about out here hunting in the 1850's named it after something in Scotland.
     
  10. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,732
    653
    The original name of Whitefish, Montana, was Stumptown.
     
  11. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

    4,587
    16,153
    90
    I think Havre was Buffler Flats. Jim Hill wouldn't allow that to remain, and so they finally let him 'Hav'-'er.' The spelling being a nod to the French settlers.
     
  12. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

    3,031
    8,069
    82
    There are, most likely, several "Valenties" in the USA, but how about Valentine, Texas.
     
  13. Rocket Jones

    Rocket Jones TrainBoard Member

    783
    601
    18
    When stationed in Grand Forks, North Dakota, I'd visit a friend in Minnesota and on the way drive through Cosmos, Minnesota. As I recall, they had street names like Milky Way and Galaxy Lane. The most memorable part was that they always had an empty patrol car parked at the bottom of the hill to keep speeders at bay (if you didn't know it was empty).
     
  14. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

    2,749
    524
    52
    There is a sign on Interstate 10 about 15 miles east of Houston where the highway crosses from old channels that used to be part of the San Jacinto River at some time in the geologic past. The sign for the eastbound lanes says "Old and Lost Rivers" and westbound "Lost and Old Rivers". In other words, one river name comes on one side of the other but they are so confused, they are not sure where one starts and the other stops. I thought LOST RIVER would be a good name for the hidden layover siding representing the east end of the East Texas line I model. Lost River is for the trains going to Beaumont, Silsbee, into Louisiana, everything that is east of Conroe and Cleveland. I also thought Lost River would sound good for the name of a city located on a sleepy bayou, where trains "disappear".

    Originally I was going to use "Old River" as the name for the same layover siding when you get to them going west. Like the sign on the bridge, you can't tell where one starts and other stops, since it is a layover staging siding representing each end of the line. But it got confusing having trains always running from Lost River to Old River, and Old River to Lost River. Just sounded too much alike. I solved the problem by switching to Spanish for Old River. I saw a bar in the Mexican-American section of Corpus Christi with the name "El Viejo". It doesn’t just mean the description adjective "old", it means "old man". So my staging at the end opposite Lost River has become 'RIO VIEJO" and the pun is hidden by the language. It means Old Man River!

    [​IMG]
     
    Rocket Jones likes this.
  15. John Smith

    John Smith TrainBoard Member

    412
    104
    6
    There is a Lost River West Virginia. JMS
     
  16. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

    2,749
    524
    52
    Looking for a name for my model railroad and for the name of the big city I wanted to model. My favorite prototype is Santa Fe from the time I got my Lionel warbonnet streamliner set in 1950-something. The Lionel catalog had an artist's painting of the train going through what looked like Monument Valley. Romanticized Southwest. Southwest. A mission station like Albuquerque or San Diego or like SP's in San Antonio. So many Santa Fe stations and towns had names in Spanish with some kind of a religious connotation. Santa Fe = holy faith. San Diego = Saint James. Santa Cruz = holy cross. And so on. I thought of a real Santa Fe town in California-- Victorville in the desert. And that reminded me of Vacaville, where there was some kind of prison disturbance. And that led to SANTA VACA, the Holy Cow.
     
  17. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

    3,031
    8,069
    82
    Hereford, Texas
     
  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,732
    653
    Not a settlement as such, but a geographical location. On Puget Sound in Washington is "Point No Point", near Hansville. Why "No Point" is a head scratcher, as there is a point, upon which is found a well known light house. This might be a good name to adopt for your local harbor scene.
     
  19. Rocket Jones

    Rocket Jones TrainBoard Member

    783
    601
    18
    There's a nicely graded dirt road near here, and the street sign for it says "Dirt Rd".
     
    Mike VE2TRV likes this.
  20. Helitac

    Helitac TrainBoard Member

    670
    325
    31
    In the high desert near where the Manzanar internment camp was is a road named Manz Folly.
     

Share This Page