Your railroad's story and history


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Photogdad

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I was just wondering for those who freelance their railroad or even protolance. Do you or have you thought about writing a story line/story and or history behind your road? this includes any of those who like to write about railroads. I am wanting to give my freelance railroad a history and write a story about it. Give it some life, a reason why it exists, a purpose.

Opinions, thoughts, ideas?
 
Charles, you mean something like this?

History of the Aurora & Portland R.R.


The Aurora & Portland Railroad was founded in 1963 as the Aurora & Indiana (a subsidiary of the Illinois Central), when the New York Central abandoned its Michigan Central branch line into Joliet Illinois. The A&I picked it up, including the division yard in Joliet. This allowed the A&I to interchange with the Rock Island and Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroads. Trackage rights into Aurora on the EJ&E had also been negotiated. This line then ran east from Joliet to Chicago Heights, where it connected with the C.M.StP.&P, continuing east to Griffith Indiana and then north to the Indiana Harbor Industrial Area yard. The A&I also purchased former C.M.StP.&P right-of-ways from Chicago Heights south through Danville Illinois, Terre Haute and Seymour Indiana.

In the early 70’s when the Penn Central offered branch trackage from Kankakee Illinois to Indianapolis Indiana, the A&I jumped at the chance. Having gained a major (to the A&I at least) route to Indianapolis, the A&I system map looked like this:

Now That the easternmost terminal of the A&I had moved, a name change was thought to be needed. Several combinations were tried, with Aurora & Portland (reporting marks AP) winning out. This also honored Portland as the eastern terminus.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, the A&P was in a buying mood, due to the influx of several large investors. It was during this time that the A&P obtained titles to ex Penn Central trackage from Terre Haute to Indianapolis (via Greencastle); from Indianapolis to Louisville Kentucky (via Columbus and Seymour); and from Indianapolis to Cincinnati Ohio (via Shelbyville Indiana). At this time, citing dwindling revenue freight business due to stiff competition from the E.J.&E., the A&P stopped acquiring trackage.

In the early 80’s with the A&P satisfied enough to not want more track, the system map, (with a total trackage of 1,063 miles) looked as it does today. The system as it stands today, gives the A&P access to two river ports (Louisville and Cincinnati) and an International Lake port (Gary).

Principal products hauled by the A&P are; coal, grain, steel products (raw and finished), automobiles, lumber, gravel, limestone, furniture, bricks and other mixed revenues. Additionally four “Hot Shots” intermodal run daily, 3 southbound (GLT, GIC) and 3 northbound (LTG, CIG).

Consequently the modern day A&P is a class 1 railroad interchanging with the following railroads;

CN CSX
BNSF Norfolk Southern
Union Pacific Harbor Belt


New motive power, specialized intermodal handling equipment and excellent yard facilities enable the A&P to remain competitive and offer timely, quality service to both its own customers and to connecting rail links with other lines.
Today the A&P system map looks like this;


I haven't updated it in a while, but I'll get to that.
 
The D&J (Dad & Jon) Railroad was founded in 1984 with the purchase of trackage rights in the basement of a newly constucted home in Stafford, VA. Myself and my 7 year old son ventured into this joint effort as a common interest of passtime. The D&J Railroad began life as a 20' switching yard with a hand full of box cars and a couple of Santa Fe Train Masters. Power was a MRC power supply and a collection of flex track and turnouts.
The collection of rolling stock grew slowly due to military budget constraints, but experienced a unexpected spike in 1985 when my folks told me that they still had a box of trains items I had left there when I left home in 1968. I thought I had sold all that stuff when I was in high school. On my next trip home to Michigan I found several Lionel HO scale freight cars, with sprung trucks and some track, safely packed away and well preserved.
With the addition of the vintage rolling stock, the D&J Railroad grew a bit into a dog bone layout for continuous running. I bit of experimenting followed with teathered control packs and eventually, infra red, wireless control. It was about this time that my son was in high school when he told me, "Dad, trains aren't cool anymore". I was on my own. It was shortly after that when my wife told me that one of the teachers at the school she worked at was a train enthusiast. I invited him over one day to see the layout and our friendship kickoff with plans of expansion and operating ideas. He had part ownership in a hobbyshop down in Alabama and had access to whole price material. The D&J Railroad was on its way to becoming a full basement, around the wall model railroad. Construction began and soon, a 30 foot dogbone style layout turned into 2 1/2 scale miles of double track mainline with a 40' 6 track, lower level, staging yard, a 25' 8 track sorting yard and 14 industries, all run on Digitrax. The D&J Railroad hosted light industry, a modest oil refinery and a medium coal facility. Run through traffic saw long intermodle trains, coal drags, Amtrac and local commuter trains, the occasional mixed frieght along with dead headers running from the classification yard back across the basement to the 16' diesel facility for refueling and servicing. The run through staging yard hosted a rest facility for the on duty helper team that pushed trains up the 60' 2.5% grades to the operating level. The maintenance facility provided full depot level repairs to rolling stock frames, trucks, motors, shells and decoder programming.
I met up with a modular club and built a 16' segment of the modular layout along with a trailer to haul them along with all the club equipment. The D&J Railroad saw club operating sessions, Boy Scout events to earn badges and newspaper coverage.
In 2006, moderization to the right away required that the layout be completely removed. Rolling stock, buildings, scenery material and track were all carefully packed away in hopes of emerging someday, in a new location. The construction contract was awarded and a few months later, fresh drywall, recessed lighting and carpeting graced the former Spartan environment of the layout room and a For Sale sign went up in the front yard. The houseing bust soon followed and hopes to find a new right away faded. The boxes of trains beaconed me to do something. The bug finally bit and I began a new layout which was to be a shelf layout with helix type balloon ends with several levels. Construction on a new layout began in late 2008 and progress on road bed was made to about the 1 mile mark when I came home over the lunch hour and found my wife passed away of a heart attack. My interests in life took a major shift and model railroading no longer had my interest. The layout was once again dismantled and packed away to be sold at a later date. I took as many travel assignments as I could and the house eventually sat pretty much unused for most of 2010. The house was put on the market in late 2010 with no takers until I went on another 2 month travel assignment in 2011. Upon return, the for sale sign went up again in April and a week later an offer was accepted. The model railroad bug had recovered and was steering my interest. I went scouting for a downsized home with accomodations for a model railroad. I was lured to a new construction that had been sitting empty for several months. It was a rambler with a 2064 square foot, unfinished basement that had the utilities and staircase in the middle of room. Less than a month later I had the keys and was moving furniture in. First order of business was to build a yard shed and a 500+ square foot deck along with fortifying the lawn with topsoil, then construction on the basement to prep it for the model railroad. Construction began in early October 2011 and the rest of the story with pictures can be followed in "The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch" thread in the "Layout Design and Construction" forum in the Project Room.
The current plans are for an around the room layout with three peninsulas and a lower level staging yard. Estimated double track running length will be about 5 miles.
 
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Mine is easy to explain. My Railroad covers all parts of the US from North, South, East & West. So, I named it GAP. Gulf-Atlantic-Pacific. It's somewhat Modern & in-between.
 
Here's some history of the Akron Canton & Lakeshore Railway Lines

The AC&L was founded in 1992 by it's parent company, the Wheeling & Lake Erie. The WE needed a route extending from the Ohio River @ Marietta, OH to the (fictional) coal docks at Fairport Harbor, OH. on the shores of Lake Erie to increase coal traffic. This required rebuilding the old B&O Valley line south of Dennison, OH and bits and pieces of ex. Norfolk & Western/B&O trackage throughout the Akron/Canton area.

The AC&L shops and home office are located in Senecaville, OH. AC&L currently interchanges with CSX @ Marietta for coal empties/loads and the WE at Gambrinus Yard (Ex. Norfolk & Western property) in Canton. Currently we operate four unit coal trains, 2 empties/2 loads north and south daily, two piggyback intermodal trains from Gambrinus to Marietta daily, and about 3 local freights serving local lumber/grain/fuel and other industries in southern Ohio.
 
Man, these are some great stories. I have been writing down notes as I go along and was going to make a history for my road. I didn't know if I was crazy for asking if others had done something like this...lol. But from the looks of it, I need to start. Excellent stories and thanks for sharing. I will share mine soon. But for starters, The Aspen Timber & Western (reporting marks ATW) was founded in 1940 in Aspen, Colorado by Mark Timber. The ATW had bought the tracks of the Aspen Branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Western. They hauled in goods, supplies and coal as well as empties from the DRGW from the north and shipped out lumber, scrap, live stock and returning empties back to the DRGW. The company lasted 9 years until Mr. Timber sold the company to a investor in the east. A Mr. Charles Vandergriff was that person. He had other investments in other railroads, mainly the Norfolk & Western Rwy. The N&W had abandoned 45 miles of its Radford Division in Pulaski County, Va. So when the ATW was sold off, the Aspen & Colt Creek Railroad was born. Reporting marks ACC and start up date was November 11 1949. Like I said this is what I have so far, and will fill in the blanks and work on it some more then I will post the railroads complete story soon.
 
The very first thing I did when planning my model railroad was to write its backstory.

Definition of BACKSTORY
: a story that tells what led up to the main story or plot (as of a film)

My layout, Cheshire Rail, is a fictional pike based on the real-life Cheshire Railroad, which once served parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The original Cheshire Railroad was chartered in 1844. It merged into the Fitchburg Railroad in 1890, becoming the Cheshire Branch. In the real world, the New Hampshire and Vermont portions of the line were abandoned in 1970, while the Massachusetts section persisted until 1984.

I’m modeling a small portion of the Cheshire Branch that served the Troy and Keene, New Hampshire, area. I lived in Troy for many years, hence my interest in the area. I’m departing from reality by assuming that the Cheshire Branch was still carrying freight into the 1970’s and calling itself Cheshire Rail, known locally as “The C.R.”

In my scenario, the C.R. remains a part of the B&M/Guilford system – and interchanges with it – so one might expect to see rolling stock and motive power on the C.R. from the B&M.

The biggest local customer for the C.R. is Troy Mills, a sprawling textile mill in the small town of Troy, New Hampshire. Troy Blanket Mills began in the 1850s as a maker of fitted horse blankets but in more modern times made synthetic textile products for the automotive industry. The real Troy Mills remained in operation well into the 21st century. I drove past it on my way to work every day for more than 15 years. It consisted of a hodgepodge of buildings of many styles cascading down a hillside and constructed over a period of 150 years.

For the purposes of my layout, circa 1975, Troy Mills still receives raw materials and ships finished products by rail. The raw materials include dyes and other chemicals produced in the nearby town of Keene. Other materials arrive by rail from “off the layout.” Troy Mills is a large enough complex to have its own small industrial switcher.

The C.R. has a small yard and engine facility in Keene. The yard is conveniently close to the chemical plant, which shares a spur with a small freight depot. Freight arriving at the depot is distributed to the town of Keene by delivery trucks and sent on to Troy Mills by rail. There is an as yet undefined industry in the front left corner. In the real world, many Cheshire Railroad buildings in Keene are still in use today as commercial retail and office space. The turntable pit in Keene has become a public green space.

The track plan is a variant of John Allen's original Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced "gory and defeated").

- Jeff

track_plan_700_labels.png
 
Last layout: Oak Mountain Railway/United Atlantic Lines, Franklin/Intercity Division
Set in the State of Franklin, about 1970's-80's.

Current Layout(still mostly in the design phase): Philadelphia & Scranton; A Branch of the North East Corridor

The premise is that either during or after the Korean War, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funded/financed the electrification of 1-2 routes from Philadelphia to Scranton, in an attempt to maintain the anthracite coal business.

The P&S is a paper company organized by the PRR, RDG, LV, CNJ and DL&W as a way of managing the project/operation. I'm still trying to figure out the exact routing used; either RDG/PRR thru Reading, and along the Schuykill Valley, or up the RDG's North Penn, to Bethlehem/Allentown, then north via the CNJ/LV, or some combination of both, meeting at say Tamaqua. The time period I'll be modeling will be the 1970's to 1990's, by which time, most of the coal had played out, with the route becoming more passenger oriented, and North/south high speed corridor from Florida to eastern Canada.

Conrail in my world became a stripped down PC, and the RDG/CNJ became part of the United Atlantic System, when Conrail was formed in 1976(allows me to utilize some of my Oak Mountain power on run thrus, etc). The LV/L&NE/NYO&W/D&H more or less all became part of the NYS&W(at least for a time in 1988) with connections to New England via Maybrook NY, and the Poughkipsee Bridge over the Hudson River.

Motive power is a smorgesboard of these roads, with additional second hand and 'other '[Tyco GG-1 on Athearn Trainmaster drives, painted like Reading F units, and/or RDG's 1950's GP's]units, in keeping with the 'what if' theme.

You can check out some of my earlier Philly & Reading trackplans on the Layout Construction page. I've outlined some of these ideas on postings there, also.

I think to have a satisfying model railroad, developing a history for your rail line, provides the context for 'how come that 1970's TOFC/COFC train is being pulled by a bunch of F units,' so to speak.
 
A&CC RR History

The Aspen & Colt Creek Railroad began life as The Aspen Timber & Western Railroad in Aspen, Colorado. It began by someone by the name of Mark Timber of Aspen who, along with other railroad investors, bought the old Aspen Branch from the Denver & Rio Grande Western in 1940. The ex DRGW Aspen branch stretched from Aspen, north to Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

With the help of investors, Mr. Timber bought 4 Berkshire type steam locomotives as well as 2 Yellowstone type EM-1 steamers from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The primary freight was coal hauled in from Glenwood Springs from the DRGW south to points along the Aspen Branch and into Aspen. In Aspen, there was a lumber yard, a metal scrap yard, stock yard and a feed/grain mill. All products were shipped out by the ATW as well as any empties back to Glenwood Springs. Also the ATW hauled in food and supplies to a freight depot in Aspen and was trucked out from there.

Business held on for 9 years until a healt issue forced Mr. Timber to sell he majority share of the company. One of his investors, Mr. Charles Vandergriff of Palaski, Va. Mr. Vandergriff was able to buy out the entire company from Mr. Timber and the other investors including the name, property and equipment. He moved all locomotives and what rolling stock he could and sold the Aspen Branch to the Town of Aspen. Which sat dorment until they pulled the rails years later. After finding a couple of other railroad investors, Mr. Vandergriff began operating the Aspen & Colt Creek Railroad on November 15, 1949.

Mr. Vandergriff was able to aquire 45 miles of the Norfolk & Western Railway's Randford Division in Pulaski County, Va that laid abandoned for a couple of years. The main town was Howard Junction which included a freight depot and a feed/grain mill. It also was the site of the ACC 3 track yard, roundhouse, coaling facility and transfer point for coal, freight and empties to be switched from the N&W to the ACC. The end point of the ACC was the Town of Lily, 45 miles to the north of Howard Junction up into the Blue Ridge Mountains with a max of 2% grade.

The work mule of the ACC was the EM-1 which was able to haul coal from HJ to Lily. While the Berk's switched at HJ and hauled freight and empties to and from the two towns. There was also a freight depot in Lily where incoming freight was able to be offloaded and trucked into town as well as any mail that needed to go out. In the Town of Lily, there was a lumber mill/yard, scrap yard and coal yard with a coal distributor for the local town folk for heating purposes. The ACC also gave the N&W trackage rights for fast freights that needed to get to the otherside of the mountain as well as reroutes.

In mid 1950, the ACC looked into starting a passenger train to transport passengers up the mountain and to local ski resorts as well as to the Town of Radford for transfer to the N&W.

This is what I have so far. I am sure other details will be added. I have enjoyed reading about everyones railroad. Hoping to hear from others about their railroads.
 
My railroad is called the Mountain Pacific Railway Company. I have no location for the railroad, just that it is obviously on the west coast, and connects to the Southern Pacific, later Union Pacific. The railroad was incorporated and built in 1925, it has always been on a shoe string budget, being first constructed with second hand SP track material, and using a second hand SP steam locomotive and caboose. The railroad went bankrupt in 1931, just two years into the great depression. Southern Pacific being the creditor, absorbed the MPRy ( Think NWP being owned by SP but operated as a separate company ). The MPRy. was dieselized in 1955 when SP assigned an SW1 to the railroad, in 1957 a tired RSD5 was added to the roster, as traffic was picking up some. In 1983 SP put the railroad up for sale, and a railroad entrepreneur with Missouri Pacific background bought the railroad from the SP and purchased 3 locomotives from the MP at a deal, an SW1500 and 2 GP15's. The new company organized under the new name of Mountain Pacific Railway Company. The company lasted until 2007, when it was once again sold. This time the Thunder Mountain railroad ( MRRF member and friend Jeff Davis a.k.a TMLW on here ) Bought the MPRy Co. Sold off the GP15's and SW1500 as they where not needed and assigned a ex-Santa Fe GP7u with topeka cab to the railroad. Thats what I have so far. I have all the mentioned motive power, so I can set up the railroad to represent its entire timeline!
 
The Milwaukee Road
fired everybody at the top, restructured, and continued electrfied
operations in the 1980s. They teamed up with GE and started buying up
every E33, E44, E60, and its varients, they could find from the Eastern railroads and reworked them to
run out West so they could retire the boxcabs and bipolars. This bought GE some time to design a new heavy freight
electric to run on the MILW using the MILW as a long term, long distance
test bed for their new electric locomotive. EMD, not to be out done and
hoping BN and UP and the like would be watching, offered up a couple of
prototypes to the MILW for testing also.
 
Brady,

I've considered E33's in MILW black & orange. Noel's book on the MILW has a few diagrams of potential Milwaukee electrics. I have 2 Brazilian electric models that look like NH EF-3's/EP4's from the 30's. Planning to paint them similar to Reading F units. I have a couple of E60CFs, 2 in PC, + one that I'm trying to decide what to paint. Also got an old American GK E60CF in GN Big Sky blue.
 
Here's my RR history as it was pulled from my webpage, (with some modifications to the original page), as I'm building a new page. It will have more pictures and be easier to navigate





Alabama Central History
Reality

My RR is called the Alabama Central, named after a prototype short line. Back in the early part of the twentieth century the road was built to service various coal mines northwest to southwest of Jasper, Alabama. The road would service these mines and bring the coal down to interchange with the Southern RR line that is near Jasper. Although the line never got much bigger than twelve miles long, it had some profitable years, although most years it made no money at all. There were at several times in Alabama history, at least 3 if not 4 other Alabama Centrals. They were never in service at the same time and were never in the same locations within the state boundaries.
Hard times came onto the railroad with the Great Depression, and by the end of WWII, the coal traffic wasn't profitable enough to sustain the railroad and the line was abandoned in 1956. There is currently one old locomotive preserved on the campus of Alabama Mining Museum in Dora Al, and supposedly one is resting on its back halfway up the mountain along the old roadbed. The loco was abandoned in place, and over the years, the roadbed got washed out from under it and it rolled down the mountain. This has not been confirmed. Also, according to the October 1943 ORER, The Alabama Central owned no cars for revenue service! All of the cars used came from other RR's. I do have a picture of a prototype AC caboose, and it was one of the old SRR wood cabooses.

One of the locos went to a short line in Tenn, the Oneida and Western.

"History" of the Model Railroad

Agents for a small mining company, located in Selma, found huge new coal reserves, that were easy to get from the ground for the road to haul shortly before WWII, and being some shrewd cusses, they first bought all the stock in the RR they could for just pennies on the dollar. Then they announced the discovery of the new coalfields, which caused the stock to skyrocket in price. Since they now owned the railroad, they moved its HQ from Jasper to Selma. Result was they became filthy rich, built new lines, took over a few other RR's, merged with some as the dominant partner and made even more money.
Their little railroad became a giant in the Southeast, with lines from Little Rock, Ark to Jacksonville Fl, via Selma, Alabama and points north and south of this trunk.
They had even succeeded in acquiring a controlling interest in the Southern, and several of her subsidiaries, but allowed the RR to run semi-independently, as the modern SRR did with her subsidiaries. But one thing they didn’t, do was change the paint scheme of the Southern, nor the numbering system. In fact they liked it so much, that they patterned the numbering system and freight loco colors of the AC to it, and even backdated the passenger colors to 1926, so those famous 2 tone green Crescent Limited passenger cars would ride the rails again. Instead of the postwar dark graphite colored fire and smoke boxes, a return to the light graphite color was ordered.
They bought more locomotives and cars to deal with ever expanding traffic out of the mines, but never bought anything new. They surely did love the skirl of the bagpipes, in other words, they wuz cheap!!!
They bought whatever used was on the market and brought it home to be rebuilt by the road's mechanics. The Chief Mechanic, Crusty O’rench, was a grumpy Scottish cuss who, along with his crew, kept all the locos and cars in great condition and working like new. His able assistants, Yassir Itsa Flat who ran the wheel shop, and Slo Medon Milosovich, who were in charge of the car and brake shops, kept the equipment in top-notch shape. Because of their efforts, the road remained steam powered up to the early sixties.



Area Modeled


Here we go back to reality. The area I chose to model is one that I am very familiar with. It’s center is my hometown of Selma, Al. Here I placed the main yard, engine service facilities, and main terminal. All station names on the railroad are from real locations on the Southern mainline from Selma to Birmingham, Al. There is one exception, and that is a switching area known as Fulton. It’s actually located about 75 miles south of Selma, but it is on the Southern main line. While the model mainline is somewhat short, serving as a connector mainly between Selma, Burnsville, and the two staging yards, and the branch line to Maplesville. This branchline is actually the focal point of the operations. Along here are most of the industries that the RR will serve. The largest of the industries, is Confederate Hill Mining Co. A small coalmine that supplied the blast furnace at Tannehill, Al, during the Civil War, inspired it. It was located on what is known in the area as Confederate Hill. Steel made at Tannehill was shipped to Selma, where the largest arsenal and Navy Yard, outside of Richmond, VA were located.


 
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That is a very interesting story. I do like how you gave history to both the prototype and model. I believe I started this thread to see if there were others who wrote about their railroads history. I believe having a history is just as important as any other aspect of model railroad. I want to that everyone who has shared thus far their stories, I have enjoyed them and I hope everyone else enjoys reading about everyone's railroad. Please keep the stories and histories coming.
 
... I believe having a history is just as important as any other aspect of model railroad. I want to that everyone who has shared thus far their stories, I have enjoyed them and I hope everyone else enjoys reading about everyone's railroad. Please keep the stories and histories coming.

When doing layout plans for other people, I insist that they write down the history, or at least a concept of what they want their RR to represent. Without this guideline, of what they see their RR being, I'm just drawing a trackplan not a layout, and that's going to turn out something that will be, not only unsatisfying to the client, but to me as well. Once you have a history or concept written down, it helps greatly with the selections of what is a "givens", and what is a "druthers", or as I call them, "Gotta haves" and "Gimmes".
 
Exactly. When I began modeling, like most of us, I just threw down the track and ran trains. But over the years, I wanted more out of my layout than just seeing a train run, so when I finally decided to model a freelance road, I began thinking about what I wanted. Besides that I like writing anyhow, so it was just another excuse for me to write something....lol.

But I do agress that having the given's and the I want's in place is a great start to planning and desiging a layout that you can be proud of.
 
Mine only became associated with the Northern Pacific, after I realized I was attracted to this railroad as one of my local roads and liking the places the N.P. visited. Previous to this, my railroad was known as the H.P.& N.W., a play on the C&NW name and was the acronym for "Hard Play and No Work". The HP&NW is all but gone from the layout now, with only a couple cars remaining from that line. I knew I wanted dramatic mountain railroading, with tunnels and lots of bridges & trestles (doesn't everyone)? I am now a member of the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association. So, the history of my railroad is the history of the N.P., only the names have stayed the same; but, the places have changed!

My Division HQ is in Prairie DeSchane (my last name being DeSchane, this makes perfect sense, doesn't it)? A town in the middle of mountainous territory being called "Prairie" sorta make sense to me also! Businesses and other locations are friends names, logical locations such as "High Point" being the summit, etc.

I got caught up in the John Allen "Fictitious Realities" sorta thing when I started and I'm fine with this decision I made 25 years ago, when I started. If I were to start over now, I'd model the N.P. in the Butte Montana area. Total reality!!
 
Yeah, those "funny names" do get to be not so funny anymore. Even the great John Allen said he had gotten tired of the name of his railroad, the Gorre and Daphetid. He said it was an "after the battle" reference, (gory & defeated), referring to how he would feel after working on it sometimes. While he loved puns, tricks and humorous scenes on the layout he said the G&D pun had gotten old. But because the name was so well known, he felt that a name change was out of the question.
 



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