Inspirations?

[ShiningTime]

When making a model railway whats your insparaiton? I know some people like to base their layouts off of the american deserts or real life cities but i do want to know what other people like you guys use for insparations for your railway?

 

[Smudge617]

When making a model railway whats your insparaiton? I know some people like to base their layouts off of the american deserts or real life cities but i do want to know what other people like you guys use for insparations for your railway?

Anything can be your inspiration, a childhood memory, a town or area you either live or lived or worked in, the Railroad your interested in modelling and/or it's area of operations, or something straight out of your imagination, or perhaps maybe another layout you've seen, anything can inspire you really.

 

[Patrick]

As others have said here, it's your world do what you want. I saw a post once where someone had a my little pony themed railroad for their daughter.

 

[JeffH]

Childhood memories of visiting my Grandparents who lived in a steel town along the Ohio River. I have very fond memories of my Grandfather and me watching trains and barges.

 

[Guilford Railman]

My ideas usually come from reflecting on favorite childhood memories. My mother would always include a train ride on any vacation trip we took. My favorite has to be the Green Mountain Railroad in Bellows Falls, VT. I fell in love with Alco’s because of this railroad and the beautiful Alco RS_1 #405 that pulled the cars through the scenic towns of Vermont.

(Image from Google).

 

[D&J RailRoad]

My inspiration is the open lands of the great southwest as opposed to the tree laden eastern roads.
In the east, trains can be seen for hundreds of yards.
Out west, they can be seen miles away.

 

[kleiner]

I have been a railroad modeler for over thirty years and I have many sources of inspiration:

• Riding on trains: I have traveled long distance on trains in many countries: US, UK, France, Switzerland, Sweden, India and Indonesia. There is nothing like a train journey to inspire you.
• Reading about beautiful layouts in Model Railroader, Railway Modeler and Continental Modeler
• Watching trains here in New Jersey where I live. Specifically, rail fanning at CSX River Line, Princeton Junction and Bound Brook
• Operating trains on the big Union Model Railroad club layout
• Looking at photos on rail pictures.net
• Wanting to fix the mistakes I made in previous layout

I will say this: it takes a while to figure out what really interests you

 

[ctclibby]

Like others have suggested, do what suits YOU.
I am pretty much devoted to the railroads in the area where I was raised. Had GN, NP, UP, CBQ, Milwaukee, SI and SP&S with a couple of smaller branches. These were all from the early 60's although I am not completely certain of Burlington, only remember the engines. Probably more that I will use when it comes to power, but what the hey!

 

[trailrider]

My inspiration has been the Burlington Route trains I rode as a child with my parents, and associated railroads, NP and GN, as well as C&NW trains I rode as a teen in the 1950's.

 

[logandsawman]

The NP track went right in front of our driveway, following US 61 north of St. Paul, MN. Grew up on a farm with a long driveway right to 61. While growing up, was pre I-35, really the only practical route from St. Paul to Duluth MN (port city) went right by our farm.

Walked a lot on the tracks, collected railroad spikes (had a big gunny sack of them, could barely lift it) back when I was about 10 yrs old.

That was my initial inspiration. Later I collected historic photographs and use that as a template for much of my new layout.

Here is a photo of my great Grandfather Isaac M Banta at the Forest Lake depot, a couple miles from where I grew up:

Here is a photo used as a basis for part of my new layout:

So far I have modeled the Depot and Potato warehouse. Have a couple fill in buildings, as well as a kit for the hotel and grocers which will be added.

This is where I now live, still on the Northern Pacific line to Duluth, about 60 miles north of where I grew up. This is Groningen MN:

I have pretty much everything in this pic modeled on my new layout, except the mail crane.

I think photographs make an excellent resource for modelers.

Dave

 

[Selector]

It was the emotion and sensory experience of being around trains in my 5-10 year old youth living at 12,000-14,000' ASL in the Peruvian Andes. This began in the fall of 1957 when the local rail ops were still steam managed by Baldwin 2-8-0 and Beyer-Peacock 2-6-6-2 "Garretts". I like to see trains winding through terrain, over bridges and rivers, through tunnels, and switching in a yard. That's what I get from my several layouts over the past 16 years.

 

[otiscnj]

Growing up outside of NYC in the 60's-80's, so many of the railroads had gone bankrupt, deferring maintenance, with rundown right-of-ways, physicial plants, and rolling stock and equipment, I often wondered what it would be like, if the railroads were seen in a more posititive light, not a neceessary evil. As such, at some point, I'd come up with several ideas for different free, or alternative prototype rail lines, which included the addition of catenary, over existing routes, but operated as part of some larger system, different from real life. I'd ridden a few of the routes, on fan trips, or just as day excursions, using scheduled commuter or other services. I also did what I could to find as much information about the histories of these routes, including any photos, at different times, of various locations I was looking to model.

 

[dennis461]

I like spell checkers.