Naming Your Model Railroad

[DairyStateDad]

A very entertaining piece of historical fiction! Thank you for sharing it!

 

[Alan Curtis]

Fascinating history of your railroad. Certainly a very good read!

Alan
www.andersley.co.uk

 

[Espeefan]

I would suggest using great care in naming your model railroad.

I've heard, time and again, that "cute" names grow old over time. One of the most famous was John Allens "Gorre and Daphetid" (Gory & Defeated) but at least it has the advantage of not being an obvious joke at first glance.

I'm all in favor of having fun on your model railroad, and I enjoy puns of all kinds. However, over the years I've read numerous articles by model railroaders who said "I sure wish I'd have picked a different name, but now all my rolling stock is lettered and it would be so hard to change it."

If you have a pun that you can't resist, maybe just make up a couple of cars for that line, rather than naming the whole railroad after it. I also enjoy naming buildings after friends and family, it's a nice tribute and doesn't seem like it would get old.

I agree with Bob. I read somewhere, maybe in the book or in the RMC articles that John Allen regretted the name later on. I guess I'll be diffrent. Since I'm a "Proto Freelancer" I would not name the railroad. My locos and rolling stock are as close to the individual prototypes as I can get them, and the scenery is generic for the area, while the structures are a mixture of prototypical and stand ins or "close enoughs". I would tell a visitor that the layout is based on the SP in LA and the surrounding areas and the railroad serves the packing industry in the late 40's-early 50's. Sheesh..maybe a name would be easier Naming businesses for friends is nice, and at the club we have a passenger train where the Pullmans are named after our members who have reached the end of the line.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

This is a pain in the tailpipe, but in a more fun way....trying to come with workable name for a railroad or railroad system. Being a huge Milwaukee Road fan, plus a handful of others since Napoleon was roaming on the European continent, I've been trying to place it somewhere on the map, where it connects to these other railroads....
I've only so far come up with possible colours for the locomotives etc., names so far aren't very imaginative but, Atlantic & Midwestern, Pacific Great Western, Atlantic Great Eastern, Midwestern Family Lines, is what I've got so far....maybe get a map out, a few darts and then blindfold myself! Anything goes (almost), where I get an excuse for some second hand steamers (this being a company that doesn't mind a good second hand deal!), like N&W/C&O/USRA 2-6-6-2's and 2-8-8-2's and PRR E6s' and G5's....
Then we have this logging bit......(oh dear!)

 

[Iron Horseman]

This is a pain in the tailpipe, but in a more fun way....trying to come with workable name for a railroad or railroad system.

I have always said developing a good freelance is harder, maybe even by and order of magnitude, that modeling a prototype. For a prototype all you have to do is research one thing. For a freelance you have to research bunches of things, then extrapolate, then use integration to merge in a reasonable fashion.

 

[Renegade1c]

My Railroad, the Colorado Front Range Railroad, was picked base of geography mostly. Originally I wanted to go with the Fountain, Fort Carson and Western but I moved out of Colorado Springs and felt more at home in Golden and the Denver area. My railroad was named after the region is serves (Golden to Denver a.k.a the front range of the Rocky Mountains).

A good friend of mine and some of the other members on here named his road the Southern Arizona and Douglas (SAD). We decalled some cars with the lines logo and slogans. "Ship with SAD, it gets there sooner or later!" "Ship with Sad, It gets there most of the time!" When he tore down his layout I got a few of those cars back and they still run on my layout to this day!

 

[DairyStateDad]

I have always said developing a good freelance is harder, maybe even by and order of magnitude, that modeling a prototype. For a prototype all you have to do is research one thing. For a freelance you have to research bunches of things, then extrapolate, then use integration to merge in a reasonable fashion.

I get that... The flip side is with freelance you can make it up.

I passed up fiction writing for journalism because making stuff up was too hard (no wisecracks about the media, please! ). On the other hand, for the trains I don't want to be constrained by history.