Too Many RR Names on One Layout?

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KB02

KB02

Well-Known Member
As I have built my layout, I have always operated under the Fantasy RR theme, meaning I can run whatever I want whenever I want. Which means, I have a bunch of locos with different road names. I only have a couple locos that have been painted to my RR's personal paint scheme. It bothers me a little, but it also doesn't.
The other day at work I happened to look out the window at an actual railroad, the NECR's round house, and was able to count Four road names and Five different paint schemes of all the locos sitting around. I guess my layout is doing okay.

NECR is a division of Genesis & Wyoming, so we have a couple of visiting locos from their other divisions hanging out right now (like HESR, of all RR's to be in Vermont). We are the nightly parking spot for Amtrak, and CN regularly delivers a large freight to St. Albans at least one a week. A couple of NECR's locos still wear older paint schemes from either previous NECR versions or their previous employers.

Kind of nice to know my fantasy isn't completely divorced from reality. :D
 


We know about Rule 1 in model railroading.

Then we take a look at real railroads and their Rule 1.

Even Lisbon, Portugal, every locomotive in the same class has a different livery.
On the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (in the U.K.) all their locomotives are a different colour
There are a myriad of other examples.
Rule 1 Rules.

Then there are the 'experts' saying such locomotives were never seen in such places, yet there are photographs to prove otherwise. (I love that, as I have such pictures in my library.)
 
I have a Proto-freelance Industrial Shelf layout based in and on areas of Central Wisconsin that in the real world was run by the CN in 2020. For years I was limiting myself to locomotives I thought the real road would run and shied away from diesels from other railroads. Visiting diesels were typically CN, IC and GTW, part of the CN borg. Pictures have shown me just about 20 different roads names (not leased diesels) that have appeared in my area and date times of 2020. So I started buying UP, the BNSF and the NS. Since I am a buyer, weatherer and seller of equipment, not a collector it has worked out for me.

So on the Wisconsin River Valley & Terminal RR I have currently (this morning) on the roster 2 units for the WRVT a Sd40-2f and a Mp15ac. I have for the Wisconsin Interstate 2 Gp40-2L’s and 2 at the painter. I have a ET44ac unit at the painter for the Wisconsin Interstate. I have 2 NS 9-40c’s (1 is 4 sale), 2 CN Sd70aces, 1 UP and a WC Heritage unit ET44ac. I use the 6 axle units for the daily transfer runs from the fictional Paper Mill Yard (PMY) based somewhere near Rothschild, Wi to the CN’s Steven Point yard. So of the 20 real world names that appeared on the CN’s Valley Sub in 2020 4 of those names have operated on my fictional WRVT RR. Next up would be to replace the UP units with CPKC.

For photo runbys I have had friends send me units for the Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Michigan Interstate, Eagle River Railroad Co and Missabe Midland RR.

I’m not sure this is a new trend with model railroaders but the real guys always have had other railroad locomotives on their properties, usually as payback for using them in times of shortages
 
Hmmm, I wanted multiple RR names on mine. So, did it the easy way - created a fictitious railroad that saw the mergers coming circa 1970 with the NP, GN, SP&S and CB&Q and did not want to become part of the resulting BN. Of course, there were other regional/smaller roads in the area and included some of those also - UP, SI, Milwaukee, PGE, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific. Most of those are the roads I grew up with in Spokane and could see all the different Heralds and Paint schemes almost daily. Now you know why Spokane to Sandpoint is called 'The Funnel'.

L8r
 
Invoking MRR Rule #1...
Everything about the Texas South East RR and the layout is fictitious - there is a Texas South-Eastern Railroad Co. but this ain't it. That's sort of where the idea comes from but that's about all. The layout location is unnamed and all the industries have generic names. Rolling stock road names are mostly the ones I remember from growing up in Galveston in the 50s. My fave roads are SP/T&NO, Katy (MKT), Rock Island (CRI&P), and Burlington/Ft. Worth & Denver (CB&Q/FW&D). All four of these had a presence in Galveston in 50s. Although I don't have any other road named locomotives, all I would have to do to change roads is swap out the locomotive and caboose with one of my 4 favorite road names.
And that's the great thing about this hobby - from strict prototype modeling and running trains by the rule book to shuffling Thomas back and forth on a Time Saver, it's your choice. Have fun!
 
Yes! This is exactly what I am think about doing for my RR as I have one to many road names I like. It gets even more confusing when there may be just one or two engines from a Rail road I want to run on my Pike, but they were from that RR only! 😣 😁

I have been thinking of creating two fictional railroads so the history makes more sense. One for the East coast (Primarily NYC and PRR. Two of my favorite railroads) and one for the Midwest (Where Im from. Santa Fe, UP and some others). I am a noob at coming up with history (Or lore) for my railroad, so hopefully I conclude something!

Of course, this doesn't include my interest in British Railways...😖
 
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I'd say that there's no such thing as too many road names on a layout, especially when you look at the wide variety of names you see on the real thing. I'll give you a good example, I live in Rawlins, Wyoming, and the only RR that comes through town is the Union Pacific, and yet in the three years I've lived here I've seen a good number of road names on both locomotives and rollingstock, including fallen flags and foreign roads. Besides the UP, I've seen BNSF, SP, (mostly patched UP) D&RGW, CN, CP, CPKC, Kansas City Southern, CSX, Norfolk Southern, N de M, Ferromex, Portland & Western, (a Genesee & Wyoming road), Southern, and CNW. I've probably seen more, but these are all I can think of at the moment. And, as has been said before, it's your layout, your rules. Also, I have many different roads on my layout as well, including my "house locomotives" that have my layout name.
 
KB02 said:
It bothers me a little, but it also doesn't.
Click to expand...
I solved the issue by looking for places where many different road names are present in real life. I found Pueblo Colorado:
Santa Fe
Rio Grande with their double track joint line.
C&S (Burlington) also Fort Worth & Denver
Colorado & Wyoming (the CF&I steel mill)
End of the line for the Missouri Pacific.
Rock Island from Colorado Springs by traffic rights.
Then in the early 1960's the Great Northern and Northern Pacific were sending the C&S their old F units so the yard had many colors.

Of course if one wants even more they can jump to St. Louis, the granddaddy of them all.
 
Deutsche Bahn in Germany is no different. Trains from nearly any European country can be seen on DB tracks. In addition, there are tens of private railroads in Germany that use DB tracks.

I have ÖBB from Austria running passenger service into and out of Germany as well as SBB from Switzerland. The only private railroad currently is Erfurter Bahn Service, but are well represented on the layout. Been thinking of adding Czech and French trains too on each side of the country.
 
Trying to work out how many I have, spread across three planks and a forthcoming project.

Quite a lot is SP/SSW/TNO of various varieties, a couple of DRGW lurk in the shadows, a couple of EMDX demonstrators and a couple of fictional shortlines, CD&LR and CWRR.

Plus a couple of Rock Island units that recently arrived...
 
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Before the "merger", the C.B&Q (Burlington Route) was jointly owned by the Northern Pacific and Great Northern. Between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul, the NP and GN's main passenger trains were pulled by Q motive power. Other roads maintained motive power pools. During WWII, the SP suffered from a shortage of steam locomotives, so some were sent from the East. The Burlington and the UP ran competitive high-speed passenger trains between Chicago and Denver. When flood washed out track on one line, trains were rerouted over the competing road's rails.

Even after the mergers, some diesel locomotives may not get repainted from their original road's livery for years. (Too expensive to repaint just because of a little thing like a merger, at least until other major maintenance was required.)
If you are worried about, say a Pennsy sleeping car showing up west of the Mississippi, don't. They and the NYC ran through trains coast-to-coast on other road's trains. Same with freight cars.

If you are having fun with your layout, go right ahead!
 
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