Large Scale Central

Choosing a name for your railroad

General Discussion
#1

This topic has probably been done to death, but I didn’t see it, so here goes.

What are your thoughts on choosing a name for your railroad? I’ve been in the hobby for 16 years, hang around various sites and have attended many national large scale conventions and am familiar with a lot of railroads’ names and even know how they get them (place, the owner and his DW’s initials, etc). But I still prefer “real,” versus “whimsical,” names, especially place names–preferably ones that reflect the area the layout is set in (Colorado, the desert, Appalachians, etc). We live in a beach town that was once known as Bay City, and while that’s a catchy name, because my railroad won’t be near a bay or water, I’ve avoided using that name or anything associated with So Cal, as it’s not where my railroad will be set. Don’t ask me where that is. Probably some place east of the Mississippi. Some of you guys have it easy. Ya live in places with cute names and your pikes reflect them–like Port Orford, or Tuscarora. Or Cheektowaga. But my mythical railroad won’t be set near any place I’ve lived in so the name has to be generic and not generally associated with any place in particular. At first I thought I might use Gumgrove (a name for eucalyptus tree), as there’s a park named after those trees in our neighborhood. But then I thought that sounded dorky, so I was back at square one. Right now I’m thinking Fillmore & Humboldt, as those were two streets located near where I grew up in Buffalo. And the names are vague enough to be anywhere in the country. For example, there’s a Fillmore in Southern California and Humboldt County in Northern California. Anyway, what do you think? About anything?

#2

My original n scale railroad was Chris, Jennifer and Sophia’s Railroad and was shortened to CJSRR. The garden railroad started with the same initials but the full name was Calm Junction & Springs Railroad but has been shortened to Calm Springs Railway because the original name didn’t sound right. Funny thing is, the only Springs on the railway are truck springs and turnout springs.

#3

My Railroad name came from the Mounatin Range I live in, in N,J The Kittatinny Mtns. Native American for Endless Mt. A little story how I came up with my theme

Kittatinny Mountain Railroad is mainly a logging/mining railroad with limited freight and passenger service. I was looking to model a local railroad but found it would be very time consuming and expensive to build everything that was prototype to the local railroads. After doing research on my local railroads I discovered that there was the Sussex Railroad. The last stop for this railroad ended in the town of Branchville, not far from the Kittatinny Mountains. I also read that there was a proposed extension of the Branchville line that would pass through the Kittatinny Mountains and end at the Delaware River. The line was surveyed but the plans never left paper. The Kittatinny Mountain RR is a an extension of the Branchville line. This allowed me to be more flexible when building my layout. I now was able to create my own structures and use my own engines/rolling stock. To read more about the Sussex Railroad: http://www.newtonnj.net/Pages/railroad.htm

#4

Joe, my railroad was named after my best friend and wife Linda. Its called Linville,Jct. You cant go wrong naming it after you wife. Better then an X wife :wink:

#5

Borracho Springs was based on Borrego Springs in the SoCal low desert. I wanted something desert-like and parched…the actual name came while watching the movie “The Great Race” when it in the Wild West and the line “citizens of Borracho …” Eureka!

#6

Since it’s a short line, Joe…Seal Beach and Western should work well for you!
Me? Merger of all the Colroado area narrow gauges during the depression…Colorado Consolidated.
Plus, the California and Nevada, proposed but never finished, which would have gone from the north end of San Freakincisco Bay, cross the Sierras, cross the Carson and Colorado at Candelaria, and on to Salina, Utah, to conect with the D&RGW…which gives me NPC, C&C (or SPNG), D&RGW, and any and all narrow gauges along the way…plus barge traffic from the Bay to the WP&Y. So, we can by definition run anything narrow gauge west of Denver.
TOC

#7

Marion River RR- After the Marion River RR. Was billed as the worlds shortest standard gauge RR. 5/8 mile long. Used to between Marion River and Utanua Lake so the elites would not have to take a smelly horse drawn buggy. Nearby Camps included Vanderbuilt, Huntington, Webb, Durant, and J P Morgan.

#8

Quote from the book:

The head surveyor noted in his day journal “It is my opinion that the only way we will get a locomotive past this ridge is by the engineer holding on with his toenails.” Thus the name Toenail Ridge was born.

#9

CL, I like Springs. Actually, I once thought of calling my railroad Silver Creek and whatever, but then I noticed someone else had that so…

Shawn, I like the name and the story. Really cool, and I wish I could think of a clever scenario. Of course it helps to live in an area like yours. The only thing rail line related in Seal Beach is a park, which is the old right of way of the Pacific Electric (the street is called Electric).

Ron, I tried my wife’s name for my first depot, a Korber kit I still have and may turn into a house, since it’s 1:24 and I have a scratchbuilt 1:20.3 station. But her name is Carolyn and try as I might (anagrams, repositioning letters), nothing worked for me. So I went with a nickname I sometimes use, Kiddo, but people would see it and say, “Who’s Kiddo?” Name wise,In So Cal, we’ve got Todd and Linda Brody, whose initials became Tortoise & Lizard Bash.

Vic, worked like a charm. Along western place names, Dunakin has In-Ko-Pah, which I never understood until I saw an exit for such a place along I-5 east of San Diego.

TOC, yeah, but then I need a beach and it’s a half-mile away. :slight_smile:

#10

Why Jackson & Burke? Well, I wanted something for Jean (my wife) and me (Bruce), but didn’t want it to be the Jean & Bruce RailRoad. We’ve lived in Burke, Virginia for over thirty years, so that took care of the “B”. I’ve always admired Stonewall Jackson, and the rest is history. Jean is an avid birder, and the pileated woodpecker is one of our favorite birds. A little work and a logo was created.

So, you can tie it to something personal; I think that if you do, it might help to tie the name to the layout as well,

For instance, if you go with " Fillmore & Humboldt", I’d probably make at least one of those a town on the layout. I don’t have a Burke location on my layout, but I do have the town of Jackson. Of course, it could be a river or a stream that the RR crosses.

Or you could just like the name. :wink:

I would avoid cutesy names that don’t age well. Other than that, probably anything goes.

#11

My wife collected everything Frog related until she said “Enough already!” We had already named it the “Froggy Bottom Shortline.”

#12

The CVRR mainline that the Pioneer and Utility ran on still exists and is currently owned by Norfolk Southern(which is used daily …behind my home) …I pretend the CVRR or Cumberland Valley RR STILL survives and leases trackage rights to Amtrak.

Did that make sense?

Do I ever make sense?

Joe…I have no answer

#13

The ““Bluestone Southern”” orignally was my railroad when I was in N-scale… I carried it over into my G-scale railroad…

It was derived from a number of things, actually…

1). My favorite color is blue… Hence, the ““Blue””.

2). My logo is diamond shaped, diamonds have been known to be called “'rocks”", or ““Stones””… Hench, the "“stone”…

3). The Locomotive lettering was stolen from Southern Pacific’s design of block lettering and railroad initials on the nose… And here is where the ““Southern”” came to be…

On a side note, the lettering of the Bluestone Southern’s initials on the nose, meant one of 2 things… Whene the railroad was running good, it meant ““Bluestone Southern””, and when it wasn’t running right, it was just plain ““BS””…

:slight_smile:

#14

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/19632/denzel-washington-ain-t-got-noth

#15

When you model a specific prototype, and subdivision names come easy. I’m modeling the 7th and 8th Subdivision, of the Pacific Division, of the Burlington Northern. So I chose
“BN 7th & 8th Sub Garden Railroad”

Simple enough? Right?

Craig

#16

I originally intended to model the shortline I grew up with, the Arcade & Attica. Despite getting my first job working for that railroad, my first large scale engine was an LGB Stainz, and my second an Aristo Pacific. My third turned out to be a shay. NONE of these were ever used on the A&A. What now? Local events gave me a backstory to create a 5-mile extension to the A&A. Another plan at the time was divide the steam excursion business and the diesel freight business, turning the A&A name into a 501c3 owned by the new “Arcade Central Railroad”.

My plan was to change the name to Freedom Central Railroad; since the proposed tracks were to be mainly in the township of Freedom; and then interchange to the A&A. Once I had the Freedom Central name, I kept coming up with subsidiary companies to support the railroad’s operations. After starting out as a local road, the “Freedom” eventually morphed into a reference to America, and many of the subsidiaries took on patriotic names: Liberty Central Storage; Independence Intermodal; KUSA Radio

After adding the Roanoke Western Railway to the family, the officers & stockholders decided to spin the subsidiary operations off into their own businesses under the Freedom Central Corporation umbrella. I wanted to get fccorp.com (F C Corp) as my own web domain, but it was taken. They were willing to sell for 100k: I continued hunting. About this time the dot.US domains became available to the public and I snapped up fccorp.us. That then became the corporate identifier, stylized: FCCorp.US

My logo was born from my interests in the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the American Freedom Train (AFT). The PRR donated the Keystone shape, and the Freedom Train donated the star & line design. The Star represents America, and the Line represents the railroads which connect the nation coast to coast.

One of the things that REALLY took its toll on naming for me was actually writing the railroad’s history out. The current history has 30+ subsidiaries and… eight railroads? Arcade & Attica; Buffalo & East Aurora; Bliss & Eagle Valley; East Broad Top; Freedom Central Railroad; Gallitzin, Allegheny & Portage; Middletown & Hershey; Morrisville Road; Roanoke Western Railway… I think I’m forgetting one. I had included the Lewisburg & Buffalo Creek at one time, but eventually decided to drop that idea. I also had to create the AGE or Appalachia Great Eastern when I wanted to unify the back history of many of the roads involved with the FCR history, not to mention the latest addition to the story, the companie’s primary locomotive shops: Juniata Falls Werx.

I think the point is that no matter whats going on, you can find a unique way to create a story and a history if you look around hard enough. Case in point: I wanted to create my loco shops in central PA, I really like the name Juniata, but Juniata Works just wasn’t an option because of the real one. I wanted something familiar yet also somethign that had a somewhat rural or backwoods feel. Thus Juniata Falls. Werx was selected to add a more modern feel to the standard “works” name, an effect I’ve tried to foster all the way back the Freedom Central Railroad, which uses a paintscheme for it’s coal-fired steam engines called “New Age”.

Arcade & Attica: In the story, the A&A is now a nationwide steam locomotive excursion operator/providor, leasing out first-generation steam locomotives to railroads wishing to run a special steam excursion event and maintaining the specifications for all excursion locomotives. Created after the Freedom Central perfomed a hostile takeover and merged the A&A’s freight operations to teh FCR, and passed its own steam excursions to the A&A.

Bliss & Eagle Valley: A multiple-gauge train park runnign on the former Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh right of way from the present-day CP-Machias Junction on the former PRR Buffalo Line to Silver Springs, just south of Warsaw NY. Right of way provides access to “Lumina Locomotive Works” in Bliss NY, where GM openned a new facility to build the ACE-3000.

Buffalo & East Aurora: A planned electric road between its namesake towns. In story, the B&EA is the name given to commuter operations on the Freedom Central’s Buffalo Line after the contracted Amtrak pulls outs. Operations use rebuild Budd RDC’s equipped with high-efficiency gas-turbines coupled to electric generators.

East Broad Top: After pulling off a spectacular coup in Altoona with the construction of the GAP Line, FCCorp.US is courted for purchase and rehabilitation of the entire East Broad Top railroad system. The line is opened in short order, while extensive investments are made into the local shops. However full rebuilds are planned for the FCR’s main steam shops in Arcade. Unlike FCR’s other efforts, the EBT engines are maintained to authentic, but new condition.

Gallitzin, Allegheny & Portage: Between building the new roundhouse in Altoona and the NS steam program, the K4 project gets a boost. With real work finally progressing, FCR moves in to pull off a reconstruction coup, gettgin federal assistance to rebuild the line from Duncansville to the tunnels at Gallitzin. FCR reputation wins concessions from NS and the Gallitzin tunnel is reopened. The GAP Line is named after the three tunnels which punch through the summit of the Alleghenies: Gallitzin, Allegheny and the old Portage Railroad tunnel.

Middletown & Hershey: FCR moves in to buy the Middleotwn & Hummelstown when mismanagement runs the road into the ground. At the same time, the freight business has a major possible boost when Hershey announces an open bid for their terminal switching. Under teh M&H name, FCR puts in a bid. When the bid is won, FCR changes the name to Middletown & Hershey to recognize the new business.

Morrisville Road: After Shared Assets is raffled off to NS & CSX, NS begins a minor sell off of lower priority/ lower income generating terminals & yards. After working Morrisville during his tenure at NS, FCR CEO Gallaway decides to bid on teh yard after some preliminary inestigations turn up the possibilities of massive untapped business possibilities.

Roanoke Western: After getting NS to reopen an railbanked line, Carlson Bros Collery’s new coal seam pans out in only a few yards, despite sonographic surveys to the contrary. When miners cut through a peat/granite mix, they find a seam of nearly ten billion tons of hard bituminous coal. Because of the previous failure, NS wants nothing to do with the mine, so FCR is asked to come in and operate the 40mile secondary for Carlson Bros. The Roanoke Western is formed.

#17

You’ve got a downright natural name as far as I’m concerned. Buffalo & Humboldt reflecting where you’ve been and where you are. The B&H (also known as the Buffalo Route - the POC is the Cedar Route) could have a RR herald much like mine which is typical of traditional heralds with a buffalo in the center instead of a lighthouse. Or on a more modern bent a buffalo image with either the RR name or initials emblazoned on or beneath it. Modern NS uses a pony after all.

Locomotive tenders or diesel sides could be lettered “Buffalo Route” with RR initials & number on the cabs. Too either a buffalo or the buffalo herald would look equally neat. Western Pacific used Feather River Route extensively as an example of prototype practice. Even just the name “Buffalo & Humboldt” would look good.

Just one example of using your own personal experience, history or location. I’m sure you can come up with others as well. It’s more satisfying I think unless you are modeling a specific prototype to have a name that reflects you.

#18

Hi Joe,

I came up with the idea for the Rockwall Canyon simply by reading Garden Railways magazine. In particular, it was the Gopher Canyon RR among other late 90’s 1:29 scale articles that still stand out in my memory. It also helped that I had little money to buy retaining blocks at my age, but that I had an endless supply of rocks if I spent the time to dig them up…and I did.

In building my new layout, I’m looking now toward local geographical inspiration. If the move goes as planned I hope to unveil an Exeter River RR in the spring of 2014. The Exeter River, nearly abutting my new property, surely provides many plausible scenarios for a fictional railroad to provide many different services. The Sawyer River logging RR of the White Mountains of New Hampshire will provide a strong influence to the new layout.

…and despite the name change I still plan to keep digging for rocks! Gotta love that NH granite!

#19

Wow! Very informative and inspirational. I’m a thinkin’ now.

JD, you’ve really got that historical thing going. Pretty intense!

Bruce and others using initials of owner names: I guess C&J could work and it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to find towns somewhere in the country whose names started with these letters. Speaking of CJ, when my wife and I were running a circle track midget, I got the bright idea to call our team Sea Jay Racing, 'cause those were our initials and we live by the sea. A friend made up some T-shirts with a logo, which was supposed to be a Blue Jay. To top it off, the shirts were Baby Blue and when we showed up at Ascot Raceway wearing them, ya could heard the hoots all the way to Alaska. BTW, I think I can dig up one of them shirts for you.

Richard, I like your idea. There are several places named Buffalo in the country, so ya wouldn’t have to be location specific, which is OK if you model an actual place. BTW and FYI, when I was in grammar school, we were taught that the Buffalo in Western New York was called that because it was a bastardization of the French “Beau Fleuve,” which means “beautiful river,” or something like that. They got the river–the Niagara–but there were never any buffalo (or bisons, as they are also called) roaming WNY except in the zoo.
Lately though, revisionist historians say the story is not true and say the name comes from some Native American words, but they don’t say what they are. Spoilsports

#20

Joe Rusz said:

There are several places named Buffalo in the country, so ya wouldn’t have to be location specific, which is OK if you model an actual place. BTW and FYI, when I was in grammar school, we were taught that the Buffalo in Western New York was called that because it was a bastardization of the French “Beau Fleuve,” which means “beautiful river,” or something like that. They got the river–the Niagara–but there were never any buffalo (or bisons, as they are also called) roaming WNY except in the zoo.
Lately though, revisionist historians say the story is not true and say the name comes from some Native American words, but they don’t say what they are. Spoilsports

We have a river here called “Sixes”. I asked around to see where that name came from and the only answer I came up with is that it’s from an Indian name for the river that simply sounded like Sixes.

You don’t really have to have an actual town that matches your RR name although it’s nice. Many flegling railroads had grandiose names that mentioned places they never came within a thousand miles of. The Atlantic & Pacific R.R. comes to mind as an example. In the reverse Pennsylvania R.R., New York Central and Reading certainly covered a lot more territory than their name implied.