HJ wanted a SNAFU RR
Southern Northern All Fun Usually
Dieseldude aka Kevinski:
You mean like this, right?
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/schuper.jpg)
Wow, Joe! That’s how you spell “Schuper House!” I eventually went to public school. They didn’t beat you when you couldn’t spell (unlike the nuns at St. Stans!!). Actually, I was thinking about the other Schuper House near da Broadway Market, dare. Down da street from da Market Bar. Schupes were a quarter there as well! Clara was the waitress. Nice Polish lady. Built like a truck. I bet she made good chadnina (Apparently, I can’t spell in Polish or English!).
-Kevin.
My railroad set in the desert area in the southeast corner of San Diego county, over into western Imperial county. (I love the scenery there, and the diverse flora.) There are a lot of interesting place names out there, several of which I took under consideration.
When I was building an HOn30 layout in my garage many years ago, it was going to be called the Jacumba, Carriso, and Dos Cabesas Railroad. I almost used this for my outdoor layout too but ultimately decided against it, for several reasons:
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I didn’t have room to adequately represent these specific locales.
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I really wanted to model mines and mining towns, which would have to be fictional places.
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It seemed like way too much lettering to try to fit onto short rolling stock.
In the end I settled on “In-ko-pah Railroad”, drawing from place names such as the In-ko-pah Gorge and In-ko-pah Mountains. I liked the unusual sound and hyphenized spelling. It also ties it to the specific region while not mentioning specific towns.
BTW, “In-ko-pah” is derived from an Indian word which means “east people” and refers to the tribe that inhabited that area.
I do have a little more fun with the place names on the layout…
The main town is Dos Manos. This is sort of a fictionalized version of Dos Cabesas, the siding in the Anza-Borrego desert where the prototype for my water tower is. It’s also an extremely subtle reference to my favorite TV show, “Mystery Science Theater 3000”, which once featured a cheesy movie called “Manos: The Hands of Fate”. The town’s hotel, Hotel Torgo, is also a reference to that movie.
The next largest town is Mineral Ridge. I chose this simply because I liked the sound of it, and it reminded me of some of the mining districts in Nevada and the Mojave desert.
Grandt Cliff is a tribute to the late Cliff Grandt, founder of Grandt Line, the maker of fine scale detail parts.
I wanted to include family names in the layout too, especially our grandchildren. The two large canyons are named Cora Canyon and Serenity Canyon, after two of our grand-daughters. Some of the mines and town buildings are, or will be, named for our grandchildren too, and for other family members. I already have Sam’s Rock Shop, and Cora’s Cakes. The jewelry shop in Mineral Ridge is going to represent my brother’s fine art jewelry business.
Yeah, but Ray, you are a serious model railroader and a stickler for detail, historic and modeling-wise. Guys like me, well, we do the best with what we got.
Off the subject of trains, you have grandchildren? Having met you, I never would have believed it. Great!
BTW, I thought about Native American words, because the area around Seal Beach was once the home of ??? and we have a small walking trail with markers depicting their words for numbers (0ne, two, three, etc). If ya read them strictly as words–and not knowing the language–they sound interesting. But I think that ship has sailed, or rather, that train has left the station. And derailed. 
Ray Dunakin said:
I do have a little more fun with the place names on the layout…
The main town is Dos Manos. This is sort of a fictionalized version of Dos Cabesas, the siding in the Anza-Borrego desert where the prototype for my water tower is. It’s also an extremely subtle reference to my favorite TV show, “Mystery Science Theater 3000”, which once featured a cheesy movie called “Manos: The Hands of Fate”. The town’s hotel, Hotel Torgo, is also a reference to that movie.
(http://thercs.net/starr/cats/thread%20hijack%20kitty.jpg)
Ray,
Ahh “Manos, Hands of Fate”, one of my Top 20 Worst Movies I have ever seen in the history of Cinema, mostly because its about as entertaining as watch a scab form.
Alot of movie folks would rate it much higher than myself but the I have a different criteria for rating movie awfulness, example I dont consider Ed Woods “Plan 9 from Outer Space” as top five material, namely because it had zero support from a major studio and was in essence virtually a student film shot on the lame with a bunch of friends and a hundred bucks, same as “Manos, hands of fate” No, to be truly terrible you HAVE to have a studio involved that should have known better. The bigger the studio the bigger the FAIL:
Now…for some really REALLY awful films I suggest the following of Wisconsin’s best:
Battlefield Earth, 2000, L Ron Hubbard, say no more…
Jaws the Revenge, 1987, which had no reason to exist. The shark looks honestly, like they took the rubber shark at the Universal Studio Tours and used it as the monster. BTW, it “barks” in the movie, no kidding!
The Giant Claw, 1956, Columbia Pictures, granted a B movie, but was shot by the studio then to save money the entire special effects were shipped to Mexico where the people across the border totally failed to grasp the concept and produced a monster that was quite literally, a marionette paper-mache vulture. It is laugh out loud bad.
Message from Space, 1978, a Japanese cheesemaster from not Toho, as one might expect but the much more respectable Toei and directed by the man who did the Japanese portions of Tora Tora Tora. It’s a plain rip-off of Star Wars, even has a dwarf in a robot suit, bad dialog, stilted hammy acting, but still has some fun 60’s era models and special effects.
Batman and Robin, 1997. This massive studio fail should have not just killed the careers of all the major stars but killed them in such a horrific mutilating manor that the LAPD would need to brought in, unfortunately most of them went on to become bigger celebrities than ever. Warner Brothers got soaked, for the losses, The director issued an apology for his own film and George (don’t look at the plastic nipples on my batsuit) Clooney stated, “I think we may have killed the franchise” It took 10 years before anyone would attempt to resurrect the corpse of the batman franchise with Chris Nolan’s “Dark Knight”.
My top bad cinema cheddar is a tie, simply because I cannot decide which is worst:
War in Space 1988, Toho Studios. I have no reason WHY was this made, it steals ideas from just about every sci-fi movie or TV show of the last 20 years and then totally fails to provide ANYTHING of any entertainment value, dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull accented with a taste of boredom.
StarCrash 1979, this is also an absolutely blatant rip off of Star Wars, but where Message from Space still retained some old school charms, this Italian cinematic abomination is a FAIL across all measures, story FAIL, dialog FAIL, cinematography FAIL, acting FAIL, costumes FAIL (except for Munro’s bikini spacesuit), special effects FAIL are so bad the “star field” against which the spaceships that look like they were built out of old styrofoam packing shapes, is clearly Christmas lights strung across a black background. This had the backing of what was then a big Italian studio, who clearly got hosed by the utter incompetency of every aspect of the production. BTW included in this travesty is the acting “debut" of David Hasselhoff, and also stars recent Oscar winner Christopher Plummer, who must have been starving or drunk off his heels to sign up for this.
There are many others of course but this is my Best of Cheddar list
Hijack over, Piracy contained
(http://eunavfor.eu/wp-content/uploads/WHALER-SINKING-623x393.jpg)
back to your regularly schedule discussion
over forty years back, my first largescale trainset was a LGB. what else?
since i was not ready to “mutilate” my roling stock, i serched for a name with these three letters.
out came the dictionary (real paper and pages in that far gone time!)
for each of the letters iwrote down some “wild-west-ish” sounding words, that i liked.
after some combining i came up with “Lost Gulf Branch”.
that name helt for decades.
on my last layout i had two differnt lines, that met at a harbor station.
so i needed another name. preferably one, to which the Lost Gulf Branch could be a tributary.
i settled for “Southern & Gulf RR”, the “S&G RR”.
my actual (and probably last) layout uses that name too.
(well, it is no layout yet - more of an eternal construction site)
My High Desert railroad was easy to name if you look at our area.
Joe Rusz said:
Off the subject of trains, you have grandchildren? Having met you, I never would have believed it. Great!
Yep, I have six grandchildren! Our son has two girls and a boy, and our foster daughter has three girls. Here’s a pic I shot recently when we had the whole gang over:
(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Family_July_2013_files/IMG_5740cc.jpg)
Our daughter-in-law is the only one not in the photo. She was out of town that day.
Vic Smith said:
Ahh “Manos, Hands of Fate”, one of my Top 20 Worst Movies I have ever seen in the history of Cinema, mostly because its about as entertaining as watch a scab form.
Alot of movie folks would rate it much higher than myself but the I have a different criteria for rating movie awfulness, example I dont consider Ed Woods “Plan 9 from Outer Space” as top five material, namely because it had zero support from a major studio and was in essence virtually a student film shot on the lame with a bunch of friends and a hundred bucks, same as “Manos, hands of fate” No, to be truly terrible you HAVE to have a studio involved that should have known better. The bigger the studio the bigger the FAIL:
Now…for some really REALLY awful films I suggest the following of Wisconsin’s best:
Battlefield Earth, 2000, L Ron Hubbard, say no more…
Jaws the Revenge, 1987, which had no reason to exist. The shark looks honestly, like they took the rubber shark at the Universal Studio Tours and used it as the monster. BTW, it “barks” in the movie, no kidding!
The Giant Claw, 1956, Columbia Pictures, granted a B movie, but was shot by the studio then to save money the entire special effects were shipped to Mexico where the people across the border totally failed to grasp the concept and produced a monster that was quite literally, a marionette paper-mache vulture. It is laugh out loud bad.
Message from Space, 1978, a Japanese cheesemaster from not Toho, as one might expect but the much more respectable Toei and directed by the man who did the Japanese portions of Tora Tora Tora. It’s a plain rip-off of Star Wars, even has a dwarf in a robot suit, bad dialog, stilted hammy acting, but still has some fun 60’s era models and special effects.
Batman and Robin, 1997. This massive studio fail should have not just killed the careers of all the major stars but killed them in such a horrific mutilating manor that the LAPD would need to brought in, unfortunately most of them went on to become bigger celebrities than ever. Warner Brothers got soaked, for the losses, The director issued an apology for his own film and George (don’t look at the plastic nipples on my batsuit) Clooney stated, “I think we may have killed the franchise” It took 10 years before anyone would attempt to resurrect the corpse of the batman franchise with Chris Nolan’s “Dark Knight”.
My top bad cinema cheddar is a tie, simply because I cannot decide which is worst:
War in Space 1988, Toho Studios. I have no reason WHY was this made, it steals ideas from just about every sci-fi movie or TV show of the last 20 years and then totally fails to provide ANYTHING of any entertainment value, dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull dull accented with a taste of boredom.
StarCrash 1979, this is also an absolutely blatant rip off of Star Wars, but where Message from Space still retained some old school charms, this Italian cinematic abomination is a FAIL across all measures, story FAIL, dialog FAIL, cinematography FAIL, acting FAIL, costumes FAIL (except for Munro’s bikini spacesuit), special effects FAIL are so bad the “star field” against which the spaceships that look like they were built out of old styrofoam packing shapes, is clearly Christmas lights strung across a black background. This had the backing of what was then a big Italian studio, who clearly got hosed by the utter incompetency of every aspect of the production. BTW included in this travesty is the acting “debut" of David Hasselhoff, and also stars recent Oscar winner Christopher Plummer, who must have been starving or drunk off his heels to sign up for this.
There are many others of course but this is my Best of Cheddar list
Yeah the big studios do put out some real stinkers and continue to provide fodder for RiffTrax, the “reincarnation” of MST3K. “Batman and Robin” probably tops 'em all. I’d add “Starship Troopers” to the list too – the only thing it had going for it was some cool special effects. The plot, the “acting” and the dialog were all pure cheese.
I actually saw “Starcrash” in the theater when it first came out, and still have the scars.
Ray I also have a vivid memory seeing that trainwreck in the theater and it being a near riot with ticked moviegoers. At the end some kid chucked a near full popcorn bucket at the screen and it exploding across the screen like a big 4thof of July firework.
On the topic of bad movies, you have to foist Unstoppable up there as well. While spawned off real events, there were just some REAL bad plot devices which wrecked the entire movie.
First time i watched it, my wife & I were sitting on the couch and I’m like “no, that can’t happen”, “nope, don’t work that way”, “ya, right that ain’t how that happens” After a a few of these my wife “Gibbs’ed” me and said one more word outta you and the movie goes back to the rentals TONIGHT!
But if you’re looking for a bad movie with humor I think it’s hard to beat “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”!
J.D. Gallaway said:
On the topic of bad movies, you have to foist Unstoppable up there as well. While spawned off real events, there were just some REAL bad plot devices which wrecked the entire movie.
First time i watched it, my wife & I were sitting on the couch and I’m like “no, that can’t happen”, “nope, don’t work that way”, “ya, right that ain’t how that happens” After a a few of these my wife “Gibbs’ed” me and said one more word outta you and the movie goes back to the rentals TONIGHT!
And here I thought that was a documentary, filmed as it actually happened.
I LIKED Unstoppable, a lot, it was a taught action adventure that was high entertainment. Yeah it’s not accurate but if I want to see a documentary I’ll pop a Pentex DVD in the player. If a movie is good entertainment I’m very forgiving on the facts aspect. Good example is one of my favorite westerns: “My Darling Clementine” great very entertaining movie that climaxes with the OK Corral shooting, of course its nowhere near what happened but its just a movie, not a documentary.
Thanks, folks, for all of the great ideas. After reading through this thread, and using Hans-Joerg Mueller’s exceptionally well-thought out self-assessment survey about what aspects of garden / outdoor railroading are important to you, personally, i have come up with a name!
The East Tennessee & West Northern California Railroad
I know, i know – not very “funny”, but —
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I can use ET&WNC lettered rolling stock with no change. I picked the ET&WNC because i wanted narrow gauge steam locomotives, and it just so happens that the ET&WNC colours (dark red, dark green, gold, and black) match my already extant home, shop, tiny church, and barn.
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No need to change the word “Tennessee” – My husband’s family is partially from Tennessee, and i am a fan of old-timey music from Tennessee. In addition, one of my favourite mentors, when i was young, was the Georgia-born SP fireman and M-O-W worker named Jesse Fuller, who was also a professional musician on the side. He wrote a great song called “Leaving Memphis, Frisco Bound,” which described his own journey from Tenneessee to the Bay Area in the 1920s.
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The word “West” (as opposed to “Western”) in the partially-changed name relates to my actual region, which is colloquially known as “West County.” (It is the “left-side” of Sonoma Couty, California, along the Russian River). West County is in Northern California – hence West Northern California.
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The change from “Western North Carolina” to “West Northern California” may help strict modellers relate to Tweetsie-type trains running amongst the redwoods.
If i find out that someone has already chosen this name, i will come up with another name, but for now, that’s it –
The East Tennessee & West Northern California Railroad
Ya can save a lot on decals, that’s for sure.
catherine yronwode said:
Thanks, folks, for all of the great ideas. After reading through this thread, and using Hans-Joerg Mueller’s exceptionally well-thought out self-assessment survey about what aspects of garden / outdoor railroading are important to you, personally, i have come up with a name!
The East Tennessee & West Northern California Railroad
…
The abbreviation situation for “smart” monikers has always favoured the Swiss expats in englishspeaking countries e.g ACT, BOB, FART, FO, SOB and SOS. All of them the initials of Swiss railways, past and present.
OTOH using the initials of the railway I model (in HOm and 2m) seems a logical choice, no muss, no fuss, no cute stuff.
PS is “your” Jesse Fuller the one man band dude? I have his “San Francisco Bay Blues” LP in my “collection”.
Hans-Jeorg,
Yes, that is “my” Jesse Fuller, the man who wrote “San Francisco Bay Blues,” and a whole lot of train songs, including “The Monkey and the Engineer.” How cool that you know him too!
My step-father had befriended Jesse through old-time jazz circles in the 1950s and i “adopted” him as my surrogate grandfather when i was a teen in the 1960s. He meant the world to me.
This is the picture of him i want to model – but although i know this was shot at a train depot, i cannot for the life of me recall which one so i can model the whole thing. It was on the SP, as he worked for the SP at that time, and it was either in Los Angeles (where the Good Time Jazz label studio was located) or in the East Bay (where he lived).
http://eil.com/images/main/Jesse+Fuller+-+The+Lone+Cat+-+LP+RECORD-527508.jpg
Points to anyone who can identify this depot and supply a complete picture!
Cat,
Back in 1966 I went bumming/busking around Northern Europe playing a twelve string, harmonica and kazoo.