We took our initials and modestly named the RR after ourselves (subtlely, of couse) Denver and Pacific Falls Railway (The D&PF) is named for myself and my wife.
My railroad is a protolanced version of a local, but rather obscure line that ran between Chipley, Florida and Southport, Florida. Rather than get writer’s cramp re-writing it all here is a link to my historical research http://www.gscalejunkie.com/cws/bcstabrr.html and my fictional Chipley, Wausau & Southport http://www.gscalejunkie.com/cws/cwsrr.html
As for mine…not too original…the ballast I used was obtained from a nearby nursery and it was called ‘blue stone’. So, you guessed it, I’ve called my railroad the Blue Stone Railroad (BSRR). It only has locos that have been painted Erie or Erie Lakawanna. The only cars that I’ve re-painted in the BSRR logo are the passenger cars. The railroad is based off of just being able to fit in the space that I had (and over the years has expanded a little or been rebuilt due to mother nature).
My husband and I were living at the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp in a neighborhood called Deep Creek when we first met (and I started playing with trains with him) so our railroad became the Dismal Creek Railroad. We started modeling the logging operations that took place in the swamp, but after we moved to NC that sort of fizzled out. Now we have the remains of an abandoned lumber works as an area of our layout 
Sophie B
Some great stories here.
My RR’s name came from 3 things that were in abundance when I was building it, The Rock Root and Pup Poop Rail Road or the RRPPRR.
Over the years industries sprang up such as the Cape Cod Souvenir Sand Supply and Coal Company or the CCSSSCC for short. Business was good so diesels were leased from the local prototype Cape Cod Central and the steamers were left to run tourist specials and occasional freight.
Today the RR has adopted the heritage of the Cape Cod Central and we have painted many pieces of equipment to pay homage to their history so more or less we are a division of the Cape Cod Central.
Oldest son graduated high school, scholarship to Arizona State Univ; younger son graduated HS went to Shippensburg Univ southern PA. After graduation went out to Arizona to live the good life! 1990 on… Saw a cactus in the sun–hello to the Pennsylvania Arizona (PAZ)!
Local running with NEPA fallen flags, Delaware Hudson (DH), Delaware Lackawanna & Western (DL&W), Lehigh Valley (LV) and support for an unknown United States Air Force site with a pair of USAF 44TONNERS and a SW1500.
Simple for me, a guy in the UK modelling, sort of, Colorado/Lumber NG - The West Well Rail Road (or Lumber Co, see what I did there ?). Named after the country lane next to my house in the Buckinghamshire village of Tingewick - West Well Lane. Sounded a bit “Wild Western” to my ears so it stuck. And there is a well to the west of the village and this is the road that goes there !
For those who might be interested in quaint English village names here are a few that surround my village. Barton Hartshorn, Preston Bissett, Newton Purcell (& Morrell !), Botolph Claydon and my personal favorite - Marsh Gibbon. If you don’t believe me look em’ up on Google Earth. You might wish to adopt/adapt one of them for your own use - but it must be a railway not rail road. It would not be cricket if it wasn’t.
My railroad is the St. Francis Consolidated Railroad of the Colorado Rockies. My middle name and patron saint is Saint Francis, the Italian saint form Assisi, I would never live anywhere except in my Rocky Mountains here in Denver (!), and I LOVE my Colorado Rockies baseball team. So there you go!
The subsidiaries are:
The Zebra-Deer Passenger Railway Company because I once saw a mounted deer painted to look like a zebra! (I’ve got a mounted deer head I want to paint the same way some day.)
The Cabin Creek Road Mining Company, named for the road in the national forest where I owned a cabin, for which you can buy capital stock in if you email me privately, any amount accepted, paypal, check, or credit card (!):
DNM Freight, the dedicated freight arm of the railroad, named after the first name initials of my three children:
And last but not least the Omaha Denver & Chasm Lake Deluxe Passenger Service, so named because I was born in Omaha, lived almost my whole life in Denver, and my final resting place (in about 40 years) will be Chasm Lake at the foot of Longs Peak.
Max, of course its “Railway”, what else could it be?
John, your middle name is Saint Francis? Gee, that’s unique. I thought my corporations were numerous and extensive, but you have me beat!
David Maynard said:
…John, your middle name is Saint Francis? …
I haven’t been canonized yet, but I am expecting to get the call from the Vatican any day now, especially with another Francis reigning as the Bishop of Rome.
Gum Ball & Dollar Weed Central. The sweet gum tree next door keeps dropping gum balls and other crap on one half of the layout and I have about given up on the dollar weeds on the over half.
Borracho Springs came out of wanting a name Appropriate for a dry dusty desert setting, There is a city in the lower Mojave desert called Borrego Springs I liked the ring of that but I didn’t want to name it after a factual place. Then when I was watching the movie “The Great Race” there’s a scene in a wild west town where the mayor is yelling “Citizens of Borracho!” …and the light went on
Vic Smith said:
Borracho Springs came out of wanting a name Appropriate for a dry dusty desert setting, There is a city in the lower Mojave desert called Borrego Springs I liked the ring of that but I didn’t want to name it after a factual place. Then when I was watching the movie “The Great Race” there’s a scene in a wild west town where the mayor is yelling “Citizens of Borracho!” …and the light went on
Your signature picture is still my favorite! (And I’m still working on that mining/logging loco you sold me on ebay…I swear to God I’ll finish it some day!)
Our outdoor railroad is called “Colorado Consolidated Railways”, a name generated from a merger of all narrow-gauge lines in the Colorado Rockies in the early 1930’s. This merger allows D & RGW, C & S, RGS, F & CC and any of the other lines that have not been repainted and re-lettered to “CCR” to be seen.
Great story line Dave, keeps things flexible and believable.
Well, I am happy to report the South Tiburon and Raccoon Strait Railway. It’s loosely based on the Northwest Pacific and the Mount Tamalpias railroad lines, one being freight and the other being tourist. The layout is located at the south tip of the town of Tiburon, with a view of Raccoon Strait and Angel Island. To satisfy my sense of whimsy, much of the scenery will be drawn from Angel Island, where the rails never ran.
Michael Moradzadeh said:
Well, I am happy to report the South Tiburon and Raccoon Strait Railway. It’s loosely based on the Northwest Pacific and the Mount Tamalpias railroad lines, one being freight and the other being tourist. The layout is located at the south tip of the town of Tiburon, with a view of Raccoon Strait and Angel Island. To satisfy my sense of whimsy, much of the scenery will be drawn from Angel Island, where the rails never ran.
That’s cool, I taught our friends here a little about Mt Tam …
I can’t wait to see your Empire!
BTW, “borracho” is Spanish for “drunk”.