Fascinated with a short line?

Nice to have your own shortline railroad and some RMT hoppers.

I bought some RMT hoppers for one of my favorite railroads too.

Lee Fritz

Always enjoyed the North Stratford RR (ex Maine Central) in northern VT and NH.

That RS3 looks really sweet...

I have a Williams GP9 painted up like my favorite short line

The Allegheny Valley Railroad.

Sometimes I find some Conrail engines or cabooses at a great price at a train show and repaint them a little for another railroad, like FEC, the colors are very close.

I wish that Williams would make some stuff for some of the larger railroads that used to be, instead of only the big three or four RR's. Example would be Reading Lines and Reading Company. Very few items are being made for Reading Lines or the passenger side Reading Company. Williams by Bachmann quit totally for right now with the Reading name.

Or what about newer railroads that have made a huge success of it, like the Reading & Northern RR, a regional railroad in the eastern part of PA. So far I would have to paint an engine myself for that RR.

Lee Fritz

Thanks Bob.

Just dig that color red on it.  Very rich looking....

I agree with Bob, the RS3 really is sharp.

Isn't that the road name in Unstoppable the movie?  I seem to remember AVR.

Building a electric short line to service a couple of mines. It's called the V&M. Don

Not with current shortlines, but every bookdealer in a train show has a myriad of

volumes on fantastic historical short lines in every part of the country, any one of which will come a whole lot closer to fitting intp my available space than the BNSF. 

As big time Milwaukee Road fan,living in the Cleveland, OH area, all my buddies give me static about the "Road" calling it a "short line".  To which I generally reply: "Yeah, it's a short line, alright; an 11,000 mile short line!"

Paul Fischer

Interesting little boxcab, what did you use to make it?

I'm another big fan of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming.  So far I have a number of ore cars and a couple of their boxcars.  An Alco will be next!
Several LS&I engines are available in HO, along with pretty much everything else they had.  In O the only items made commercially have been the RMT ore cars and a All-Nation boxcar kit (about 50 years ago).  Custom paint jobs are pretty much the only way to go for most of these short lines.  My club (NMRRC) has done small runs of a few of the Michigan short lines: Detroit & Mackinac reefers are currently available and we have done boxcars for Copper Range, Manistee & Northeastern, Escanaba & Lake Superior, and a few others.

Your LS&I customs are great.

No short line customs yet, but I am planning on painting a set of RailKing F3s in the scheme of these PRR inspired Ohio Central FP9s...

Fortunately for me, MTH has made several diesels in Ohio Central livery.  I own one SD40-2, one GP38, one GP35, and two RS3s all in OC paint.

I like to model two short line coal hauling RR's that existed in Western PA.  My father worked for the Pittsburg and Shawmut RR.  The other RR is where I ride bike often,  the Montour RR.(bike trail)
Custom paint SW9's.

The second set of custom Shawmut SW9's  Model SW9's are Atlas.
John Browning and Oliver Winchester.  Note the reference to guns.

There was also a GP7 that was custom painted in Bi-centennial colors. An Atlas undecorated model.  The GP7 came from the Pennsylvania RR very used and was painted bicentennial also.  The name was Dan Wesson.  Unfortunately I don't have those decals.

Montour RR custom paints.

Thanks John. It started life as a two rail brass electric made I think sometime in the 60s. It has K-line S-2 switcher running gear, lots of extra detail and a Lionel scale pantograph. This is a shot of it before the wire was put up.  Don

Don, That looks great !

In my neck of the woods.We have the AC&W thats has been very good.They used to have gp9 and gp40 locomotiveS.Now they have gotten some rebuilt sd40-2s.Now called sd40-3 and they have real nice paint sceame.I not sure how many locomotives they have.I think they have about 30 locomotives.Then there is the WSS the winstion salem southbound.Which is owned by ns ans csx.I hope the ac&w will up grade their tracks.That way the will be able to operate faster trains.I would like to have a covered hopper with their paintsceame.

For me, it's all about a really obscure line, the 3-foot East Tennessee and Western North Carolina (and a subsidiary, the Linville River RR). You probably know it as the RR that ran the ten-wheelers Bachmann used as prototypes for their ten-wheeler in G and On30...

Some of my many ET-marked freight cars:

One local shoreline in my area is the Florida Central and Florida Northern

They are both owned by Pinsly. They have mostly old EMD power that you really do not see anymore on class 1 railroads.  The Florida Northern also has street running through Ocala.  I also like the Florida East Coast Railway a lot too and own a MTH Railking F3 and matching passenger cars.

The AVR reminds me of the Buffalo and Pittsburgh that runs about a mile from my home.  That is my favorite modern day short line.  Being a steam fan, I will always have the East Broad Top as a favorite.  That said, the RS3 is my favorite diesel.

Nothing custom done --- yet.  But I like the Minnesota Southern  RR  -- a 2 locomotive short line in southern Minnesota not far west of my hometown of Fairmont, MN. 

One short line I have a passing interest in is the Sacramento Northern, which was a subsidiary of Western Pacific.

Apart from that, not really, but then I model the Southern Pacific, and that road makes roads like the Pennsy & NYC short lines by comparison. 

  I have MTH models of Canton and Maryland & Pennsylvania engines and cars.  Other shortlines I have an interest in are Patapsco & Back River, Baltimore & Annapolis, Stewartstown, Monongahela, and the Washington & Old Dominion.  I have books on all but the Canton.

I have the decals custom made for the Great Western (NE Colorado sugar beet road),

and have caboose kits for two styles they used, second hand from the CB&Q, with

plans to build or get built former FEC sidedoor cabooses they also ran.  I also have

a loco I can kitbash into one of their 2-8-0's.  Sugar beet gons will be lettered, too,

but none of that is yet done.  Another road I followed the roadbed of, was the Frankfort and Cincinnati, that ran gas electrics fairly late in Kentucky, from Frankfort,

the state capital, to Paris, Kentucky.  It was known for the bourbon distilleries it

served, and one stone castle like abandoned distillery was still standing along the right of way when I made my trips.  Much evidence of the road existed the first time, but just a few years later, a lot had changed.  It is one of a number of short lines

in Beebe and Clegg;s "Mixed Train Daily".

The other Colorado shortline I follow with interest is the Colorado Midland, and I

do have some cars for it and will get its distinctive sidedoor cabooses built, too.

I like the Ottawa Central Railway. A bit of info on it "The Ottawa Central Railway (reporting mark OCRR) was a Canadian short-line railroad subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. The headquarters was at the Walkley Yard, 3141 Albion Road South, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada./ 45.36611; -75.64917

The OCRR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Quebec Railway Corporation (QCR). It consisted of former CN subdivisions, and operated between Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, at an interchange with the CN Montreal-Toronto main line, to Ottawa and Pembroke, Ontario.

The OCRR started operations on December 13, 1998, and two years later, QRC acquired the assets of Ontario L'Orignal Railway from Rail America.^[1]

The OCRR consisted of 198 km (123 mi) of track and spurs: 156 km (97 mi) of main line between Ottawa and Pembroke, and 42 km (26 mi) of the former Ontario L’Orignal Railway (OLO) between Glen Robertson and Hawkesbury. It also had 138 km (86 mi) of running rights between Ottawa and Coteau on track owned by Via Rail.^[2]

Major commodities carried by the OCRR included newsprint, salt, medium-density fibreboard, linerboard, forest products, pulp, gasoline, lumber and board, wire rod, billets and scrap.^[2] 

The OCRR is now defunct as CN purchased it in 2008. Much of the former track has been removed on the route to Pembroke.

I converted a Lionel C420 from D&H to Ottawa Central. It was my first attempt at a repaint. I was fortunate to be able to have the decals produced by Highball graphics as he rescaled them from HO. I highly recommend them for decals!

The real Ottawa Central did not have any C420s but has mostly RS18u and C424s purchased from CP. I took some toy train licence as the C420s were quite similar to the OCRR's other Alco hood units.

Jay in Ottawa

Originally posted by Jay in Ottawa

The real Ottawa Central did not have any C420s but has mostly RS18u and C424s purchased from CP. I took some toy train licence as the C420s were quite similar to the OCRR's other Alco hood units.

Jay in Ottawa

Modelers license is quite acceptable.  It looks like you did a first rate job!!