Are you loyal and dedicated to just one railroad?

No, thats' the problem.

Trains every day any way................... 

Illinois Central, for multiple reasons, will always be my #1, but the New York Central (orig. Big Four) also ran through my hometown.  The Nickel Plate, Pennsylvania, Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Wabash & B&O were all close to home as well.  I have an affection for all of them and have locomotives and/or rolling stock for all. And since I worked for Burlington Northern for awhile, they are part of the family too .

I only have Southern locomotives.  It helps me control my spending.

Yes Chessie System my number one railroad but i do mix WM,C&O and B&O engines and cars in.     

While the PRR is and always has been my "favorite" railroad; I'd quickly lose interest in the hobby if that was the only carrier represented on my layout.  

I've got engines representative of at least 15 or 16 railroads available to operate on my layout and rolling stock for probably 25 to 30 railroads.  

Variety is, after all, the "spice of life".

Curt

No.

I have all PRR engine.   

No. 

Which is not the same thing as having favorite(s), so there tend to be an emphasis on this/these roads. As said above - "No - that's the problem". 

#1 - NYC and GM&O (quite a bit of GM&O out there - and I have decals...); I have trouble staying away from nice NYC steam. And electrics. Less fond of the diesels (any diesels) - but they do show up...

Second string (no particular order): L&N; SP; ATSF; Southern...to name a few

Everything else: I like them too...

Oddball stuff - CNJ 2-face Baldwins; PRR experimental steam...

Least Favorite "railroad": Amtrak. (Someone should start a "Least Favorite Railroad" thread; one for locomotives, too; Least Favorite Diesel Paint Schemes....yeah - I'll have to put up the ACL Purples for that one...) 

With a few exceptions I have mostly BNSF, which I try hard to stick with. However, I do have a few others mixed in like UP, Interstate, GE Evo demonstrator, and MTH DCS ES44AC, etc. Sticking with one road name does help the budget quite a bit, that is if you can resist everything else.

I'm partial to the Wabash, but I'll run anything.

No. I have mutt trains. I run whatever is handy and looks good. I know you're not asking about manufacturers, but all my locos work for the fictitious  Lionel Lines. So I guess whatever they pull really doesn't matter.

My main focus is on Rock Island. However, I have expanded a little bit to Nickel Plate, N&W, C&NW, Milwaukee Road. My secondary Roads would be Southern Pacific and Union Pacific as they were main connections to the Rock and C&NW. Likewise, I would not be averse to New York Central since they also ran into LaSalle Street Station as did the NKP.

Mostly into Diesels with one exception of a Lima Demonstrator Berkshire. (Gotta have a Steam engine for Fan Trips on my Railroad.)

Milwaukee Road is number one in my layout. I dabble a bit with Green Bay & Western and Wisconsin Central.

My focus is Pennsy. I model it as it was in 1952. That includes staying faithful to what PRR would have been operating then. It makes model railroading more enjoyable for me frankly. I find prototype modeling to be an effective way to keep my hobby dollars under control. I think this preference is more often found with the 2 Rail scale group...and perhaps some 3RS as well.

Bob

Nope, 

I model the N&W, NKP, CB&Q and the UP. 

Boston & Albany(NYC) mostly but now I'm getting into northern New England RR, B&M, Rutland, Maine Central, Bangor & Aroostook 

Mostly N&W and its fallen flags. My scale steamers are all N&W. I do have a wide assortment of rolling stock. That is what you'd see on the N&W anyway. 

Nope. NYC is my favorite but I'm not loyal to it. I like it, I buy it.

When I first started buying toy trains all that was available was prewar, postwar, and Fundimensions.  So there wasn't a lot of choice. MPC was postwar with a different paint job. I am on the west coast and don't really care for eastern railroads but bought what ever appealed to me or was a good deal.

It would certainly be less expensive!! But I try to stay with, UP, BNSF, SANTE FE, NYC, B&O, CSX, WM, C&NW, CLINCHFIELD, L&N, N&W, C&EI, C&O, PA, and of course Southern and CHESSIE.  Diesel, Steam, Electrics.... It's simply a hugh Addiction.....Happy New Year to Everyone...

No,I model Western Railroads,UP,SP,WP,ATSF & GN.

Mikey

NYC my primary - Have a Canadian Pacific Pass set with custom painted Lionel Alco PA's (both powered) and a Pere Marquette 1225 as the only other roads.

Primarily, Boston & Maine locomotives, passenger cars, cabin and MOW cars. But also try to stay with New England freight cars so that I am not too overloaded with equipment.

I like too many to even really pick a favorite although the Santa Fe probably edges the others out by a bit.

D&H, Bangor & Aroostook, GM&O, L&N, Southern, UP are right up there too. I'll run them all...

I was strictly SAL, then came some N&W, NPBL, and ACL, all of which rode the rails in southeastern VA.  There's more RRs that came into this area, but I choose not to represent them all.

The ICG, KCS and SP on motive power...........fright cars anything goes!!!!!

I tried that and it did not last long.

So far yes--modeling Alaska so all engines and rolling stock are AK--and as others have mentioned, it really does help control spending.

I wanted to only model New York roads.  But when we then designed our first permanent layout, we not only wanted to model New York, with a cityscape and El, but also the west coast, with its mountains, giant sequoias and redwoods, and we also wanted a Starucca-type viaduct.  We didn't want two unconnected loops to model each coast independently, as the layout is only 33' wide.  And it wouldn't make sense to have Big Boys running under the New York El.  So sticking with New York only wasn't going to work.  

Plus, the Vision products kind of forced the issue. I like the VL NYC Hudson. But I also was drawn to the VL UP Challenger, VLBB and other UP stuff. Plus the VL NS and UP Genset switchers. 

Peter

I wish that was the case. I have my favorites, but collect way too many different road names. I'm glad the for sale forum is there to unload when my hoarding gets out of control

I am trying to collect and run railroads mainly around Reading PA. There is Reading & Northern, Blue Mountain & Reading, Reading Lines, Reading Company, Philadelphia & Reading Railways. Have a few other items from railroads around the Pennsylvania area.

I have a nice set of Santa Fe "El Capitan" passenger cars by Williams.

I refuse to run Conrail. Will run Norfolk Southern or CSX.

Lee Fritz

2356 posted:

I only have Southern locomotives.  It helps me control my spending.

That was my thought too and initially limited my engines to PRR in the late 40's.  I was not committed to the PRR, but my father-in-law was and I inherited a lot of PRR items from him that started my collection.  The problem with the PRR in the late 40s was they had a lot of different types of engines, and I needed them all plus multiples of some for double-heading.  It nearly broke the bank getting them all.

Since then I've added a couple of SR consists (1 pax, 1 freight) and a RI pax set to simulate interchange service.

Good evening and Happy New Year, I am a PRR person myself trying to model from the end of WW II to the early 1950's.

Growing up here in PA and not far from Altoona PA I have a soft spot for anything local and the Pennsy fits the bill when it comes to railroading.

Rolling stock mostly Pennsy with a few freight cars from other railroads because I liked them and they fit the period I am modeling.

Pennsy signal lights on the my layout indicate the track ahead and in one spot 4 track main simulating some of the great items of a bygone era.

I am dedicated to trains I like, regardless of of the railroad. Growing up in Brooklyn (NY), I favor NYC & PRR, but having lived in NE Pennsylvania for the last 21 years, I have expanded to include lines that ran through the area such as the Erie and Lackawanna. Of course, I always loved the Santa Fe war bonnet (got a 1960's version ABA Madison Hardware back when I got my first full time job a few blocks away) so I kinda like Santa Fe - and they had some GREAT steamers... and it's successor BNSF... and there is the UP Big Boy over in Steamtown, so had to get one of those - and they also had some GREAT steamers ... And then there were those vacations north of the boarder, staying at CP hotels - and they had some nice trains... 

They say the first step to fixing a problem is to admit you have one. I absolutely DO NOT have a problem.

I tried with Great Northern, but was so envious of all the cool stuff being made that it didn't last long. 

Ben 

Not to just one road, but I do limit myself to transition era (1930s-1950s) roads, engines, & rolling stock that ran in eastern or southern Ohio.  Pennsy is replaced by Polar Railroad/Express. 

I'd have to say I'm sorta one railroad modeler. I model 1954 L&N with the slight exception of including a subsidiary that was finally purchased in 1957: NC&StL. I can't say that I purchase only L&N, but have had a Southern S-2 painted L&N colors and an Erie GP7 painted NC&StL colors and had a grey and yellow L&N GP9 painted appropriately for the year 1954. 

So my rule is: purchase only L&N or NC&StL locos or locos that I can transfer into L&N or NC&STL roster locos.

Trying to stick with NYC, PRR, Lehigh Valley, CNJ & Reading.

My favorite roads are PRR and NYC.  To date, all my engines are from one of those two roads.  I also run all steam and keep everything within the 1940s timeframe.  I do think the focus helps control spending urges.