How to name my RailRoad

I like to do research on railroad names. I searched up "Railroads in the East".

I'll give that a try.

mike g. posted:

I'll give that a try.

 

Alright! Good luck!

My garden railway is over twenty five years old.  For most of that time it had no name.  However, a few years ago I finally put a name on it, The Wicked Short Line.  I've always referred to SWMBO as The Witchy Woman of Pinetown Road.   So was the Wicked Short Line's inspiration for a name.  

Or try to come up with a dual purpose name that has good initials....

My railroad is the Union Eastern Thomaston & Williamstown Raiload (UET&W RR).  Although fictional, it is Eastern (in CT) and runs between the real towns of Thomaston, CT and Williamstown, VT.  I have a map on the wall to prove it!

Insiders know it's really the Uncle Ed, Thomas & William Railroad (UET&W RR)... me and my two grandnephews!

Think outside the layout box!

Ed

We wanted something that represented and reflected upon our family roots and traditions with trains over the years. From Post War conventional to modern day command control, from East coast railroads to the west. It only took us 4 years to come up with the name for our railroad. There was no rush to find the "right" name.

Hi Doug, I am. Just wanted to hear how others came up with there names. I have a few but nothing in stone as of yet.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

I used my wife's first and middle initial an and my first initial hence the TJ&R was born!

Considering that I live in north Florida, and I wanted to model during late steam, first generation diesel; I began searching southern railroads that had a reasonable selection of steam and diesel to choose from. Another constraint was I wanted only Lionel Command Control locomotives. The worst constraint was small space with which to work. 

I was going to be limited to a loop of track and not much more. As I searched I finally found an L&N USRA 0-8-0 Yard Goat, and later GP7, and then the "prize", an L&N Heavy Mikado.

It dawned on me the perfect name for my small layout: Loop & Nowhere. (L&N)

Hi Mike,

Greatly idea and question. I named my two rail German themed layout after my Dad. (Georgenstadt, George City) He started me in this hobby and for that I am forever grateful.

Miketg

Gee. ..l am cringing...l was gonna say...puh-leeze, nothin' cutesie-poo... but l am already run over with those. Every train show has books on vanished roads from all over the country. One used to run behind my old house, and an interurban line in front. And some changed theirs several times or were results of multiple mergers. There is no shortage of once existing names that could be chosen.  (unfortunately, one of the most famous model railroads, the Gorre and Defetid, had one of THOSE names)

Mine was simple, the Nebraska, Dakota, and Western RR. Born in North Platte, 

like western South Dakota.

Dick

Thanks everyone for there stories! I am thinking RM&T RR. My wifes first initial, then mine, then our Bulldog! LOL

Sounds like the Richland, Morton & Tacoma Railroad to me!

Some of the real railroads had names of cities or states they ran between or operated in. When naming your railroad go for a name you like.

I have named my O gauge model railroad "Fritztown" because of living near Reading PA and having traveled to the small town of Fritztown just outside of Reading. Think I will use "Lee Sport" for my H.O. layout.

Lee Fritz

I named mine based on planned/current railroad maps of the region I wanted it to be based in( Oregon/Washington)  found a area of southern pacific trackage  that was spin off to the Portland & western railroad. and took their history and rewrote it to fit my freelanced railroad. then used connecting cities to name it accordingly. simple right? 

Hi TJ, that is a simple way to do it. I could use Tacoma as one of my names.

Exactly. good luck and have fun with it. it's fun just to look at maps and learn new things about towns and such along the way. 

Mike, consider memorable acronyms and stretch it out... have some fun.

I live in the boondocks near a small town (miniscule?) with a post office- Free union- I always loved the FUBAR term from WWII- so I had to stretch the FU.... with Blacksburg, home of Virginia tech, and albemarle county where Free Union is located.   Hence FUBAR, blanked up beyond all recognition, or free union, blacksbug, and albemarle railroad

Every area of my layout is in honor of someone. My Dad worked on the N&W 2300 from 1954-57; hence the overall layout name is "Turbine Town". I also have Trogdon Yard, Charlotte Station (oldest granddaughter), Etc...

As for the railway, N&W and its associated Fallen Flags.

I also name after the grandchildren. We have a small switcher named the Alyssa Shortline. A repainted nascar to the Conor & Jackson R.R. Also almost all the buildings have been named after all 12 kids 

I thought up my name up years ago and I do mean YEARS ago when I was young, around 10 or 11 years old. I would read MR because there really were no other magazines that dealt with O scale that I knew of at the time and all the model railroads in those magazines had names. I thought long and hard, I wanted something to do with New York, but what? After discarding a bunch of names I finally settled on New York Northern. It had the New York that I wanted and we are East but North also. It had a nice ring and I liked the initials, NYN. Although I don't have a working layout as of yet, I've always remembered that name. When I do get a layout, I'll have to move into a type of font's, logo and colors. But that will be a long way off. For now it's just NYN.

My RR name just came to mind in a quick flash.  I spent virtually no time thinking about it.  It's a combination of my name and a pun on an actual geographic location that was somewhat near where I grew up.  So, it combines family, rough modeling geography, and a bit of humor.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

(Modeling Pittsburgh and Trafford, PA to 1964 and present day Ayer Junction, MA.)

I do like the term railway that the older small lines used. I couldn't figure out why there was an RY. on the end of initials on a lantern. So, I suppose that depends on how the name flows better, railway or railroad.

Your layout is based on the mostly on the Great Northern from St. Paul to Seattle. Just write 'em down and one will sound good to you.

I went with boring - Polar Express fantasy train - rr in snow land - Alaska RR - close to Arctic Circle - imaginary island of Sodor to the west - So, the Arctic RR it is.

I have freight and passenger service (ARR) with a Christmas eve special (PE) and an island with Thomas and Friends, that recently purchased an NYC RS-3 for lumber service.

I have two of my own fictional companies. Combining three of my favorite RR's, (PRR, RDG, CNJ) to form the Pennsylvania, Reading & New Jersey. Or there's the combination of Raritan River and Rahway Valley but a club in Union NJ already thought of Rahway River. So I also use Raritan Valley.

I like the Santa Fe.  ATSF.  I have two locomotives.  Santa Fe SW9 switcher and a Santa Fe GP9.  Both in the 50s-early 60s black with white "Zebra" stripes.  That fixes my layout to "pre 1964 as the first GP blue and yellow were delivered in 1964.

Name the layout?  Easy, the current layout is the Oklahoma City Stockyards District of the Santa Fe.  I am toying with a revision so the layout would be remodeled to become two small rural Oklahoma town.  (Could be small Kansas towns, but my layout, my rules.) 

If I decide to make the change to a "branchline" rather than a switching district in Oklahoma City, I have considered "Osage County and Santa Fe" as we moved to Osage County in 1960.  (I was 10 yrs old.)  160 Acres.  Appaloosa horses and polled Hereford cattle.  While it was about 20 miles east of us, there was a Santa Fe branch line that ran parallel to the main Gulf coast line (KCMO to Galveston).

As for family and friends' names...I use those for industries and towns on the Osage County and Santa Fe...and I blend prototype and family names on the OKC Stockyards District.

Nothing "wrong" with any approach (reality, blended reality, freelanced to suit your own version of reality).

By the way..."IF" I make the change to the "rural" Osage County and Santa Fe, I will pick up at least two more Santa Fe locomotives:  Another GP9 and an RS-1, both in zebra.

My wife had an Uncle that had HO running through the upstairs of his house. It was Uncle Rocky, so my layout will someday be named Rocky Junction.

Ruff -Shine

Forks- Bacon

Mold- Battleground

Winchester- Hunts Point

Mossy Rock & Concrete

Park & Snoqualmie

Kings- Unionville

Sultan, & the Union Gap

Touchet Utsalady

Diamond Discovery

Okanogan -Tiger

Birdseye View -Beaver

Puyallup, & Pysht

Steptoe & 9 mile falls

Rainier -Sunnyside

Soap Lake-Silver's Creek

Queets (dirt) -Clearwater

Chumstick -Grays Harbor

Vantage, Outlook, Opportunity,

Possession- Ione

Start up & Yakima (runaway)

(or all & "voopisy" for short, lol)

Plymouth- Start Up- Wala Wala- Le Push

Whites, Rice &White's Salmon West Fork

Porter-Pullman Shortline

Black Diamond - Starbuck & Krupp

Gold Bar & Nooksack

Renton Redmond Shortline (Short R&R RR)

Auburn, Raymond, Rockford, Gig Harbor (ARRGH)

I never even left the state and I'll leave Tillicum for others to play with, and just point out you could have fun with the odd names in Washington for a long time.

Sunshine, Heartline & Ruff sort of describes you folks.

LOL thanks for the list! Makes you think!