Rail Runner for sure.

 

 

I must admit that I never considered the Pennsylvania Railroad  as "surprising".

N&W. 

 

When I was a kid I hated N&W because it absorbed the Wabash, and then later I hated the railroad because it was SO boring, with the dip black NW paint scheme.

 

I also hated N&W steamers (and to be truthful, I still struggle trying to gin up any affection for 611).

 

But I started to thaw a bit when I saw 1218 run, and now it's kinda fun to mix Wabash and N&W units in a train, and I've grown fond of the N&W blue diesel scheme.

 

Jeff C

I get that, but as a Southern boy, I never thought I would grow to appreciate the handsome proportions of the Pennsy. 

Akron Canton Youngstown and also Wheeling and Lake Erie

Iola & Northern, I'm waiting for Lionel to build a steam loco, not holding my breath.

I started collecting MEC HO items 15 years ago and have everything ever made!

 

 

I grew up in the Central Valley of California and really loved the colors and equipment of the Southern Pacific.  I thought if I ever got into model railroading like my brother I would model the SP.  SP had great engines and really nice passenger trains.

 

My father-in-law was into the PRR because, being from Michigan, he traveled on that road a lot during WWII and for work.  His layout had Pennsy equipment and I thought it was kind of a boring road.  Well, the more I learned about the Pennsy from him and his books, the more I was drawn to it.  Now my layout is Pennsy based, something I never would have imagined several years ago.

 

Ron

My "own" road...

 

bahahahahahaha...my wife hates it.

Western Pacific. Like what they did and the color schemes.

For me it would be the LIRR.  I ride it almost everyday.  With all its flaws and how they are a monopoly on Long Island I am still in awe of them.  I personally try to collect as many LIRR themed cars as I can afford.

The Great Western...an obscure little sugar beet road that has vanished...along with

the once successful company that owned it.  I have been a fan of Colorado narrow gauge since I was a kid and flipped through my grandfather's photo book, and I

liked their standard gauge, with lots of large articulateds...but neither of these are

"surprising"...I just like all those little engines running that ran around on the Colorado

prairie.

Tough to choose.  I'll go with Southern Pacific even though I reserve the right to change my mind!  Really like the look of the Southern daylight color scheme and now I like the Black Widows too. 

 

 

Chessie System and C&O... my gf's parents had cats named Chessie and Peake. It's honestly a railroad I didn't look into much being from NY (O&W won out, but NYC, Pennsy, and New Haven were always high on the list). But, I did some looking into them, and found them to be a good excuse to get into some more modern equipment. I now have a GP-38-2, a couple boxcars, and 3 SD50's on preorder.

C&O and Union Pacific.When I was younger we didn't have  access to all these huge articulated steam engines.Not sure if Lionel even made them in the mid 70's.My Grandpa and Uncles were  engineers  on the NYC and the Penn Central.All we knew were Hudson's,Mohawks,and small diesels.

Atlantic coastline

In my early youth my dad got me an O gauge Santa Fe Warbonnet A-B-A. Beautiful diesels.

 

In my teen years I wanted a little more realism and went HO, where my favorite road was no road. I built a Mantua Mikado. I loved that steamer.

 

I ventured into N gauge where I don't recall the road name of the SD road diesel I ran (in my 30's)

 

Then I returned to my roots with O-gauge, where I was modeling UP in a garage layout. But my favorite loco was a N&W Class A.

 

When I was pushed out of the garage, I claimed a room that could barely accommodate a 76"x 48" layout. I most wanted to model ACL, but there was so little steam loco selection that I gave that thought up. I still wanted to stay with a southern road name.

 

With so little space, I was relegated to a "loop" to "nowhere". Recently Lionel released a Legacy L&N Yard Goat (0-8-0) and two road numbers of L&N GP9's. Now there's a start. I got Malcolm to paint my Southern ALCO S-2 to L&N colors (not to mention the L&N Big Woody caboose I purchased from him). Now I model L&N, because it appropriately runs on my Loop & Nowhere layout.

Union Pacific. I hated them at first when they absorbed the C&NW, and was not happy with their copyright nonsense about 10 years ago. Since then, I've come to accept, and maybe even like them. They are even a part of my railroad.

When I first got started in the Hobby when I was young after watching I Love Toy Trains I really wanted locomotives that were similar to the ones in the video.  They ended up showing alot of Postwar Lionel in the videos. At the time MTH was making alot of nice Railking items like NYC Hudson, Pennsylvania GG1, New Haven EP5 that were almost like modern versions of what Lionel maws making back in the 50's.  When I got older I started getting interested into South East Railroads especially the FEC.  The Book Speedway To Sunshine made me obsessed with learning more about the FEC.   I remember being super excited when MTH came out with a Railking FEC F3 with Protosound 2.0 and matching passenger cars.  Someday I might need to model the FEC even though I know there is not alot of O-gauge equipment.  

Most surprising road name you have grown to love

Great Lakes Central Railroad

They have plans for future Passenger Trains in Michigan

First line will be Ann Arbor to Traverse City & computer lines, Howell to Ann Arbor

http://www.glcrailroad.com/about.php

Iowa Interstate... Don't own any, just like the colors.  Plus they run on the old R.I. Trackage about 1/2 mile south of my house, so I see them pretty often.

 

SP is my railroad of choice followed by the UP.

Mikey

Kansas City and Southern. Never gave it a thought until I stumbled upon Lionel's es44ac. Love the paint scheme. I have since acquired bunches of KCS rolling stock.

 

Chicago & North Western, especially since I grew up in Los Angeles and haven't set foot in CNW territory.

LIONEL LINES!!!!

EJ&E as it was the closest RR to our home when we lived in Naperville, IL.  And the M&STL as my grandfather worked for them.

 

Art

For me growing up as a kid in Louisville, Ky. It was the B&O, C&O, Illinois Central, L&N, Monon, Pennsylvania, NYC (Big Four), and Southern, also there were 2 Terminal railroads in that area as well. The K&I Terminal RR, and L&J Terminal RR. My step father was a Southern Engineer. Pennsy roundhouse was across the street from my house on Portland Ave. Never saw any Articulated locomotives until I saw the 1218, after moving to the Ashland, Ky area in the early 80's, and that was after NS restored it and the J611 for excursion service.

I guess the biggest steam I ever saw in the day was, the Pennsy J1's, and the C&O Mountains, and 2700's, that would pull the west end of the George Washington into Lou. Probably too much info, sorry for rambling, but I bet a dollar or 2, that the new breed, wished they had the experience of being near steam locomotives during their hey day's, like some of us old guys............................Brandy

 

 

I moved to NW Arkansas a decade ago, and, of course, the local religion is the UA Razorbacks football team.  Naturally, all manner of Razorbacks merchandise can be found in local stores, up to and including Razorbacks lingerie (which gave me severe pause when I stumbled across same)... 

 

Now, while I enjoy watching an occasional football game, I'm not a huge fan.  But ya gotta admit:  The Razorbacks logo DOES look right smart on red-painted locomotives and rolling stock! 

 

So, long live the Razorback Traction Company! 

 

Mitch

In retrospect, given my early interests in model railroading some 50 years ago (I modeled what I saw back then, i.e. "modern" for the day), I'm surprised that I have a profound interest in Colorado narrow gauge (The Denver South Park & Pacific in particular) along with link n' pin railroading (standard gauge included, funnel and diamond stacks preferred) that has developed over the past couple decades.

 

 

I have lived near philly my entire life but it is the UP I like the best. Never been out west to see the UP in action. See the occasional UP locomolive in the area every now and then but that is it. 

 

I also like the NS mainly because of the heritage units and I do see NS in this area. 

Well, my main interest is in the PRR and the Reading (I live in Pennsylvania).  But at the same time, I've always been fascinated with the NYC, even though I never actually saw a NYC train run.

 

I am very opinionated for eastern roads with the exception of one.  The Spokane Portland And Seattle was always one that I liked   They were chock full of Alco's including my all time favorite Alco C636

 

 

 

 

Michigan Central RR.

Only a few steamers and no diesels to buy

Problem is not much RS available and a MCRR caboose has yet to be made.

So what's not to love about a steam contraption and boxcar that look like this.

Beautiful, ain't it???

Joe

 

 

 

Mostly sticking to the New York Central, the Southern, and Conrail, it'd probably be a tie between Montana Rail Link, Erie Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley.

 

 

Montana Rail Link isn't one of the nation's largest railroads, but undeniably has one of the most beautiful paint schemes today.

 

I grew to really appreciate Erie Lackawanna since, being in Jersey, EL ran frequently on the lines that NJ Transit uses today.

 

My family has strong ties in Pennsylvania as well as Jersey, and many of my uncles were members of the Lehigh Valley such as in Bethlehem.

Though I've lived my entire life in NJ, I never had any interest in the CNJ or its dull paint schemes. Now ... I'm thoroughly into it .... especially those old ugly, dirty striped diesels. I sure wish O had the same selection of decals that are found in HO.

 

 

The Erie Railroad.  Grew up around the Erie commuter line that ran from Jersey City to Suffern, NY.  Lionel had the only Erie O gauge equipment at the time, FA's, one boxcar and one bay window caboose.  It was slim pickin's for an Erie fan.  Now manufacturers have made up for the short fall of the 50's.  Only have to locate the elusive Stillwells.

 

Two railroads, the Canadian National and the Lackawanna. The CN because my wife's son is an engineer for them. The Lackawanna because of the neat name and good looking color scheme

Norfolk Southern.  It was never on my radar when I lived in New York, but now that I'm in Virginia I have my own version of the business train in 0-gauge, with coaches by RMT/Aristo-Craft.

The New York Ontario & Western for me.....

 

 

Peter

 

BTW......that's not a B unit......It's a heater car....they bought their F units without steam generators to save money......and converted 2 Mountain coal tenders into steam generator cars......what's more, only the F3s had the hardware to control them........they could not be used with FTs.