Naming a railroad

Could be a natural feature (the Little Schuylkill [River] Branch of the Reading), a shipper (the Colebrookdale Branch - Colebrookdale Iron Works), or a general direction (Wilmington & Northern Branch). A name usually refers to the reason for a railroad's construction. 

Usually the name comes from the region the RR operates in.

Florida East Coast RR: Operates on the east coast of Florida.

Florida Central RR: Operates mostly in central Florida.

First Coast RR: Operates in the northern Jacksonville FL area, a.k.a. The First Coast.

How about names of the cities/towns that they planned on building to? Some examples:

 

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy

Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe

Norfolk and Western

New York, New Haven and Hartford

Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western

Baltimore and Ohio

New York, Ontario and Western 

Lehigh and Hudson River

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac

 

 

Get the idea? 

A bit of trivia.

The ATSF main line never actually went through Santa Fe NM.

It got as close as Lamy NM with a branch line from Lamy to Santa Fe.

That branch line is now called the Santa Fe Southern Railway.

Well, they have to call it something. 

 

Something like St. Louis and San Francisco (which never made it to San Francisco...) sounds a whole lot better than Fred's Railroad.

 

Rusty

Thanks everyone!

So, it would seem that the area served seems to rule. I was wondering if terms like, division or line would be used.

My 2013 project is to create a layout instead of the 4' x 8' loop I had this holiday.

It will be winter with the Polar Express and the ARR(Alaska Railroad) trains. There happens to be a North Pole, AK stop on the ARR, so, it all kind of works. I am just trying to work something local into the name.

ARR Southern Division, ARR Southern Railway, were what I had so far.

It just seems that everyone has to give their railway a name after putting all the effort into building it.

Thanks again.

It's fun to think up your own name to customize a model railroad, although I wouldn't rush into re-lettering cars and locos. It's a lot easier to stick with nice factory paint jobs.

 

ARR could stand for "Arctic Railroad" to rationalize mixing Polar Express and Alaska Railroad.

 

 

Water- Norfolk and Eastern wouldn't make much sense, now would it?

Ever thoughtful, Ace. That's sticking after the first read. I have too much to do without changing paint.

ARRGH!

An existing railroad adding a branch line would give the new branch a name in it's employee timetables and such. It often would be named on the end point of the branch (a city or a company), although sometimes it's named after the junction where the branch starts. If BNSF built a new line from it's mainline to Springfield, it might be called the 'Springfield branch' for example.

another example being the Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S) that never quite made it to Seattle.

...then again, the "SP" was already taken.

A quick eBay search will show you dozen of old rail road stock certificates -- many with the names of the cities the rail road served or they hoped / dreamed it would someday. I enjoy those with cities that today are less than an hour apart by highway, just the idea that at one point it was a dream to connect them and today people commute further for work every day.

But then, on the other hand, a railroad can occassionally get named something entirely different.

 

http://www.cnymod.com/Hojack.html

 

I remember reading somewhere that one of the first names kicked around the water cooler for Amtrak was F.irst A.merican R.ail T.ransit, with a slogan something like We move like the wind!

Some railroads get unique nicknames or logos. The Frisco has their logo on a stretched coonskin ...

 

http://condrenrails.com/Frisco...ds/AA1986.8.v1.3.pdf

 

 

Short line Reader Railroad was called the Possum Trot Line.  

Reading Lines comes to my mind

 

This blue Reading Lines herald was used on many publications, including timetables, tickets and Iron Horse Rambles souvenir records. It was also published in black with white lettering.

 

Moonman, how about using the Northern Lights?

One of the names suggested for the new Seattle StreetCar in Seattle's South Lake Union district was South Lake Union Trolley; you can get the commemorative T-shirt at this website.  Warning, slightly NSFW...language. http://ridetheslut.com/

 

How about the Alaska & Gitbacktuya? 

Then there was the little Pittsburgh, Lisbon & Western here in Ohio, also known as Pick Up Your Luggage and Walk.

My high-speed battery power transit car serves on the

"Bump And Skitter Transit Authority - Rail Division".

Rich:

 

One of my "favorites" over the years was the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine, affectionately known as the "Wobbly, Bobbly, Turnover and Stop".

 

The one short line that kind of "grabs" me these days is the Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern.  I see their intermodal trailers in trains from time to time and there is just something about their name that "sings". 

 

Curt

How about New York State's interurban Jamestown, Winslow and Northwestern?

 

Jesus Wept and No Wonder . . .

 

EdKing

Green Bay & Western = Grab Baggage and Walk

 

Pacific Great Eastern (now British Columbia Railway) = Prince George Eventually

          Past God's Endurance

 

A narrow gauge steam-powered passenger train in Newfoundland was called "The Newfie Bullet."

 

On the C&O Durbin Branch near Cass, WV, a tourist train powered by a 2-truck Climax is called "The Durbin Rocket."

Really interesting stuff. I see one "convention", if you could call it that. When cities or locations where not part of the lines service a general direction or branch is used.

Today, they just seem to merge the name(BNSF) or lose the acquired line name altogether.

No charm to that.

This is giving me many options. I am writing the ideas and I'll see what "sings" (I like that term, juniata guy)

 

How about all the railroads named for places they never went.

 

Missouri Pacific

 

Texas & Pacific

 

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific

 

St. Louis - San Francisco

 

Building a railroad to the Pacific Coast was no easy feat.  But selling railroad stock with Pacific in the title apparently was.

not to mention that the Central Pacific never went to Hawaii, either.

I think the title holder for most ambitious name when one considers the railroad's actual physical plant is the Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England which never ran beyond the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem, PA.

   

 

Bob

Well said, CNJ 3676

 

I'll nominate the Denver, South Park & Pacific as another "ambitious name" title holder. This line included spectacular scenery from almost every inch of its narrow-gauge rails, Alpine Tunnel and the Palisades, and a dedicated following (M. C. Poor's book is regarded as devotional reading.). But it fell a tad short of reaching the Pacific.

 

The Reading's Philadelphia, Harrisburg & Pittsburgh Branch did not quite span the Keystone State as its name implied. But it did connect Harrisburg with Shippensburg and Lurgan, where the jointly owned "Dutch Line" (Reading-Western Maryland) extended to Hagerstown. Midwesteern traffic flowed between Hagerstown and Rutherford Yard west of Hershey. In the latter days of steam, the Western Maryland's ponderous Potomacs (4-8-4's) were photographed in servicing facilities at Rutherford.

Come to think of it, "Philadelphia, Reading & Pacific" has a nice ring to it.

 

ReadingFan:

 

Thank you for posting the pictures of Semaphore's Reading Rambles reissue. I've been purchasing the Semaphore recordings as they've been re-released but I haven't gotten that one yet. The artwork looks very nice.

 

Thanks again,

 

Bob

Interesting thread. A couple of divisions/areas I can recall are:

• "Wingfoot" which was an ATSF station located near a Goodyear plant in Los Angeles. Goodyear's logo is a tennis shoe with wings.
• "Pavilion spur" which branched off SP's line in Colton and ended at the SP/PE shops in San Bernardino. Urbita Springs resort was nearby with a pavilion--go figure. Where the tracks crossed over the old I-15 (now I-215) it was called "Urbita Springs up"
• "Highgrove" which was an area at a high point in Riverside, California and originally surrounded by orange groves and packing houses.
• "Asylum" on the ATSF Redlands Loop (later called Patton) which was next to the Patton State Mental Hospital in Highland (San Bernardino) California.
• "Arrowhead" Junction (also on the Redlands Loop). This was the intersection between the Redlands Loop and the PE/SP line that ran up to the Arrowhead Springs hotel and to pick up loads of Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water (yes it really does come from mountain springs near Lake Arrowhead.)

 

Then there are some areas named after railroad properties, like Santa Fe Springs, California -- supposedly got its name from an old ATSF water stop.

 

Ever notice how ChiCAgo, MilWAUkee, St PAUL and PaCIFic resembles the exhaust of a 3-cylinder steam loco?

Matt:

Your mention of station and siding names reminds me of one on BNSF near Rosenberg, TX that serves a Frito-Lay plant.  The siding name is "Chips".

Curt

For modeling purposes, a regional or ambiguous name may be good if you don't want to feel obligated to model specific localities, and if you want to include different railroads. In the 1950's some modelers came up with "cute" and "clever" names that eventually got old and some of those guys later regretted doing a lot of custom lettering.

 

Take a look through an old "Official Guide of the Railways" to see some of the real-life oddball names like "Cape Fear Railway" and "Zug Island Road".

Given that you have two railroads to start with- Alaska and the Polar express, why not try to incorporate them or make up your own..either true regional places or made up.

Also, instead of relettering a whole lot of cars and engines, try just one engine and a few cars...honestly, watching a real train do you see nothing but "it's" cars on there...nope, a few and the rest are passing thru. I've got BNSF, CN, UP and Metra trains running thru the town and surrounding areas and Metra is the only solid train out there{no mixed car names}.

One last note...one of our old lines that used to run through town was the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin 3rd rail...but the name was different on the origonal line which was Aurora, Elgin & Chicago as I recall and nor do I recall why they changed it around- so You could take a real one and switch it to your liking as well.  

How about how you feel after unsuccessfully trying to fix a loco?  Like Gorre & Daphetid, the famous model railroad (pronounced Gory & Defeated)

All of the above got a lot closer than the "Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific", a 30 mile connector in west Texas between the Texas and Pacific and the Santa Fe.  Atlas did several boxcars for the RS&P, significant coverage for an obscure line.  Pat B.