Road Names on a layout.

Knowing what era you model. would help in giving you advice. Later era diesels, you can pretty much run almost anything, anywhere and consisted with just about anything else. Now days with pooled power, run throughs, power by the hour trading and leasing, power often ends up FAR from "Home Rails"

 

In the Steam era, shared power was much less common, but did happen, such as the DM&IR Yellowstones working on the D&RGW during the winters when the DM&IR was shut down due to the Great Lakes being frozen over.

 

The farther back in the Steam era you go, the less power you see on foreign rails.

 

There are some advantages to "Focusing" your collection to a few roadnames. By focusing on a few roads, you are subject to fewer Impulse purchases, and that can save you quite a bit of money.

 

It can be very interesting to learn more about the roads that you have chosen to model.

 

If you choose to model roads that actually interchanged with each other, it can add a lot of believability to your layout.

 

For many operators the "Toy Train" style is what they enjoy, and there is nothing wrong with that, I got my own start in 3R O Gauge with "Traditional" size for the Christmas Tree. It didn't take long for the "O Gauge Virus" to bite me, I then discovered Lionel's "LionMaster" line, and at that point, I pretty much abandoned the HO side of the Hobby, after more than 35 years of HO. Then Lionel came out with the Scale Union Pacific FEF-3s, and I was hooked on scale size equipment, though there are often "Traditional" size products that I like as well.

 

You know yourself better than anyone else does, so it would be a good idea to decide just how "Focused" would make you Happiest, whether it is Roadnames, Era, Size or type of scenery you choose.

 

 That is one of the best aspects of this hobby is there are so many ways to Enjoy it, You make your own rules.

 

Doug

Our layout contains many road names. The only qualification, we have to like the set. Era or road name make to difference to us. Sure gives you many options with this philosophy.

It was important to me to try to limit the road names.  I chose UP and it's fallen flags but then my son and grandsons loved the BNSF and we added that.  I always loved the Santa Fe and it's warbonnet paint scheme.  And I always saw the Milwaukee Rd as a child and on it goes.  At least it started out as a good idea. 

 

Art

When I returned to the hobby 25 years ago, my initial theme was "it ran in Pennsylvania".  This gave me a pretty wide variety of road names to begin with.  After I became interested in western and southern railroads, the theme kind of morphed to "it could have run in Pennsylvania". 

I have railroad books showing ACL and RF&P power at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and can remember seeing run through CB&Q and UP power on PRR trains in the mid '60's.  I've also seen photos of SAL engines at Enola Yard near Harrisburg and figure Southern engines ran into Pennsylvania following their merger with N&W. 

Factor in engines manufactured by Baldwin, Alco or GE that were either built in PA or could have traveled through when being delivered to a western or Midwestern railroad and I can pretty much come up with a plausible rational for running most of the Class 1 road names from the '50's and '60's.

When I purchase a particular road name I also look for books and videos of that railroad.  This has increased my enjoyment of the hobby as it plays into my interest in railroad history.

Curt

For me, it's all about what I see on the rails that I model. I have chosen a location and period that has almost endless variety as long as it's diesel.

 

The more modern you go the more road names you see. 

My layout is based on the Detroit & Mackinac Railway.

When I was a kid I spend a lot of time train watching in East Tawas, Michigan. The D & M Railway had a large yard in East Tawas, with a engine house and a turn table.  The entire layout has a lot of local road names like, D T & I (Detroit Toledo & Ironton.) You will also see these local road names, Ann Arbor Railroad Systems, Great Lakes, Pere Marquette, St. Clair Blue Water Route, BASF Wyandotte, Ford Motor Company, Soo Line, CN Canadian National, Conrail and Grand Trunk. Like ever major city in the United States we have Amtrak.  We enjoy riding the Amtrak from Dearborn to Chicago & Grand Junction Colorado. Detroit is an international city and all we have to do is drive to Ontario, Canada via the Detroit Windsor Tunnel or the Ambassador Bridge. Jump on a Via Train in Windsor and be in Toronto in five hours to watch my favorite baseball team.  The Detroit Tigers at Toronto Blue Jays.