The Great State of ____________

As the song says....."I'm in a New York state of mind"

New York Central

Long Island RR

(with an honorable mention to the PRR, original owner of the LIRR).

Happy 4th!

Sundown, headin west through Mullen Nebraska. At Alliance Nebraska, we will turn northwest up to Crawford.

For my home state of Kentucky, with no photo handy, may l nominate the Frankfort and Cincinnati, which achieved fame as the bourbon route in the Beebe and Clegg book, "Mixed Trains Daily".  It, like many railroads in America, never achieved it's titled destination, but connected with the L&N at Paris, Kentucky.  It was known for gas electrics and one undergoes restoration at the Kentucky Railroad Museum.  A stone distillery along it's route, as well as this holiday,  deserves a model. and  the hoisting of a mint julep.

This is terrific. We now have a parade of great States, railroads and trains happening on this thread.

What a great way to celebrate the 4th of July.

Arnold

As soon as I saw RSJB18's post, I went into a NY State of mind and made this video:

This train includes an MTH Proto 3 Long Island steam switcher, a Lionel postwar NY Central horse/stock car, 2 Lionel Bronx Zoo giraffe cars and  Lionel NY Central caboose.

In my NY state of mind I can hear Billy Joel and Frank Sinatra singing as this train passes Yankee Stadium. Arnold

…Pennsylvania

I feel like all the coal and iron ore this beast hauled helped in some part to keep this country free of tyrants and despots.  All of which were built here in the great state of Pennsylvania!

What says "California" more than "Southern Pacific"?

Happy 4th all and God bless America!

Arizona!

The great state of Tennessee!

For another Pennsylvania entry, how about this video of a PRR K4 (MTH Proto 1) hauling a mixed consist of coal cars, box cars and oil tankers, through Amish country, specifically the Town of Blue Balls, Pennsylvania:

What a great sense of humor the Amish have.

LOL, Arnold

How about Maine, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Alaska?

We have to give Chicago, Illinois a shoutout to the Burlington Zephyr and the Santa Fe.

Happy Independence Day! Here’s my dads Boy Scout friends celebrating Independence Day mid 1930’s Chicago

I don't have any models handy to photograph to represent Ohio but I do have the Eastbound Lake Shore Limited making her pre-dawn stop at Cleveland.

Another vote for Pennsylvania.

The state of Vermont. Known for it’s Rutland Milk train.

The B&O Railroad from the great state of Maryland.  The B&O is the first common carrier railroad in the U.S. and Baltimore is the birthplace of American railroading.  The B&O's motto " Linking 13 great states with the nation." Here we see a B&O GP9 on slow orders pulling a freight train.  

Another RR from the great state of Maryland ... The Western Maryland Railway.

From our nation's capitol Washington D.C.  .... The Washington Terminal Company.  WTC was the railroad in charge of all switching operations at Washington's Union Station.  A joint venture of both the B&O and Pennsylvania Railroads, Union Station was constructed and served 7 class one railroads.  Those railroads being, The Atlantic Coast Line, B&O, C&O, Pennsylvania RR.  Richmond Fredricksburg & Potomac, Seaboard Air Line, and Southern Railway. The WTC continued switching operations into the AMTRAK era.

IMHO, every video, photo and post, so far, has been superb, filling me with a sense of patriotism and appreciation for the glorious history of our great country.

Here's another entry for Maryland: the Maryland Midland Railroad, which I never heard of when I bought this MTH Premier Proto 3 smoking diesel. I bought it because I loved the colors and appearance of the livery:

Arnold

From the great state of Maryland ...

A tribute to Maryland's class one railroads:  L-R Pennsylvania, B&O, Western Maryland, and Norfolk and Western.

And Maryland's short lines of the post WW2 era .... Baltimore & Annapolis, Pataspco and Back Rivers, Canton Railroad, and last but not least The Maryland and Pennsylvania.

@franktrain posted:

We have to give Chicago, Illinois a shoutout to the Burlington Zephyr and the Santa Fe.

Happy Independence Day! Here’s my dads Boy Scout friends celebrating Independence Day mid 1930’s Chicago

Frank, when you mentioned Illinois, I immediately thought of Illinois Central F3s and my number 1 favorite train song: City of New Orleans.

If anyone has a model of the City of New Orleans passenger train or Illinois Central F3s, I would love to see it. Arnold

Im from New York but my trains are in New Jersey

Love that Lackawanna S3!!!

Gerry

FLORIDA! and the FEC...Florida East Coast Railway.

Delaware: the Delaware & Hudson:

That's a Lionel TMCC diesel model. Arnold

Here we have the great State of Texas, the Texas and Pacific L3 (MTH Railking Proto 1) and Texas T (black gold). "Oil that is, black gold, Texas T" (from the Beverly Hillbillies theme song):

Arnold

I don't have any videos of these to share at the moment.  I have lived in 3 of these 4 states and still live in two.

Let's toss in Maryland and a tiny bit of DC, these operate into Washington's Union Station:

As far as other states are concerned, I have a Weaver New Haven "State of Maine Potatoes" boxcar, a Lionel "I Love South Carolina" boxcar (given to me in memory of Chuck), a Weaver "Pennsylvania Potato Growers Cooperative" boxcar; there may another one or two somewhere in my hoard, er, freightyard but I do not know where they might be.

Akron, Canton and Youngstown..."Serving Ohio and the Nation" :

Tom

Another shout out for the State of Virginia.

Georgia!

"Georgia on my mind"

There is only one railroad that represents the “United” States of America.

MELGAR

The great state of Arizona as represented in these videos on my club layout, the Paradise and Pacific railroad in Scottsdale, AZ.  These videos have been posted before, but I've also included some photos at the end of an old module I used to operate on where I did the backdrops around the module to represent all of Arizona from the Sonoran desert regions of Phoenix to the grass plains found in southern and central Arizona to the tall pines of Flagstaff.

While Arizona is by far not a perfect state, I can say with confidence over my 30 years here that every state is represented in one form or another in the very diverse landscapes found all over the 48th state in the nation.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

To celebrate the birth of our great nation, fill in the blank and post a photo, video and/or comments about a railroad or train from one of our great states.

I am in a New Jersey mood, so I will start us off with this Jersey Central video I made this morning:

That's an MTH Railking Proto 1 smoking Jersey Central FM Trainmaster (my 1st smoking diesel that has run flawlessly and totally trouble free for roughly 20 years), boxcars from Northeastern railroads of neighboring States and a Lionel Jersey Central caboose (currently my favorite caboose). Arnold

Arnold,

Spending my formative years growing up on the Jersey Shore, the CNJ is near and dear to my heart.  So much so that I model it in 2 rail from circa 1953-1957 when my grandfather on my mother's side commuted to NYC on it from the old Branchport Station literally across the Shrewsbury River from me which is now long gone.  I was lucky enough to ride an actual CNJ train in 1975, see the remnants of the line from Matawan to Atlantic Highlands and then down the coast through Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Long Branch, Oceanport, and finally where it reconnected to the Southern Division in Eatontown near Fort Monmouth.  I remember the East Long Branch station boarded up and covered in graffiti before it was torn down, the diamond of the Seashore line across the NY&LB before it got removed with electrification to Long Branch, the former CNJ coach that sat truckless on grade at Red Bank where the Southern Division split from the NY&LB, and the Saturday Pony Express to Monmouth park before that got relegated to a small shelter on the mainline.  I was lucky enough in kindergarten to see what may have been the last train on the Seashore branch run behind my elementary school in Oceanport.  All fond memories of a former life.

People who have not been to NJ don't understand just how green the state is and how it truly earns the "Garden State" motto.  It's not something you see from the 55 minute end to end drive on the Turnpike across the state, but you might get a taste of if you drive the Garden State Parkway.  I was exit 105 by the way.

One day, I will have my NY&LB in 2 rail operating, but in the meantime I'm happy with my hodgepodge collection of All-Nation commuter cars, various freight cars, Sunset GP7Ps, a half done CNJ Pacific, my 1950's era brass Camelback, and eclectic collection of CNJ NE style cabooses from MTH, Weaver, and International Model Products.

The Big Little Railroad is indeed something special to be celebrated. 

Serving the 2 greats states of Maryland and Pennsylvania, MA & PA Railroad

@GG1 4877 posted:

Arnold,

Spending my formative years growing up on the Jersey Shore, the CNJ is near and dear to my heart.  So much so that I model it in 2 rail from circa 1953-1957 when my grandfather on my mother's side commuted to NYC on it from the old Branchport Station literally across the Shrewsbury River from me which is now long gone.  I was lucky enough to ride an actual CNJ train in 1975, see the remnants of the line from Matawan to Atlantic Highlands and then down the coast through Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Long Branch, Oceanport, and finally where it reconnected to the Southern Division in Eatontown near Fort Monmouth.  I remember the East Long Branch station boarded up and covered in graffiti before it was torn down, the diamond of the Seashore line across the NY&LB before it got removed with electrification to Long Branch, the former CNJ coach that sat truckless on grade at Red Bank where the Southern Division split from the NY&LB, and the Saturday Pony Express to Monmouth park before that got relegated to a small shelter on the mainline.  I was lucky enough in kindergarten to see what may have been the last train on the Seashore branch run behind my elementary school in Oceanport.  All fond memories of a former life.

People who have not been to NJ don't understand just how green the state is and how it truly earns the "Garden State" motto.  It's not something you see from the 55 minute end to end drive on the Turnpike across the state, but you might get a taste of if you drive the Garden State Parkway.  I was exit 105 by the way.

One day, I will have my NY&LB in 2 rail operating, but in the meantime I'm happy with my hodgepodge collection of All-Nation commuter cars, various freight cars, Sunset GP7Ps, a half done CNJ Pacific, my 1950's era brass Camelback, and eclectic collection of CNJ NE style cabooses from MTH, Weaver, and International Model Products.

The Big Little Railroad is indeed something special to be celebrated.

Jonathan, Thanks for sharing your fond memories of CNJ. I has never heard of it until I learned of the Blue Comet through model railroad and discovered that the original Standard Gauge model in mint condition (which I don't have) is one of the most valuable. IMO, the baby blue livery of the Blue Comet is beautiful.

I do have a nice LC+ Jersey Central Pacific. Here it is pulling Lionel Postwar 2400 series passenger cars with the names of NJ cities and towns on them, including Newark, Livingston, Maplewood, Mooseheart, Elizabeth, Chatham, etc.:

This video also shows a smooth running Jersey Central NW2 diesel hauling freight.

Arnold

Do real trains count? Sunday morning at Atlantic City!

@Sean007 posted:

Do real trains count? Sunday morning at Atlantic City!

Oh yeah

Ok here are a few more...The Boston and Maine

The Central of New Jersey with a commuter train out of Hoboken Yard - all those folks just off the ferry from Manhattan

Texas gets a mention with the Texas and Pacific

Next up the Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia or TAG

Finally we had lots of mention of the B&O but what about the C&O or the Chesapeake and Ohio.

Finally, from right in Baltimore Harbor the famous restaurant, Phillips Crab House !  YUM!!

Sorry I was a little late to the party Arnold, hope folks enjoy these other State Rail  Roads.  Compliments of the United States Dept of Defense and its Military Services, the wife and I have lived in the proximity of all of these railroads.

Don