Why That Railroad?

Born and raised in Stroudsburg Pa. Stones throw from the Double track main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. Home of Miss Phoebe Snow, it had some of the most breath taking scenery on any train ride. The most powerful steam engine fleet for a railroad with a short distance of 495 miles from Hoboken to Buffalo, ferry service across the hudson river to NYC. Sleeper service from Hoboken to Detroit or Chicago via Wabash or NKP. I was born June 1969, but the stories my grandmother told me. The stories my dad told me growing up on south kistler street in east stroudsburg across the tracks from the train station. All of the people I ever talked to, not one person ever said anything bad about the Lackawanna. My step mother grew up in bangor, a small little town with six steam engines parked at a three stall round house seven days a week. Slate, cement, cotton to the mills, coal to the power plant, the stone quarries out side of bangor. I could keep going, where ever there was lackawanna tracks. There was people working 12-14 hour days seven days a week. My step mom always told me, the better the company did the better the employees lives were. I don't know how true that statement would be in today's world. But I sure would like to go back and live when my grandmother was born in 1919. Then in 1937 I could go work for the DL&W and hit the high steel rails in a steam engine. I always said I was born 50 years to late. Long live Miss Phoebe Snow

I model the Quanah, Acme & Pacific  Railway because I was fortunate enough to work on that "Little Giant" before its demise in 1982.  The corporate culture on the Frisco / QA&P systems was so strong and so positive it is difficult to convey to other people.  For those of us who never wanted it to end we create actual locomotives and rolling stock as well as fantasy cars for the home road.

For me it's a lot of personal connections that have influenced what I have so far.  My grandfather worked for the New York Central (have a couple of those) through to Conrail (top of the list when I have more room).  Add in a P-motor for the hometown Cleveland Union Terminal.  I had spent a few years following NKP 765 on the CVSR when I added a model of her to my collection, and I have an order in for GTW 4070 to match the real one that I help out on.

Great stories!  I want to add another snippet.  My grandpa lived in Rothschild, WI and built a home (and hand dug his basement) by himself right down the tracks from the paper mill where he worked.  The tracks ran behind his house and he had a large picture window overlooking his back yard and the train tracks.  My brother and I would put pennies on the tracks.  When the house started shaking, we would run to the picture window and watch the trains rumble by.  The main train I remember was a red and white Soo Line with it's curved front nose (F7 or F3?) that came from the east, probably Green Bay or up toward the UP of Michigan. We would wave at the engineers who kindly waved back.  The trains carried a lot of flat cars full of logs for the papermill.  When the train was past us we would pick up our flattened pennies with joy.  My father remembered as a kid in that same house back in probably the late 1940's how he saw the car on a train car that his parents ordered from Detroit.  He told his parents and sure, enough, they got a call that it had arrived soon after that.  That Soo Line experience in WI got me into trains as a kid even though we lived in the Chicago area.  My grandmother bought me a late 1960's starter set and I was hooked.  And it's no surprise I love the Midwest trains today, Chicago and all points north, south and west!

I grew up with the WP, Santa Fe and Southern Pacific all running through town at one time or another during the day, so those roads appeal to me a lot, with the WP taking top honors.  (Having relatives who worked for those roads had a bit of an influence on me as well.). However, I’ve always admired the Pennsy’s turbines, GG1s and torpedos, so you’ll find some of those in the stable as well.  (In other words, I’ve never really met a roadname I didn’t like... even the good old Lionel Lines!)

Great thread.  I just started building my layout a few months ago.   Any northern/ northeaster trains are my interest ny cental, prr Canadian as the layout is in the Adirondacks but cannot resist some of the Lionel classics from when I was a child - SF super chief. I grew up in university heights section of Bronx. Arnold and Peter’s story bring back good memories.  Too bad they don’t make smoke that smells like the cookies from the SD factory

When I initially returned to O gauge, it was the B&O and Western Maryland because of my location. I actually made a point of trying to limit my purchases to those roads but we all know how that goes.

Later, I decided to focus on Postwar and I built a PW-style layout so the focus shifted. That meant a variety of road names in whatever form Lionel made them.

So I suppose my preferred railroad these days is "Lionel Lines." Which, according to a post I saw not long ago, is an unacceptable "fantasy scheme." Yeah, right.

@Adirondack RR posted:

Great thread.  I just started building my layout a few months ago.   Any northern/ northeaster trains are my interest ny cental, prr Canadian as the layout is in the Adirondacks but cannot resist some of the Lionel classics from when I was a child - SF super chief. I grew up in university heights section of Bronx. Arnold and Peter’s story bring back good memories.  Too bad they don’t make smoke that smells like the cookies from the SD factory

Maybe Lionel will make Lionel Premium Stella Doro Cookie Smoke Fluid! LOL, Arnold

@johnstrains posted:

When I initially returned to O gauge, it was the B&O and Western Maryland because of my location. I actually made a point of trying to limit my purchases to those roads but we all know how that goes.

Later, I decided to focus on Postwar and I built a PW-style layout so the focus shifted. That meant a variety of road names in whatever form Lionel made them.

So I suppose my preferred railroad these days is "Lionel Lines." Which, according to a post I saw not long ago, is an unacceptable "fantasy scheme." Yeah, right.

How come Mark Boyce, who loves the Ma & Pa, hasn't chimed in?

Johnstrains, I think that many of our Forum friends love the Ma & Pa and the B&0. I particularly like the royal blue livery of the B&O:

Parodoxically, I started this thread to make the case for how rewarding it can be to focus on modeling one, or a few, railroads. However, after reading all of your marvelous accounts of your beloved railroads, and models of them, throughout the USA, I have a desire to broaden my interests to include all of the great Fallen Flag railroads.

Being a lifelong New Yorker with the NY Yankees, especially their team in the late 1950s and early 1960s in my DNA, I will continue to mainly focus on The Put, NY Central, New Haven, Boston & Albany, and Pennsy, but will never part with the other O Gauge trains I already have, and maybe add to my roster, of other railroads like the B&O, Southern, Santa Fe, Great Northern, Texas & Pacific, etc.

LOL, Arnold

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

How come Mark Boyce, who loves the Ma & Pa, hasn't chimed in?

Johnstrains, I think that many of our Forum friends love the Ma & Pa and the B&0. I particularly like the royal blue livery of the B&O:

Arnold, Yes, I miss my B&O days but still pick up an item now and then. Here's my LC+ B&O NW2 Switcher which is one of my better performing locos. Really smokes well.

RE: The Ma & Pa. Lionel cataloged a M&P Vision box car in the latest catalog and I'm sure the fans of that road will be purchasing.

Getting back to my focus, The Put, and why I model it.

The Put went through Northern Westchester County where there were dairy farms in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. A nice rural scene using Woodland Scenics materials can provide peace to the soul, something I need:

I look at the above and think of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, known as The Pastoral. I have played a recording of it during operating sessions.

Two more things about the above photos and The Put.

The Put is great to model if you want to include some of the Lionel Postwar accessories, which many of us are crazy about. The classic operating milk car and platform works beautifully in this scene, which could be  a dairy farm along The Put.

Next, the little corn field. Got that on one of my trips with my good friend, Melgar, to the Big E a couple of years ago. The little corn stalks are a product of either Woodland Scenics or Scenic Express. My original plan was to have a corn field for the Field of Dreams ball park, but I decided to make The Polo Grounds instead, which is perfect for my "The Put" theme. Then, I planted the corn stalks (drilled little holes to stick them in) on the dairy farm. Arnold

@palallin posted:

Having (mis)spent quite a few years there, I'd love to see pics of your St. Louis layout!

So would I!

It's nothing to look at now, mostly plywood, track not even down, except in staging. But in my mind's eye, it's beneath the West approaches of the MacArthur Bridge. Someday, there'll be pictures!

@nickaix posted:

So would I!

It's nothing to look at now, mostly plywood, track not even down, except in staging. But in my mind's eye, it's beneath the West approaches of the MacArthur Bridge. Someday, there'll be pictures!

I look forward to them, then!

Arnold, here's what I did with one of the military figures a little larger than O scale like you mentioned. 

@TrainsRMe posted:

Arnold, here's what I did with one of the military figures a little larger than O scale like you mentioned. 

Oh, you made a statue of him, a bronze statue. Very, very clever. I love it. Arnold

I will have to repeat from other postings my history of growing to middle school on Depot Lane in a tiny town in Louisville, KY,s county.  It was on the Southern, and my dad had fired Sou. Mikados and Consols into WWII.  His father had built cabooses for the L&N, so my train interest is natural. This g.f. had a Kalmbach photo book of Colorado railroads, narrow and standard, which l devoured.  I, a fan of "westerns" and western history....mining camps and ghost towns, from childhood, have had a "Colorado" theme on my layouts, with no complete layout now, as l like to build and bash structures and rolling stock.  I hope to model a fictitious road with hints of the Colorado Midland and Great Western, std. gauge Eastern Colo. roads. I love the narrow gauge, and was lucky to ride the Silverton when it was D&RGW, and have explored some of its and the other n.g. roads' remains, but find n.g. too time consuming to model.  If the road ran into Colorado, except ATSF and UP, MP, Rock Island, "Q", etc. I am interested, but don't sneer at the Ma&Pa, EBT,  and other short lines, as sites to explore

@nickaix posted:

Focusing on St. Louis "limits" my collection to "a few" roads

That is the same limit I placed on myself when I started in this hobby three years ago.  Like you, I found out it's not much of a limit (and I'll buy any manufacturer).  I do limit myself to scale stuff and no steam.