What is your favorite and second favorite railroad?
Why?
Do you model either of them?
Is the railroad that you find most interesting your favorite?

My favorite is either the DSP&P or the NKP.

I like the DSP&P for its cogdon stacked steam locomotives, majestic mountain scenery, interesting track arrangements, and pitting little locomotives against massive challenges (steep grades, massive mountains, deep snow). Triple and quadruple headers were normal for 10-15 car freight trains.

I like the NKP first and foremost from growing up around the 765. Therefore, NKP steam is how steam is supposed to look. Accordingly, I appreciate AMC C&O equipment since it is similar as well as pre-super power NYC equipment since the White Elephant NKP's pre-super power equipment was closely related to (or based off of) NYC equipment. I don't think the modern NKP had a single locomotive that didn't look quite nice. The road's impeccable freight service and having grown up listening to old NKP employees have definitely clouded my judgement!

I model the DSP&P. I occasionally work on NKP projects and aspire to begin NKP modules once my On3 layout has rudimentary scenery in place.

The NKP is definitely not the most interesting railroad to me...it was far too well run and too flat to be so. The South Park or Silverton Railroad would probably be the most interesting to me.

How about you?

1. CNR and its component parts - lots of possibilities for either vintage or modern day modelling. Yes, I have several steamers lettered for CNR and plans for more.

2. I suppose CPR - for the same reason as above. Plus I grew up in a CPR town, although I did not appreciate it at the time. No real models yet (other than a few box cars) but plans for more and dreams for a CPR 10-wheeler too...

My favourite train comes from a completely different road though - NYC 20th Century Ltd, with the streamlined loco on the front end.

Andrew

1. Long Island. It is the railroad of my youth, and my first inspiration.
2. C&O. They had the "Allegheny", 2-6-6-6

After that: N&W, B&O, Clinchfield, D&H, NYC, Pennsy, WP, SP&S, D&RGW (N.G.) and the "maine two footers".

1. BNSF
2. UP

Both played a big part in my childhood growing up. The BNSF Mainline ran right by my grandparents old house in Yorba Linda, CA. and since my grandma babysat me and picked me up from school till the end of my 6th grade year, i saw a lot of trains roll through there lol

And yes, i model both BNSF and UP, and anything that is associated with them like CNW, BN...... If i had to pick a third favorite, it would definitely be CSX, i just like there paint scheme's lol

1. The original Oregon Pacific
2. Oregon & California
3. Northwestern Pacific
4. Caspar Lumber Co.

All serve as inspiration and examples of contemporary regional railroading practice for my free-lance

Picture Gorge & Western Railway - HO
Port Orford & Elk River Railway & Navigation Co - HOn3

....modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900...

Favorite railroads here are
1. Union Pacific
2. BNSF
3. Norfolk & Southern

I went for U.P. for its striking paint and the fact i can have both steam and diesel on the layout ... pretty much the same for paint in BNSF the N&S seem much bigger impressive locos than anything else on the rails and lend themselves to some great weathering schemes being darker

In passenger stock PRR & NYC have to be the favorites

PRR again for their appearence.

PRR & B&O -- only because I grew up in between the 2 just south of Phila PA.....

Proving ( once again ) that I can't read instructions I'm editing this post:

I have a display of a PRR Freight train and nothing B&O or Chessie.. Just never bought any.

And the PRR is the most interesting - mostly because of the nostalgia of the "Standard Railroad of The World"

Sumpter250 Wrote:1. Long Island. It is the railroad of my youth, and my first inspiration.

I never would have guess that the Long Island Railroad would be your favorite! I would expect somewhere rural with a logging type setting...not an east coast commuter road!

Very interesting to read what really interests people!

Perhaps we should state time periods of greatest interest as well? Since many of these roads have long histories.

My interest in the South Park typically crescendos from 1874 to early 1885 and the decreases a little bit for the DL&G and C&S periods.
My interest in the Nickel Plate is greatest right after WW2 before the diesels arrive (read: before the 2-8-0s and 4-6-0s were scrapped)...but I am interested in the entire history...from the days of 0-4-0s with 48" drivers and 4-4-0s with 60" and 66" drivers...through the end of NYC control. My interest drop precipitously after complete dieselization in 1959.
My interest in the Silverton Railroad is consistent from beginning to its days as a branch of the Silverton Northern.

Andrew, I agree that the '38 Century was pretty incredible. The Dreyfuss hudson really took it over the top. I also like the '38 Broadway, but the all new Century takes the cake for me (especially having seen the interiors of the two trains).

I guess my first choice is obvious. I love the Penn Central because it was railroading where I grew up so there is the nostalgia factor...but the more I learn about it the more interesting it gets with its diverse mix of motive power from the NYC, Pennsy, and NH, its sometimes conflicting image as a big power hauler on well trimmed mainlines and also as a rickety incompetent disaster on poorly maintained rails, its passenger service with the heritage of name trains as well as its minimalistic single-coach-behind-an-E8 service, its varied shades of Jade Green, its inconsistent repaints that left some merger road heralds remain, its mix of 40 foot box cars with more modern equipment, and its wide range of locations from the East coast to Chicago...I could go on!

As for a second choice, my years in Minnesota since 1982 led me to develop a fondness for the SOO Line with their White and red units and endless covered hoppers filled with grain.

Ralph

My #1 favorite...AT&SF (Not BNSF...) ...And this is the reason.....

My #2...UP...For the same reason...Gorgeous paint scheme on their locos...

And, I presume, because they both ran through terrain that has always fascinated me....the southwestern desert....

I like the PRR, especially late 40's and early 50's, probably because I grew up along the PRR main line.
For a second, I like the Y&S, a very busy short line that ran from Youngstown, Ohio to New Galilee, Pa. It still has 39 miles to Darlington, Pa.
(Both roads have a very basic paint scheme so modeling is easy too.)
Charlie

Ralph Wrote:I guess my first choice is obvious. I love the Penn Central
Ralph

You like the Penn Central?...I never knew that Ralph.

Well...Living in Connecticut, I guess my first choice would be the...Uh...Uh...The New York Central...
Ok...You caught me.
Of course its the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Only cause I grew up along the Berkshire Line and can remember those bright orange and green RS3 roaring pass.(RS3's were usually assigned the Berk). I don't think I ever saw a McGuiness scheme loco until later in life and that was on Metro Norths FL9's, plying the Naugy on their way back and forth from Bridgeport and Waterbury(I did see the McGuiness schemed Genesis on the Naugy a couple of years ago) As far as modeling the New Haven, I do have a couple of locos in NH paint, and actually one hopper lettered for the NH, but thats about it. Since I model modern times, I did paint an SD70, and C44-9W in NH paint.

My second choice would be a fallen flag, called .....You guessed it...The Central New England. It ran from Hartford, Conn, to Campbell Hall, Pa. It was taken over by the NH in the late 1920's. Not much remains as the track was ripped up in 1938. The only real landmark remaining is the Poughkeepsie Bridge, over the Hudson River(Which by the way, was set on fire by a hot box on a PENN CENTRAL[Ralph??? ]train in 1974) There is two miles of track used by the Housatonic RR in Cannan to service the Phizer plant there, and almost twenty miles in Bloomfield operated by a shortline called the Central New England. I model as though its still running today through the Northwest Corner of Connecticut.

OK...You guys can wake up...I'm done rambling.

None and none. I don't have a favorite. I have a few that I don't care much about, and I strongly prefer north american prototypes and eras between about 1880 and 1980.
Why? well, I live in north america, and that is what I am used to. As for eras, I am most interested in the "maturity" of railroads after about 1880 - when railroads became part of a national system, and became standardized with couplers and gauges, and the development of what I consider a more modern and familiar culture was developing (electricity, steel construction, modern sports, etc). I am much less interested post about 1980, as railroads consolidated down to a few big ones, the final branchlines started to give way to trucks, and railroads became primarily a mainline operation. But as to a particular railroad - well I really don't have a preference one way or another.

nachoman Wrote:None and none. I don't have a favorite. I have a few that I don't care much about, and I strongly prefer north american prototypes and eras between about 1880 and 1980.
Why? well, I live in north america, and that is what I am used to. As for eras, I am most interested in the "maturity" of railroads after about 1880 - when railroads became part of a national system, and became standardized with couplers and gauges, and the development of what I consider a more modern and familiar culture was developing (electricity, steel construction, modern sports, etc). I am much less interested post about 1980, as railroads consolidated down to a few big ones, the final branchlines started to give way to trucks, and railroads became primarily a mainline operation. But as to a particular railroad - well I really don't have a preference one way or another.

Very interesting, Kevin!

One of my favorite parts of John White's Am. RR. ____ Car books are how he covers the changes in technology. Same thing with Hilton's coverage of the narrow gauge movement in Am. NG RRs.

Btw, Ralph, the biggest problem with the Penn Central wasn't the jade green, nor the infamous maintenance, nor the burning up of eightyeightfan1's bridges ...but rather the fact that the Island series observation cars didn't last long enough to be a part of it :mrgreen:

I guess I have four favorites. Santa Fe post WW2 to the late 1950's, I like f-units, passenger trains, and ice bunker reefers. For modern railroads I have three favorites, the LAJ because I like switching, the Pacific Harbor Line because I like the old Santa Fe zebra stripe paint scheme he uses, and the Arkansas & Missouri because the entire concept of a modern railroad being 100% Alco powered is just awesome.