Your railroad's story and history

[Photogdad]

I was just wondering for those who freelance their railroad or even protolance. Do you or have you thought about writing a story line/story and or history behind your road? this includes any of those who like to write about railroads. I am wanting to give my freelance railroad a history and write a story about it. Give it some life, a reason why it exists, a purpose.

Opinions, thoughts, ideas?

[wheeler1963]

Charles, you mean something like this?

History of the Aurora & Portland R.R.


The Aurora & Portland Railroad was founded in 1963 as the Aurora & Indiana (a subsidiary of the Illinois Central), when the New York Central abandoned its Michigan Central branch line into Joliet Illinois. The A&I picked it up, including the division yard in Joliet. This allowed the A&I to interchange with the Rock Island and Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroads. Trackage rights into Aurora on the EJ&E had also been negotiated. This line then ran east from Joliet to Chicago Heights, where it connected with the C.M.StP.&P, continuing east to Griffith Indiana and then north to the Indiana Harbor Industrial Area yard. The A&I also purchased former C.M.StP.&P right-of-ways from Chicago Heights south through Danville Illinois, Terre Haute and Seymour Indiana.

In the early 70’s when the Penn Central offered branch trackage from Kankakee Illinois to Indianapolis Indiana, the A&I jumped at the chance. Having gained a major (to the A&I at least) route to Indianapolis, the A&I system map looked like this:

Now That the easternmost terminal of the A&I had moved, a name change was thought to be needed. Several combinations were tried, with Aurora & Portland (reporting marks AP) winning out. This also honored Portland as the eastern terminus.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, the A&P was in a buying mood, due to the influx of several large investors. It was during this time that the A&P obtained titles to ex Penn Central trackage from Terre Haute to Indianapolis (via Greencastle); from Indianapolis to Louisville Kentucky (via Columbus and Seymour); and from Indianapolis to Cincinnati Ohio (via Shelbyville Indiana). At this time, citing dwindling revenue freight business due to stiff competition from the E.J.&E., the A&P stopped acquiring trackage.

In the early 80’s with the A&P satisfied enough to not want more track, the system map, (with a total trackage of 1,063 miles) looked as it does today. The system as it stands today, gives the A&P access to two river ports (Louisville and Cincinnati) and an International Lake port (Gary).

Principal products hauled by the A&P are; coal, grain, steel products (raw and finished), automobiles, lumber, gravel, limestone, furniture, bricks and other mixed revenues. Additionally four “Hot Shots” intermodal run daily, 3 southbound (GLT, GIC) and 3 northbound (LTG, CIG).

Consequently the modern day A&P is a class 1 railroad interchanging with the following railroads;

CN CSX
BNSF Norfolk Southern
Union Pacific Harbor Belt


New motive power, specialized intermodal handling equipment and excellent yard facilities enable the A&P to remain competitive and offer timely, quality service to both its own customers and to connecting rail links with other lines.
Today the A&P system map looks like this;


I haven't updated it in a while, but I'll get to that.

[D&J RailRoad]

The D&J (Dad & Jon) Railroad was founded in 1984 with the purchase of trackage rights in the basement of a newly constucted home in Stafford, VA. Myself and my 7 year old son ventured into this joint effort as a common interest of passtime. The D&J Railroad began life as a 20' switching yard with a hand full of box cars and a couple of Santa Fe Train Masters. Power was a MRC power supply and a collection of flex track and turnouts.
The collection of rolling stock grew slowly due to military budget constraints, but experienced a unexpected spike in 1985 when my folks told me that they still had a box of trains items I had left there when I left home in 1968. I thought I had sold all that stuff when I was in high school. On my next trip home to Michigan I found several Lionel HO scale freight cars, with sprung trucks and some track, safely packed away and well preserved.
With the addition of the vintage rolling stock, the D&J Railroad grew a bit into a dog bone layout for continuous running. I bit of experimenting followed with teathered control packs and eventually, infra red, wireless control. It was about this time that my son was in high school when he told me, "Dad, trains aren't cool anymore". I was on my own. It was shortly after that when my wife told me that one of the teachers at the school she worked at was a train enthusiast. I invited him over one day to see the layout and our friendship kickoff with plans of expansion and operating ideas. He had part ownership in a hobbyshop down in Alabama and had access to whole price material. The D&J Railroad was on its way to becoming a full basement, around the wall model railroad. Construction began and soon, a 30 foot dogbone style layout turned into 2 1/2 scale miles of double track mainline with a 40' 6 track, lower level, staging yard, a 25' 8 track sorting yard and 14 industries, all run on Digitrax. The D&J Railroad hosted light industry, a modest oil refinery and a medium coal facility. Run through traffic saw long intermodle trains, coal drags, Amtrac and local commuter trains, the occasional mixed frieght along with dead headers running from the classification yard back across the basement to the 16' diesel facility for refueling and servicing. The run through staging yard hosted a rest facility for the on duty helper team that pushed trains up the 60' 2.5% grades to the operating level. The maintenance facility provided full depot level repairs to rolling stock frames, trucks, motors, shells and decoder programming.
I met up with a modular club and built a 16' segment of the modular layout along with a trailer to haul them along with all the club equipment. The D&J Railroad saw club operating sessions, Boy Scout events to earn badges and newspaper coverage.
In 2006, moderization to the right away required that the layout be completely removed. Rolling stock, buildings, scenery material and track were all carefully packed away in hopes of emerging someday, in a new location. The construction contract was awarded and a few months later, fresh drywall, recessed lighting and carpeting graced the former Spartan environment of the layout room and a For Sale sign went up in the front yard. The houseing bust soon followed and hopes to find a new right away faded. The boxes of trains beaconed me to do something. The bug finally bit and I began a new layout which was to be a shelf layout with helix type balloon ends with several levels. Construction on a new layout began in late 2008 and progress on road bed was made to about the 1 mile mark when I came home over the lunch hour and found my wife passed away of a heart attack. My interests in life took a major shift and model railroading no longer had my interest. The layout was once again dismantled and packed away to be sold at a later date. I took as many travel assignments as I could and the house eventually sat pretty much unused for most of 2010. The house was put on the market in late 2010 with no takers until I went on another 2 month travel assignment in 2011. Upon return, the for sale sign went up again in April and a week later an offer was accepted. The model railroad bug had recovered and was steering my interest. I went scouting for a downsized home with accomodations for a model railroad. I was lured to a new construction that had been sitting empty for several months. It was a rambler with a 2064 square foot, unfinished basement that had the utilities and staircase in the middle of room. Less than a month later I had the keys and was moving furniture in. First order of business was to build a yard shed and a 500+ square foot deck along with fortifying the lawn with topsoil, then construction on the basement to prep it for the model railroad. Construction began in early October 2011 and the rest of the story with pictures can be followed in "The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch" thread in the "Layout Design and Construction" forum in the Project Room.
The current plans are for an around the room layout with three peninsulas and a lower level staging yard. Estimated double track running length will be about 5 miles.

[Larry]

Mine is easy to explain. My Railroad covers all parts of the US from North, South, East & West. So, I named it GAP. Gulf-Atlantic-Pacific. It's somewhat Modern & in-between.

[nwdrummer379]

Here's some history of the Akron Canton & Lakeshore Railway Lines

The AC&L was founded in 1992 by it's parent company, the Wheeling & Lake Erie. The WE needed a route extending from the Ohio River @ Marietta, OH to the (fictional) coal docks at Fairport Harbor, OH. on the shores of Lake Erie to increase coal traffic. This required rebuilding the old B&O Valley line south of Dennison, OH and bits and pieces of ex. Norfolk & Western/B&O trackage throughout the Akron/Canton area.

The AC&L shops and home office are located in Senecaville, OH. AC&L currently interchanges with CSX @ Marietta for coal empties/loads and the WE at Gambrinus Yard (Ex. Norfolk & Western property) in Canton. Currently we operate four unit coal trains, 2 empties/2 loads north and south daily, two piggyback intermodal trains from Gambrinus to Marietta daily, and about 3 local freights serving local lumber/grain/fuel and other industries in southern Ohio.

[Photogdad]

Man, these are some great stories. I have been writing down notes as I go along and was going to make a history for my road. I didn't know if I was crazy for asking if others had done something like this...lol. But from the looks of it, I need to start. Excellent stories and thanks for sharing. I will share mine soon. But for starters, The Aspen Timber & Western (reporting marks ATW) was founded in 1940 in Aspen, Colorado by Mark Timber. The ATW had bought the tracks of the Aspen Branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Western. They hauled in goods, supplies and coal as well as empties from the DRGW from the north and shipped out lumber, scrap, live stock and returning empties back to the DRGW. The company lasted 9 years until Mr. Timber sold the company to a investor in the east. A Mr. Charles Vandergriff was that person. He had other investments in other railroads, mainly the Norfolk & Western Rwy. The N&W had abandoned 45 miles of its Radford Division in Pulaski County, Va. So when the ATW was sold off, the Aspen & Colt Creek Railroad was born. Reporting marks ACC and start up date was November 11 1949. Like I said this is what I have so far, and will fill in the blanks and work on it some more then I will post the railroads complete story soon.

[Graff]

I have described the story of my freelance RR here:
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/f...ad.php?t=23644

[Photogdad]

Originally Posted by Graff

I have described the story of my freelance RR here:
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/f...ad.php?t=23644

Yes, I remember reading your story. It is a good one with lots of detail and thank you for sharing.

[jdetray]

The very first thing I did when planning my model railroad was to write its backstory.

Definition of BACKSTORY
: a story that tells what led up to the main story or plot (as of a film)

My layout, Cheshire Rail, is a fictional pike based on the real-life Cheshire Railroad, which once served parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The original Cheshire Railroad was chartered in 1844. It merged into the Fitchburg Railroad in 1890, becoming the Cheshire Branch. In the real world, the New Hampshire and Vermont portions of the line were abandoned in 1970, while the Massachusetts section persisted until 1984.

I’m modeling a small portion of the Cheshire Branch that served the Troy and Keene, New Hampshire, area. I lived in Troy for many years, hence my interest in the area. I’m departing from reality by assuming that the Cheshire Branch was still carrying freight into the 1970’s and calling itself Cheshire Rail, known locally as “The C.R.”

In my scenario, the C.R. remains a part of the B&M/Guilford system – and interchanges with it – so one might expect to see rolling stock and motive power on the C.R. from the B&M.

The biggest local customer for the C.R. is Troy Mills, a sprawling textile mill in the small town of Troy, New Hampshire. Troy Blanket Mills began in the 1850s as a maker of fitted horse blankets but in more modern times made synthetic textile products for the automotive industry. The real Troy Mills remained in operation well into the 21st century. I drove past it on my way to work every day for more than 15 years. It consisted of a hodgepodge of buildings of many styles cascading down a hillside and constructed over a period of 150 years.

For the purposes of my layout, circa 1975, Troy Mills still receives raw materials and ships finished products by rail. The raw materials include dyes and other chemicals produced in the nearby town of Keene. Other materials arrive by rail from “off the layout.” Troy Mills is a large enough complex to have its own small industrial switcher.

The C.R. has a small yard and engine facility in Keene. The yard is conveniently close to the chemical plant, which shares a spur with a small freight depot. Freight arriving at the depot is distributed to the town of Keene by delivery trucks and sent on to Troy Mills by rail. There is an as yet undefined industry in the front left corner. In the real world, many Cheshire Railroad buildings in Keene are still in use today as commercial retail and office space. The turntable pit in Keene has become a public green space.

The track plan is a variant of John Allen's original Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced "gory and defeated").

- Jeff

[Iron Horseman]

Originally Posted by jdetray

The track plan is a variant of John Allen's original Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced "gory and defeated").

Yup, recognized that immediately. Does that show my age?