# Out of the Closet



## markperr (Jan 7, 2008)

Okay, after nearly ten long years of languishing in the shadows, I've finally decided to just come out publicly and admit it. 

I don't have a name for my railroad(s)!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif 

Technically I have four layouts on my property. Two indoor overhead layouts, one in the front yard, one in the back yard. When it comes to theming or naming them, I have a total mental block. I enjoy building them, usually in an adhoc fashion, sometimes not even knowing what the final result will be until shortly before I lay the last section of track. I also enjoy watching them run around, though not as much as I enjoy watching the children watch them run around. 

So I know I'm not alone out there, but just how many are there of you who share in this dilema? I don't know why, after a decade, I can't come up with a theme. The closest thing that I have ever come to is to build an urban layout with elevated rail lines and interurbans, but that hasn't even made it outside the confines of my skull. Admittedly, it still pings at the back of my brain, but I've entered that "kids in college" phase of my life and large sums of green are no longer readily available. 

Still, even with this dream layout I keep pondering, there is no title for it. Just a blank. It almost makes one feel incomplete within the hobby./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif 

(sigh)/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif 

Mark


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

This is a desperate plea for help! 

Help Mark with his unnamed railroad crisis!


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Puns are always fun... 

I have always envied folk that have managed to utilize their last name in the name of their RR. "Winter Valley" comes to mind... has a nice ring to it. It seems that short last names that can have a second definition makes for good names. Since your last name is short and is a homonym (sounds like) for the word "Pear", you could easily add a topographical word to it to get a good name. Pear Mountain, Pear Valley, Pear Plaines, etc. 

Run two trains that haul scraps from the local Pear Canery and call them "Perr's Pair of Pear Pareings trains". 

Then you mention that you have 4 layouts... there was a large RR called the 'Big Four" at one time... could you be modeling that era and location? Just steal... errr I mean... appropriate that name. 

You also have a good first name for using in a motto.... "Pear Valley RR, The Mark of Excellance." 

Let those creative juices flow (pear juice?), (or steal somebody else's ideas!)


----------



## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow. I like the "Pear" thing, but what if Mark pronounces his last name more like "Purr". Could have a Cat theme, like Cat Mountain or Kitty Central. Or even Kitty City Southern. Probably get silly from there, with having a three cities : Lyon, Tygar, and Behr (Oh my!) 

If that's all too silly for you, then you could always pick the initials from your family, and incorporate them in to some sort of a RR name using city or geographical names. Friend of mine has the Petersburg and Charlottesville Railroad. He's the guy always running here or there with his famous Budd Car. 

You could always have a railroad with no name. Who was it that had a horse with no name? CSN?


----------



## Guest (Jun 30, 2008)

How About the IN AND OUT R.R. kinda cetchy yes...../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif 
Nick...


----------



## Bill4373 (Jan 3, 2008)

Get out a state map and look at the names of towns. Every state has a lot of unusual names. I like "Schoolhouse" (PA). In Michigan there is Twin Lake and Twin Lakes (I'll bet each town get a lot of the other ones mail).


----------



## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

If you want to identify with your actual geographic location start with the name of your town, your general locale and even your street name. You can then also add "Western", "Southern", or a river or lake name, etc., to it if you want. The Port Orford Coast came about because of the first two listed and the parent Old Mill Lumber Company from the name of my street, Old Mill Road. Gives a neat sense of place to the railroad. 

Whatever you decide try not to be too cute. Those types of names can become tiring after awhile. Even John Allen once stated a regret over his railroad's name as famous as it was, Gorre & Daphetid (Gory & Defeated).


----------



## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

BTW in case you didn't know.... 

"Big Four" was a nickname for *Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis*. Part of New York Central System.


----------



## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I named mine after the Toilet Um I mean dump, no no I mean Town I live in. New River Arizona


----------



## MikeK (Jan 3, 2008)

I used a portion of each of my daughters' names (Allison and Elizabeth) and the fact that we live about a mile from the Pacific Ocean to derive the "Allibeth Pacific Railroad". And with some creative help from Stan Cedarleaf, the Allibeth Pacific Railroad runs the Sunset Route of The Golden State.


----------



## MikeK (Jan 3, 2008)

And I should have added to the post above that the "San Cristobal Mining Company" is named after our son who died at birth.


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I know of a "Round Tree & Dogpen" railroad. 

I had in mind some appalachian short line and called my apartment/office "Asylum," so I named it "Asylum Valley N&D," 'cause it sounded like something you'd find in the mountains. 

Or maybe a pun on how it's made? One of the cleverest I've heard is the "Door Hollow Shortline." It's a modular layout made of hollow doors. 

What are your kids' or grandkids' names?


----------



## Larry T (Jan 2, 2008)

*...originally an indoor overhead system, our first railroad was going to be completed "come **** or Highwater", hence today we have the H&H RY... *


----------



## Skip (Jan 2, 2008)

"Crook's Hollow" is/was a preconfederation mill town and physical antecedent to where I now live. All that is left is a mill pond (and some local turkey wants to drain that) and the corner of a stone foundation of the mill. And a plaque. The old maps show a bustling community with a street, shops, homes. All gone. Greensville is what it became later, another little hamlet, but long after CH was gone. My railroad is a collection of "cast-offs" - the kind of stock a little mill town might have gathered as it entered the 20th century. Occasionally, Big Freight rolls through, picking up whatever the mill town has been able to assemble, drops off a few supplies, but mostly barrels right on through (unless Station Master Herk forgets to take the mill caboose off the mainline again. Wasn't pretty the last time). George the commuter is still standing at the station waiting for a train. Nobody has the heart to tell him passenger service ended in 1936. 











CN, CP and TH&B roll through. The mill owns a motley collection of NG stuff, mostly throwaways from out west - an old shay, couple of steamers, some old wooden cars.


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Other cool garden railroad names I've heard of: 

Busted & Still Running 
Root Stump & Briar 
Crooked & Weedy 
Rusted & Decrepit 

What are nearby geographical features?


----------



## markperr (Jan 7, 2008)

Well, lots of fine names and suggestions. I guess I'm the only one left that doesn't have a name for his railroad. One truly IS the loneliest number./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif 

Mark


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, there ya go. The "No Name RR". And renumber your engine to #1.


----------



## ohioriverrailway (Jan 2, 2008)

How about fallen flags in your area, or old short lines that were merged into larger systems?


----------



## Skip (Jan 2, 2008)

Start by naming your four "geographic" areas ie, (HiRail East, HiRail West (or whatever compass point), or the "St. Cloud EL" (motto: "_you can't get here from there"_or, "_trainliness is next to Godliness"_), and then the front and the back runs - think of them as places the trains go to and from. ultimately becoming "The St. Cloud, Frontage and Lotline Railway"... say, abbreviated the SC F & L... 

For example, since mine is an historical fallacy it can be what ever I want. In practical terms its a folded dogbone layout - one end is Crook's Hollow, the other is "ROW"("rest of the world"), and Greensville is somewhere in between (archeologists are still looking for its exact location). Have a flight of fancy - you're a grown man playing with small trains, fer God's sake! /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif


----------



## rwjenkins (Jan 2, 2008)

I have pretty much the opposite problem. For the last couple of years my layout has been named the Merrimack Valley & Eastern, named for the river that runs through the run-down old mill town where I live, but a name which could just as easily place the hypothetical prototype railroad somewhere along one of the more scenic stretches of the river. The only problem is, I haven't got around to building the layout yet!


----------



## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

My layout got its name from a segment of the Blake Edwards comedy "The Great Race" where our heroes stop in the dusty desert town of "Borracho" as a kid I never got the joke, I did later of course but I always loved the sound of the word "Borracho" it just rolls off the tongue and when it came time to chose a name for my road it just came naturally while watching the flick one evening, Hmmm ...Borracho, Railroad, I added "Springs" as it then sounded like real place that could very easily have existed somewhere in the dry American southwest, "Borracho Springs"


----------



## Guest (Jul 2, 2008)

i started out with two LGB-Stainzes. they have the letters "LGB" on their side. 
so i took out a dictionary and collected words, that start with these three letters. 
out came the "Lost Gulf Branch" line. 
(following up, my coming up next layout will have the Lost Gulf Branch connecting the harbor to the mine, and the mainline named "S&G RR" Southern and Gulf RailRoad)


----------

