Been primarily a Santa Fe modeller and fan as long as I can remember, don't know why though. I also model Japanese which is considered to be in the far east although its west of the US but north of here.:tb-biggrin:
Well, that part's easy, as I'm not really interested in any of the current Class 1s. At one time, I would've said east. I'm not sure if that was true even then. Sure, my favorite roads (Conrail - the last Class 1 I was interested in - and PRR) were eastern, but my next choices (BN, SF, SP, old UP) were all western. I confess to the common lack of interest in midwestern roads and the ACL/SAL/SCL/Family/Seaboard system, though I always liked L&N. I was never that interested in the smaller Conrail predecessors (Reading, LV), though I had a soft spot for the EL and the Erie before it. I have developed interest in NYC, PC, Southern, D&H and Susquehanna - always liked WP - I can say that, when it comes to Canada, I'm more interested in the same roads in the east (but I like both BCR and ONR). And when my interests expanded to include Brazil, Germany and Australia... I can't answer the question.
Well,I've lived my 53 years right between Scranton and Wilkes Barre,PA,smack in the middle of Anthracite country,so,Eastern for me.[BUT!!!]I grew up less than a mile from 2 LV mains,[passenger and freight,totally seperate from each other..] and less than a mile from 2 EL tracks,one the DL&W Bloom,the other an Ex Erie,and less than a mile from a CNJ/D&H shared 2 track main,an abandoned interurban called the Laurel Line,the NYO&W,and the PRR/PC.Add that to the dozen or so shortlines we've had here over the years,the fact that I live close enough to Steamtown to smell it,I live 300 feet from the CP and Reading and Northern mains,NS runs on both of them,and all the mergers,pool trains,takeovers[NYS&W,Guilford on D&H,N&W on D&H & LV,Chessie/C&O/B&O on CNJ,BN on EL,UP & NKP on the LV,sure I'm missing dozens more..] Add that to the fact ANYTHING could show up here because of leases and pooling,even though I model the east,I can pretty much model ANYTHING,ANY year,and get away with it!! At one time or another,there were probably 40 or more yards withing 10 miles of me..Hey,right now I'm painting a primer gray U50 with a black "7000' on the cab,EL tested them here before they were painted/shipped by GE!!! How's that for diversity?
Confused! I'm sooo confused! I grew up in the Mid-West, presently model the Nickel Plate and I'm very seriously considering doing a layout based in Cascade, WA. So I'm not sure how to answer...east for now west for later!?! Since I have motive power in both east and west road names, I'm going to say both!! I love this hobby....refine, refine then do it all over again (it's all fun though).:tb-biggrin: Chuck
I grew up in Vestal, NY (near Binghamton) and my dad pastored a church in Campville,NY. Vestal was served by the old Lackawanna and the first train I rode was the Phoebe Snow. Behind the church were the Erie-Lackawanna and LV tracks (shared with D&H) between Binghamton and Owego,NY. We used to see all three lines in action, including some D&H Sharks in the early 70's. In my married life we've lived in Ithaca,NY, Reading, PA, Utica,NY, Bethlehem, PA, Lehighton, PA and now Wellsboro,PA. So I'm very partial to eastern railroads, but my primary focus has been Erie- Lackawanna, LV, NYC and most recently D&H. I model the Gang Mills, NY to Newbury Jct, PA section of shared NYC/Erie trackage, with the Erie spur to Blossburg,PA and the NYC spur to Wellsboro, PA.
Western Roads for me I was born and raised in Northern California so SP and WP were dominate. Later my Mother returned to her home in Washington state and there I discoverd GN/NP/SP&S/MILW... Of those I fell for the GN. Then discovered you can't model JUST GN w/o the others!! Oh well.... just gave me that many more possibilities is all. :tb-biggrin: :tb-cool: :thumbs_up:
I voted for Eastern Roads since I model the Milwaukee,I also like the Rock Island,and The Chicago and Northwestern.
Eastern/Western is a question to ask for post 1995 modeling: BNSF, UP, CSX, NS with CN, KCS and CP plus regionals. Going back, that's when it was fun. 1950-1960: New England carriers (NH, MEC, BM, BAR, MEC, CV), Anthracite lines (LV, RDG, DLW, NYOW), Cement haulers (LNE, LHR), Bridge Lines (D&H, NYSW, WM, PWV) plus the trunklines (Erie, NKP, B&O) plus the big ones (PRR, NYC). Then the coal haulers (C&O, NW, VGN, CCR, L&N ). The lines to Florida (ACL, SAL), the Southern regionals and shortlines (CG, FEC, M&B, A&R, NCSTLR) I don't have all night with this. The midwest Granger lines could keep you going for years. So east or west isn't an easy question to answer.
Eastern- mostly western Pa.-steam era. Only western interest is Colorado narrow gauge, and D&RG/W in general.
I grew up he in SoCal, so I naturally like SF,UP,SP, & WP. But over the past few years I've been dabbling in Wabash, Leigh Valley.
I was born out west, but moved to CT in the late 60s and watched Conrail take over the NH... I am working on a layout that will combine the NYC, B&O, PRR, NH, B&A and maybe the Erie, D&H & CV lines tossed in for kicks. I will run western road freight cars (and Canadian) in the mix. My brain hurts... baffled:
The western stuff is what I have see mostly. The eastern cars and locomotives usualy come through every now and then, sometimes almost constantly! For some reason eastern isn't that interesting J.M.O.:tb-confused:
I rode the San Francisco Chief from Stockton, CA to Chicago in 1954. A good friend of my father was a Santa Fe dispatcher. Need I say more?
Where to Start Well, Dad grew up in Lehigh Valley country (Bethlehem, PA!); he got me interested in PRR. I grew up in Baltimore, so you can guess I'm a B&O/C&O man,with some WM thrown in just because. When Dad retired south to Anderson, SC, he went big for NS, but that's a post-merger line. When MR magazine did their Clinchfield portable layout, they got me interested in that line, even though it wasn't a Class 1 (except for the way they ran it!). My best-running steamer IS my Athearn Challenger, and it's marked for the Clinchfield, so I guess my Eastern line is my favorite, and I'll stick with Clinchfield and C&O/B&O. B&O is the only train I ever rode before Amtrak, back in the late '50's from Baltimore to DC one time. I gotta go with Eastern lines; besides, green trees allow me to hid a MULTITUDE of scenery sins!
As you can tell by my choise of railroad harolds, I'm more into the Western side of things. You know you left off Northern Roads, you kno wthe ones north of the boarder, Like CP, CN, BC....
Having had the privilege to see railroads in action from coast to coast in my life (more into shortlines that the Class 1s), I must say I prefer railroading west of the Mississippi River. Obviously, this means Frisco, altho I also like MP, Katy, the C&NW, Santa Fe, SP, and the pre-Borg Union Pacific.
Eastern! For me it's all CSX and Norfolk Southern with a little Florida East Coast sprinkled in for good measure. All 3 meet in Jacksonville, FL where I grew up and railfanned with my father.
Well its perfectly logical to me! I live and grew-up along the east coast of the US. I've never been west of the Mississippi River... so it's obvious to feel a certain devotion to.... WESTERN RAILROADS... cause "The West IS Best. :huh: As for a reason... well... there are mountain and beautiful scenery in both halves of the US. There does seem to be more diversity of scenery in the west though. The real reason was my first N scale trains were Santa Fe sets. Later when I was going to expand... the best N scale locos were in mostly western roadnames. My final decision came when I bought a Rio Grande PA-1 & PB-1 (Concor/Kato)... then began to acquire the ConCor/Rivarossi D&RGW passenger cars to go with them. I really liked the passenger cars more-so than freight. I simply chose to stay western roads from then on. Western passenger consists were usually the nicest
