OK, we've all heard about freelance railroads and even made up towns. But has anybody made out their own country? This may be one of my crazy ideas here, but that never stopped me before from posting about them. To me it's about the trains.. I'm no flag waver nor hater. But I've had people in the past criticize me in person for running Santa Fe instead of a Canadian railroad. I have literately heard "your a Canadian, you should be running Canadian trains..." and "Why do you want to run American stuff" And it's not about that to me, it about trains, what catches my eye etc. And what I like is Santa Fe. I live alone and very much a loner, So nobody see my trains but me and whatever photo I occasionally post online. I've never put flags on my layout (even though I have seen pics of other people layouts and they make nice details to include) So I've been playing with the idea of freelancing a country and plan to adopt the flag of the Conch Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic Which probably doesn't have any trains at all in the real world... So just wondering has anybody else done anything like this? But PLEASE do not make this a political thread, it's about freelancing and how far do you go? And what motivated you?
OK. Here is a little known country known as the Republic of Fredonia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredonian_Rebellion
No reason you can't, but the locos and rolling stock usually give away the location.........even between Canada and the US, there are differences between models that give away whether you are north or south of the border. Are you planning on having a Santa Fe RR in your new country or are you planning on a custom road name? My personal opinion is it's YOUR RR and you should run whatever you want.........won't the people who think you should be running Canadian trains STILL think that even if your country is fictional?
There is a British modeler who invented a Latin American country for his narrow gauge railroad. Mainly as an excuses to mix rolling stock from Europe, England, and the USA. Here is a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hrNRkVOEPk As far as the Conch Republic goes, the FEC did have a line to Key West but it was abandoned well before Conch Republic was dreamed up.
The answer is yes. Although I personally have never gone that far, I know of a few who have done so. In HOn30 there are several folks who have invented fictional "Latin American" nations to model sugar cane plantation operations.
I've thought about doing this in G scale. Some small Central or South American mythical country with a small railroad system would be fun.
As things evolved in my modeling I finally settled on an island railroad where the island never had one as far as I can find in my researching. The location had in the early years a vibrant mining, quarrying, and logging operations ongoing. It also had a fish cannery and a busy fishing fleet, along with a very rich agricultural area. That became the basis for a very diversified bunch of rolling stock. The location is off the Washington State coast and very close to Canada thus the equipment that shows via car float is from dang near everywhere but more heavily GN, SP&S, NP, WP, and CP and CN. Even some CB&Q will show up. The railroad is run by the Turtle Creek under contract. Turtle Creek uses a variety of equipment purchased or leased from other roads. They also own a small amount of their own rolling stock. I picked the road for the simple reason I liked the name and the dashing turtle and because there were decals available to do it. So if a CP or a WP loco show up on the island it is nothing more than a short term leased loco. If one looks at an old railroad atlas from about 1919 there are any number of short lines that no one has heard of that existed in every state and some in Canada. Today there are short lines that have trackage in 8 or 10 states without any connection between them. And a lot use leased or 2nd hand equipment, sometimes still in the original colors. Freelancing gives one a lot of options in time and locale plus equipment. Also if one looks today the Canadian roads have a fairly large presence in the US especially in the Northern tier of states. Twenty years ago I was seeing CP units in Potomac yard in Virginia coming in mixed with other road power in the lash-up. Today one can spot Canadian and US based power on both sides of the US and Canadian border all the way to Texas and the Mexican border. When you freelance you get to use whatever you want and you even get to rewrite history.
I'll definitely stick with the Santa Fe line, in fact I just bought my first new loco in ages I want things to be realistic, with out necessarily being tied to a real place if that makes sense. So my semi fiction country can just be what I want it to be. Take thinks from where ever and mix and match as I want. I'm sure it would drive somebody that fussy about detail crazy.. But it my little world And part of the reason I started this thread was to see what others have done, both for curiosity and to gather new ideas
I don't see why not. And you could make up your own decals if you wanted to go that far. Paint, Decal it make up your own signs for businesses the whole thing can be made up as you wish
"Freelancia" ...has a nice ring to it...lol **Hmmmmm...dibs on the name !!!!! "Principality of Freelancia"...go ahead...say that 3 times fast...roflmao
Heck, you could make-up your own language for your own country and its railroad, and print decals in that language. Or even use Klingon or Vulcan. (No doubt they had SOMETHING like a railroad in their ancient pasts, right?) But, I think the real issue is how much work do you want to go through to make-up something. And what motivates you to do that work instead of just buying and running whatever you like, as-is. For me, in HO scale, I would be happy modeling the B&O or Pennsy because there is a lot of stock available for those roads in that scale, and I grew-up around them. But I would need a ficticious branch line to justify shrinking everything into an scale layout that doesn't require a "big box store" type building to scale down a REAL place. On hte other hand, in n-scale, there is so little actual B&O or Pennsy prototype stock available for my favored period (about 1950), that I really need to get stuff based on all sorts of railroads to get pieces that I like. Then I realized: the ready-to-run manufacturers don't mind sticking paint schemes and lettering for any railroad on their models, no matter whether those railroads ever had anything like their models. If it will sell more of an item, they will decorate it any way that is popular. Case-in-point: Model Power/Microtrains sells a nice 4-4-0 model of a prototype that it says was built in the early 1900s and operated into the 1950s, and paints it for all sorts of railroads, including B&O and Pennsy. But, a look at "B&O Power, 1829-1964" indicates that B&O never had a 4-4-0 that looks anything like that model, and that all of their 4-4-0s were scrapped by 1920. And, the real Pennys versions had their distinctive firebox. But, I WANT one of those models (and bought one). So, some fantasy is going to be REQUIRED to run it. But, what am I really gaining by whatever fantasy I create? Am I defending myself from the know-it-alls who can look at a wonderfully detailed model and feel the need to point-out that the rivet count is wrong on the bottom detail? Or, am I just trying to make it fit my mental image of what I WANT? I think the former is a waste of time, because it CAN always fail against a person who just HAS to find fault. So, I think it is best to do what makes YOU happy. In my case, I am happy imagining that a small railroad that interconnects with either B&O or Pennsy had managed to survive and thrive by acquiring engines and stock from wherever and painting it to show their ownership. So, I got myself into air-brushing and buying custom decals. And they will run in a ficticious landscape that LOOKS like Pennsylvania or Maryland or perhaps a little farther, with lots of excuses for revenue, including a college town and mines and manufacturing that I personally like and can fit into my space easily. To me, that is a little work for a lot of mental satisfaction. But, I have NO problem with a guy who wants to run interesting trains instead of painting them. If a guy wants to run trains from different ends of the continent based on prototypes 100 years apart, alternating past the same station on his layout, I am going to look for what HIS image is and, while with him, jump into HIS fantasy and ENJOY it with him, for whatever fun it makes available. So, just choose your friends wisely and you won't need to worry about any rivet counters with bad attitudes. Do whatever makes YOU happy. Even if it involves decals in Klingon.
http://s822.photobucket.com/user/smithy9795/media/Klingon_Logo.gif.html Would look cool on the nose of a locomotive
That's KING George to you, mere peasant. :teeth: I like Arveelandia, that one is fun and I will be adopting that at some level. I recently have gone full-time RV'ing so not only will my layout live in one, so will I. :wideeyes: I'm loving it though....can't wait to get my layout going though. To the original post, I think it's a fun idea...especially if you do a "Flag Scheme" loco. (like UP does with the US Flag)
Maletrain, Hear! Hear! If I. Might suggest, Freelancia National Railroad. Motto: It sure beats walking! Motive Power: GE 44 Ton Switcher Patched to FNR 1 ex SP GP-35, painted Flor. Pink with Black Top and sills. Road number FNR 20. Features overnight passenger service from Flushetta to the Capitol 29 miles away at Freelan. if you use any of this I get a printed ticket to hang on my wall! Merry Christmas Gents!
