Note that most respondents to this topic list their favorite railroads as those that they grew up with. Also notice that virtually no one who grew up in Hawaii has even responded. Being around trains, or any other specific activity, in one's youth can certainly have an influence on their later interests.
I grew up in Eugene, Oregon, where until about age 10 Southern Pacific cab forwards were the norm on mainline freight trains, black (not "Daylight") GS-6 4-8-4's pulled the secondary passenger train and Daylight Alco PA's headed the streamliners. A block away Spokane Portland & Seattle Alco RS switchers trundled along 5th Avenue to the southern end of the Oregon Electric Railway.
By my teenage years SP's "Bloody Nose" diesels paled in comparison to the previous decade, and when it was time to pick a college I headed off to Central Washington State in Ellensburg, almost entirely because the campus was bisected by the still-electrified Milwaukee Road mainline. Most mornings I could view 50-year-old boxcabs from the bathroom window of my dorm. The Olympian Hiawatha had been discontinued four years earlier, but if I wanted to see passenger trains the Northern Pacific mainline a mile away still had the North Coast Limited and Mainstreeter.
In the half century since, I've had the opportunity to visit 49 states by train, every Canadian province (all by train except PEI) and much of Mexico. I have added more "favorites" in the past 30 or 40 years (including the now gone narrow gauge lines in Newfoundland and Yucatan). I have modeled in N, HO, S, On30 and O scales and have tried to avoid model roadnames for which there is overwhelming commercial production. That is, why try to keep up with all of the NYC, PRR or ATSF releases? My exploration of Mexico's railroads came in the 1976-1983 period, and the five major companies of those years were all absorbed or renamed by 1990. So, I collect or create models of NdeM, FCP, Ch-P, S-BC and FUS diesels and trains as they appeared circa 1980.
For model railroad operation I have an On30 port area layout inspired by San Francisco's former State Belt Railroad. It has extremely tight radius curves and functions entirely with 18-foot cars and short engines. No, this isn't entirely Bachmann equipment, as I have scratchbuilt more than a dozen swayback boxcars and determine their destinations with a roll of different colored, 12-sided dice. Each car has a different color and each industry has a number.
Gil Hulin
