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 Posted - April 10 2017 : 4:40:05 PM
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One of my favorite subjects are freelance railroads. Proper freelances, with their own paint schemes, rosters, and reporting marks. There's our resident Lincoln Champaign and Peoria, and I have the personal Walkersville Northern, but there are so many more. Sadly, these days freelance railroads seem uncommon in the days of RtR, and many fall to eBay where they're bought and sold as parts donors and display pieces. A pet project of mine is to catalog the remains of these personal basement empires, no matter how small or large. From the greats to the tiny pikes, I drudge through eBay's best and worst to bring you model railroading's forgotten railroads.
We'll start with the few railroads that I have multiples of, before moving onto those that I have only one or two things for.
Belmont & Southern - Reporting mark: BS or BSR - "The Great Lakes Route"
BS 7419  - This car has a unique scheme among Belmont & Southern boxcars, as well as being stenciled "Leased to ST&U" another (presumed) freelance that I have nothing on.
BSR 15029  - One of two Belmont & Southern plug-door boxcars, the only in this scheme.
BSR 16327  - The Belmont & Southern's only sliding door boxcar. Shares the scheme of BS 15029
BSR 20054  - The other of the two plug doors harbors this unique orange and white scheme.
BSR 925  - A small cupola caboose, with block Belmont & Southern lettering
BSR 982  - One of many bay-window cabeese, and the first car to display the railroad's motto "The Great Lakes Route"
BSR 974  - The sister to BSR 982, displaying a slightly more scarred "The Great Lakes Route"
BSR 1129  - Another bay-window with white block lettering, evocative of the Southern Railroad's bay-window fleet.
BSR 1317 -  - Say hello the the Belmont & Southern's final car, a unique all-red bay window with yellow lettering.
BSR 6 -  - Despite the rest of the Belmont & Southern being relatively modern, the only locomotive I found was this tiny 0-4-0, number 6.
Next up will be the Monocacy & Bay City R.R, a transition era line with both steam and diesel.
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
Edited by - Pokemonprime on April 10 2017 4:44:26 PM
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Posted - April 11 2017 : 10:35:22 AM
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The Monocacy & Bay City Railroad, The Maryland Line - Reporting mark: MBC
Locomotives:
MBC 1 
MBC 12 
MBC 16 
MBC 20 
Freight Rolling Stock:
MBC 17515  A Train Miniature car, I like this guy's style. This car also arguably has the "best" lettering.
MBC ?????  An unnumbered car, and an older style of boxcar (truss rods and archbars, maybe a MofW car? Certainly not an active freight one)
MBC 782  The only car to bear the slogan "The Maryland Line"
MBC 84 
Passenger Rolling Stock
MBC 23 
MBC 35 
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - April 13 2017 : 12:56:52 PM
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I like seeing original creations like these. Thanks for posting, keep them coming if you have more! 
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Posted - April 13 2017 : 1:19:54 PM
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Yes, this thread is a good idea. I will have to check my own collection for free lanced railroad items.
Proudly keeping Tyco Pluggers out of landfills since 2016
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Posted - April 13 2017 : 3:33:18 PM
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quote:Yes, this thread is a good idea. I will have to check my own collection for free lanced railroad items.
Originally posted by Srenchin - April 13 2017 : 1:19:54 PM
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yeah finding freelanced names at train shows is fun tho
I might have one of these & JNXT sent me 2 & I did truck one
Did run across this one at the museum in Alliance, NE
next time I go to museum I will get the info on this freelanced line 
wish I could get that caboose #1129 since it is my house number 
Edited by - microbusss on April 13 2017 3:35:13 PM
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Posted - April 13 2017 : 3:47:56 PM
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Here are a couple of mine...
Interlake Vulcanian Railroad - Created by Charles Martin and featured in Model Railroader issue, Volume 39, Number 10, October 1972...
This next one also contains some from a private line called Signal Hill. I purchased a pretty sizable prtion of this collection when it was listed on eBay back in ~2005. Pretty nice stuff.
Sean
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!" - Mario Andretti!
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Posted - April 13 2017 : 8:29:19 PM
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Odd, somehow I missed all these replies! Yes, I have more coming, a couple more multi-piece railroads before I move onto railroads for which I've found only one or two things. Next up for the multi-piece railroads are
BFL - The Falcon Lines
Spruce Creek Railroad
Mountain States Railroad
Maryland Central
Among the ranks is also a "pun" named freelance, in the style of the Gorre & Daphetid, the "Wobegon & Rikiti"
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
Edited by - Pokemonprime on April 13 2017 8:32:33 PM
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Posted - April 13 2017 : 9:02:37 PM
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BFL - The Falcon Lines - Trained To Pursue
BFL 649 
BFL 829  - Look at those headlamps!
BFL 898 
BFL 1702 & 1703 
BFL 1753 
BFL 1762 
BFL 1845 & 1847 
BFL 1849  - Any clue what kind of locomotive this is?
BFL 7600 
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - April 14 2017 : 01:13:56 AM
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AWesome thread!
BFL 1849 is a high-hood GP38-2 (2 fans on the back). Life-Like.
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Posted - April 14 2017 : 1:53:27 PM
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Another one I have three locomotives from... only one of which I have photos of is the Carolsburg & Genesville Railroad... The other two locomotives are in storage...The RR used to have a dedicated website, but it is now long gone. Now all that is visible are these couple random shots.
Sean
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!" - Mario Andretti!
Edited by - Mustangs_n_Trains on April 14 2017 4:40:16 PM
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Posted - April 14 2017 : 3:35:11 PM
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quote:| The RR used to have a dedicated website, but it is now long gone. Now all that is viable are these couple random shots. |
And this is exactly why I set up this thread to preserve freelances, since they are commonly and quickly forgotten and thrown to the wayside.
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - April 14 2017 : 9:09:59 PM
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wasn't someone in here doing a What If railroad?
using the Pacific Electric? 
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Posted - April 16 2017 : 4:44:02 PM
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Not sure about that Microbusss...
Here are the restof my Carolsburg & Genesville Railroad fleet. I dug them out for photos. Not intentionally of course. Just happened to open a box and there they were, so I grabbed my camera.
Sean
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!" - Mario Andretti!
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Posted - May 05 2017 : 8:29:11 PM
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I picked this up at York last weekend - a Mantua/Tyco GP-20 that was apparently in Penn Central livery (note the chipped paint) then re-painted/decorated as "Penn Western #23".
Oddly enough, there IS a famous Penn Western layout, but it's S scale...
[URL=http://s100.photobucket.com/user/JimHayden/media/20170504_215014_zpsqzxx6gzy.jpg.html]  [/URL]
I also picked-up an MDC/Roundhouse Gorre & Daphetid business car kit (now assembled).
[URL=http://s100.photobucket.com/user/JimHayden/media/20170504_215047_zpsf0szchgo.jpg.html]  [/URL]
Edited by - Vanderbilt on May 05 2017 8:33:18 PM
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Posted - May 14 2017 : 1:41:06 PM
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here is a wooden lit up car or trolley I got from a train show
need to figure out a way to remove bulb & replace it 
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