The last couple of years I have been getting back to my own model railroad. I do not have a large layout. I have roughly a 10ft. x 10ft. layout with coal mine, power plant and some local switching industries. One of these days I would love to expand it. Of course traffic rights would have to be negotiated.
For years I had a small MSN Group called the Gauley River Railroad. Well MSN took all the small groups down. I also know that my railroad had the same name as a real Gauley River Railroad with reporting marks GRIV. I used GRR which turns out were reporting marks for the Georgetown Railroad. So I decided to go with something new and fresh. So I decided upon the Appalachian Northern. It was a toss-up between that and the Appalachia River, but I thought that was too specific. The Appalachian Northern seems a little more user friendly and gives me some leeway, if I ever get expansion rights. (However, before I expand, I have to finish what I am building.) Anyway, I did a Google search for Appalachian Northern and did not get any specific hits. i then went to a website that had railroad reporting marks. ANR was already taken, but ANOR would work just as fine and no other railroad had it. So it is now the Appalachian Northern. I plan to get decal sets soon. Watch for my progress.
A.J.