Roadnames and Railroads Represented on the MLRR

As the website's name implies, the Railroad primarily consists of Amtrak trains that can be found in the Northeast Corridor and trains west of Chicago.  Originally, the small space set aside for the railroad's right-of-way left little in the way of capacity and thus limited the MLRR's roadname diversity.  Considering the fact that Amtrak had a major influence on Kyle's interest in trains, it was only natural that the railroad primarily operate Amtrak trains.  In the past, the MLRR has been heavily criticized for the absence of freight operations by other Model Railroaders, but unlike many other model railroads, the MLRR was able to operate efficiently despite its lack of what would be considered by most, an "acceptable" layout, let alone the dedicated space at the time.  Given the re-development of MLRR facilities in mid-2008, the MLRR was intially able to incorporate 3 freight railroads.  These railraods included CSX, Norfolk Southern and Santa Fe railroads.  Since that time, freight equipment has been slowly acquired over time and will steadily continue while remaining conscious of the amount of storage space available.  Most recently, the MLRR added two more railroads to its list; Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway.

Due to the increasing time constraints faced by the MLRR, the railroad has found it increasingly difficult to operate most Amtrak trains as most of their run times require more than three hours in run time and in order to maintain some level of activity on the railroad the MLRR incorporated Metro-North and New Jersey Transit commuter train service into its operations in late 2003. In 2008, the number of commuter railroads grew with the addition of Metra and the most recent MARC commuter trains.  The addition of these commuter trains also helped bring diversity to the railroad as well as compliment the railroad's existing Amtrak fleet.  The MLRR has also implemented "Amtrak California" service along the San Joaquin and Capitol Corridors.  Interest in this aspect of Amtrak operations grew slowly since Kyle's trackside exposure in 1997 at Bakersfield, CA.

Passenger

   

 

 

 Freight