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Hello everyone. My friend and i have been gradually making up a fictional railroad which will occupy the N scale switching layout I plan to build.

The official name lf the railroad is the Pioneer Central & Northern Plains. It was formed in 2010 by the merging of 3 North Dakotan class 2s. The Pioneer Central (fictional), Central Northern (fictional) and the Northern Plains (real). The first 2 railroads were independently made up by myself and my friend. The Pioneer Central was made up by me and the Central Northern was made up by my friend. For a quick run-down of tbeir histories:

The Pioneer Central was started in 1950 by the Pioneer Lines shipping company based out of Duluth, MN. The young railroad’s primary purpose at that time was to transport grain, limestone, coal, and other bulk cargoes from their origin in the American midwest to the parent company’s loading docks at Duluth, MN and Superior, WI. Originally named the Pioneer Lines Railroad (PLRR for short), the railroad survived for the next 2 1/2 decades with funding from the parent company.

In 1976, Pioneer Lines cut off ties with the PLRR and the railroad was forced to drastically downsize and rebrand to the Pioneer Central. The loss of funding from the parent company was catastrophic, and the railroad lost a huge amount of its network. Its new corporate headquarters were based in Hillsboro, ND, and it operated what is irl the BNSF Hillsboro subdivision in ND as well as serving the grain elevators of nearby branchlines. It struggled along for the next couple decades until eventually in the late 1990s, Pioneer Central fonally began to bounce back.

The Central Northern was created by my friend, who has changed its story several times. This is the most recent: The Central Northern railroad was founded in 1953 by a group of farmers who woshed to have greater control over the shipments of grain by rail in their area. They acquired what is now BNSF’s Devil’s lake subdivision from the Great Northern and began shipping mainly grain. It operated very successfully for the next half century, barely toeing the line at being considered a Class 2.

In 2009, talks began between the 3 railroads of a merger. Originally, my friend and I had wanted to have a merger between only our railroads, but decided it would make more sense to involve a third. So, we decided to throw the Northern Plains into the mix. The result was the Pioneer Central & Northern Plains, the largest Class 2 railroad in North Dakota. It operates all of what is currently NPR trackage as well as the irl BNSF Hillsboro subdivision, part of the irl BNSF Devil’s Lake subsivision, the BNSF Grand Forks subdivision, a large branchline of irl CPKC which branches off the CPKC Portal sub south of Minot, and some made up routes. My friend and i still have to draw up plans of where they operated in Minnesota.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading my very simplified account of my fictional railroad. Heres an image of the network map we made:

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