Welcome to
The Alphabet Route

The Alphabet Route was an agreement between a group of railroads that formed a route to link the Midwest (Chicago, St. Louis, great lake ports) and the Northeast (Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston). It was formed on February 11, 1931, to compete with the larger railroads that had a direct route from the Midwest to the Northeast (Erie Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad). It was named the Alphabet Route because the majority of its members went by their initials, which caused an alphabet soup of routing names. From West to East, these railroads were:

Editorial Board

Scope of Project

The goal of this website is to provide a repository of prototype railroad information for each of the member railroads. Information will include, but not be limited to:

• Railroad history, branch information, interchanges, signaling, paint schemes
• Equipment rosters (Locomotive and rolling stock)
• Prototype Paperwork (forms and publications, timetables, etc)
• Maps and trackcharts
• Links to websites with more prototype information

In addition, a library section will show books, articles, tapes, and DVDs published on the railroad.

Finally, a Modeling section will list available models for both N and HO scales, give tips for painting/decaling, and links to websites of models.

What it will NOT be is a photo repository.

How To Contribute

If you have files, data, or other information which you feel would be of use to one of these sites, please contact the appropriate webmaster and describe what you have. Please do not e-mail attachments to them! Wait until they direct you to do so. Thank you!

We could use a few "experts" for our editorial team who are extremely familiar with one or more of the Alphabet Route's member railroads. If you have the time and are interested, please contact the appropriate webmaster and describe your background and qualifications. All candidates must be approved by the lead webmaster and publisher.

We also need a webmaster for a few of the Alphabet Route member railroads. Webmasters must know how to do HTML programming and know how to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Webmasters work with contributors and the editorial team to develop the site. If you have the time and are interested, please contact the lead webmaster and describe your background and qualifications. All candidates must be approved by the publisher.