Dash8 40c

Bon jour,  Gerard, and welcome.

I was trying to see if we could narrow down the area you might be interested in, by looking at the the Dash8 40c as it was only use by a few railroads (from wikipedia)

However, those railroads were or are in all regions of the United States. As you know, the USA is a very large country, with an extremely diverse geology.

Are there any parts that capture your imagination more than another? Desert Southwest is very popular, as are the Eastern railroads.

And what of the trains themselves - do you like long long coal trains, or intermodal (container) traffic?

I hope others can post up some suggestions as well.

Well Gerard, I must say is

Well Gerard, I must say is one of the few (if not the first) time I hear that a "layout" (your "reseau" ) was inspired by just a loco model!

So you set at same time, era and locations! Not bad at least. (I'm joking!)

What I can suggest (I love books, but you open a can of worm here!) is:

Google one of the mentioned RR company name ( C&NW I know have a nice Historic society site where you will find well done and newsletter to download fuul of models and info, just to name one : http://www.cnwhs.org/ch_cnw.htm)

Subscribe also one (why not both? ) French Forums dedicated to US railroads:

http://us.leforum.eu/portal.php

http://teamtrack.xooit.com/index.php

Not to say you will not find friends here ... but maybe you're not aware of these Forums in your native language?

And lastly.... why not consider steam... well, no problem: start with your modern diesels and browse around!

Benvenue ,  and stay cool.

Welcome Gerard.

You might want to check out http://www.socalrailfan.com  It is a railfan forum owned and operated by a local firefighter and organized by railroad and subdivision covering most of Southern California.  You will find pictures of railroading from all over Southern California as well as links to Google maps of many of the railroad sites including Tehachapi and Cajon Pass.  You may decide that you would like to model other parts of the U.S., but this is a free resource.  I tried to post a link, but am not successful.  If you google Southern California Railfan Forums it should come in at the top of the list.

MODERATOR NOTE: The way the URL link was set up, it didn't work so I have corrected it.

Well, as you mention Socal

Well, as you mention Socal forums... another one full of nice pictures, same region, same .... but different:

http://www.westcoastrailforums.com/

one not only on West Coast: http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/index.php

And the best place to find railroad pictures: http://www.railpictures.net/

All aboard!

Thank you

Thank you for these links.
Regarding the French forums dealing with American network but I knew their members
are like they are looking for documentation but this is to give advice is another matter.
I ordered the following books:
Designing & Building Multi-Deck Model Railroads
N Scale Model Railroading
Thank you all

Thanks for the links, Enzo.

I didn't know about the first two you had posted.  I used to belong to the third one and then had problems logging in.  I just tried to log in and found that my user name was not on file so I reregistered with my user name and password, and it worked.