What if there were such a thing as a parallel universe? How would things be different in that place? I would surmise that mostly things would be the same as there would have to be a fundamental difference in humanity to not arrive at the same inventions in a similar time frame and fashion…. What may be the main difference is simply choices that have been made by humans. The wheel would still be invented but Org may choose to mate with Blug instead of Erg as it happened in our universe…. All it would take is one person to do something different in their universe than what they did in ours and humanity in both universes would go in completely different directions. Just something to think about…..
The history of trains in my life.
I have been a fan of the Rock Island Railroad since the 70’s and then became a fan of the Milwaukee Road in the early 80’s. The former I did not get any live photo shots and the latter I missed the Pacific Extension. I rode on the Des Moines Rocket before it went away and I am positive I saw the Milwaukee Road, even the Little Joe’s, on a family trip through Montana. Both of the events occurred when I was eight and ten years old respectively. Unfortunately there are no pictures of either occasion to be found.
I became a fan of the Illinois Central Gulf in the early 80’s as well. I spend time up in Fort Dodge, IA; in fact multiple times as well and I spent an entire weekend in central Illinois chasing ICG trains. You might wonder what about the CNW and all I can say, what about the CNW?…I enjoyed watching those trains in Ames while I was a student at ISU but the railroad never became a favorite.
In the late 80’s I saw a calendar with an Erie Lackawanna train moving through a very colorful fall scene and I had a new favorite railroad. I bought up as much Erie Lackawanna items such as books and HO scale trains as I could. I even went as far as having two EL SDP45’s custom built in HO scale and this is way before Athearn came out with their version.
Lastly, being a fan of the ICG eventually led me to becoming a fan of the GM&O which has been a rather recent conversion. As a result I have been looking for as many pictures as possible of the GM&O online and downloading them. I also look for pictures of my other favorite railroads and download them as well.
Noticed how I talked about HO scale trains…yes I enjoy model railroading. I started when I was six years old with my first train set on Christmas morning. Even had a 4 x 8 in the basement within a few years but the real trains captivated me. As I grew older I moved into N scale after my parents bought a small layout from a guy at the hobby store. Not knowing well enough I eventually ruined the layout and took it apart. I went back into HO scale and then that is where I collected a decent amount of engines and cars. Move forward to getting married and having kids I then sold all of the HO trains and started buying N scale….being that we were not going to have enough room for a HO layout anytime soon.
Well, that lasted a few years and then I sold off my entire collection to make a down payment on a house. Now having some room I went back to HO scale though no where near the pace when I was much younger. Things had changed in the model railroad industry and there was much more detailed and much more expensive equipment so I had to be deliberate in what I bought. Fast forward to my mid 40’s and my eyesight not being what it used to be and my fingers were not as nimble as they used to be I moved into O scale trains. Sold off my HO equipment and had to become even more deliberate in what I bought as O scale can be much more expensive. I even tried G scale for a short time but went back to O scale.
So, that is where I am at. Modeling O scale and of course it is much bigger than N or HO scale so space is a premium. Of course with my love for the railroads listed earlier I wanted to somehow incorporate all of the railroads in one place. That was not going to be easy.
The Interstate Railway System 