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 