I saw the preview for the October MR last night, and I can't wait for it to arrive in the mail! The cover article is about my hometown, Elmira, NY, former home to the Erie and Lackawanna main lines, as well as a Lehigh Valley branch line (after the mid-'30s accessed via trackage rights on the Erie) and the Pennsy's branch from Williamsport to Sodus Point (which hosted NYC power for about half of every year). By the time I came along, it was down to the Erie Lackawanna, Penn Central, and LV, but I wasn't really paying attention till after Conrail came along because I was just a little kid. In any case, I'm glad to see that someone not only modelled the town (including the DL&W station that was torn down to make room for a truck dealership), but got it published in MR. Great!!
If anyone is interested in that area to see where various places on the track plan are in real life, here's a link to Google Maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Elmira,+NY/@42.1169073,-76.8102441,11z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89d0153b3d17f2e3:0x48fc6630263a3abf?hl=en-US&gl=US
(BTW, Google Maps identifies a creek running south from Wellsburg as the Chemung River. That's wrong; it's actually Bentley Creek, which empties into the Chemung after passing under the Erie main just west of Wellsburg. The Lackawanna main was across the river, close to (and in some places under) Route 17/I-86.)
Even though I'm from the Cleveland, Ohio area, I remember chasing trains in the Anthracite regions in the early 1970s and enjoyed it very much.
I chased the 2102 when it was dressed up as D&H 302, plus the 759 and the D&H PAs on a few fan trips through the Pocono and Delaware Water Gap area including Tunkhannock Viaduct and Starrucca Viaduct, too.
As a reminder of those days I have an HO model of one of Lackawanna's concrete signal towers I hope to get built soon.
http://thenarch.com/products/dlw-lackawanna-tower-kit-ho
Of course, there was plenty of Erie action in the Cleveland-Akron area as well.
I'm looking forward to the issue, too.
Regards, Ed
More online info:
http://www.railfanguides.us/ny/elmira/
Sorry to act like a fanboy, but I never expected to see that city in MR.
We're still a week away from the end of August. I just picked up my September MR and here you guys are already talking about the October issue! It's getting to be like Walmart, where any day they will set up their Halloween aisles in early Sept, followed by Christmas stuff in late October. Give things a drumbeat or two- at my age, rushing the months and seasons seems a bit morbid
Cedarwoodron
I don't even get the new issues till two weeks through the month! I still haven't read through the current issue in depth.
Let WallyWorld have their fun with the seasons...
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!