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Great, that it feels right for you. Change can be good and a change in approach may help keep interest fresh. I also admire Tony Koester's work but feel no need to adopt his changing philosophies or follow his lead however. If it makes you feel more comfortable with your current work, the idea that "whatever turns you on is just fine and this great hobby has room for everyone" applies to folks from New Zealand as well as "you Americans." It almost sounds as if you feel that employing creative license in layout design & operations is a cultural flaw and peculiar to Americans. It's a time-honored idea enjoyed worldwide. I'm quite happy working on a freelance layout with historical and prototypical influences and some flights of fancy. My new layout is set in the early years of the 1900s and runs through the Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York. Prototypical operations would depict NY Central and Delaware & Hudson trains running through the area, setting fire to hundreds of thousands of acres of woodlands, picking up lumber shipments from sawmills whose logging operations clearcut entire mountains and valleys, or iron from mines whose charcoal operations clearcut many other thousands of acres. I'm willing to sacrifice all that destruction with my rewrite of history and won't feel the least bit obligated to provide documentation when visitors demand to know why my trains are rolling through green forests instead of charred, barren and devasted wastelands. If a history lesson is required I'll show them the photos I have in local history and railroad books or send them to the local library where there is a photo exhibit. On this road, on this layout however, people acted more responsibly. Non-prototypical, I'll admit but who really cares? Not me, and thus far, that's who I'm building this for. There is also a lot that could be said about the freedom and lack of limitations that non-prototypical modeling allows. I like to remember that the name of the hobby does not end in "ology" and a dissertation or years of research is not a prerequisite for enjoyment. I do enjoy the research though, and through it I know the that the Shay I'm getting was actually built a few years later than the period, the Central stopped running the coaches I'm using years before. And the Tofu Packing plant with all those Swift Tofu Reefers likely wouldn't have found been up here in a northern mountain town during the First World War. I'm glad that you've "seen the light" and it reflects in your enthusiasm. It reminds me of times when friends have told me that they have been "saved" or "born again" and how their lives have changed overnight. This is what I tell them: "Whatever turns you on is just fine and this great hobby has room for everyone." I'm quite content with both my freelanced layout and my freelanced spiritual life. It doesn't have to be a "prototype vs freelance" world. Couldn't it be a "prototype and freelance" one? Enjoy the new layout! Wayne
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