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I grew up in Mattoon, Il. I was born in 1966. The house that ,I lived in back then was two blocks from the old big four round house. I remember walking those tracks to school .me and my buddies loved to check out those old ruins of that round house. We were probably 10 or 11,at that time most of the old bays were still intact with old chains still hanging from the ceiling, where work would have been done to the old engines. There were also some of the old maintance sheds on the grounds too.We marveled at the sight of all the old buildings We were late going to school quite a bit, back then. The big four railroad was were trains from Chicago, ST Louis, Cleveland and Cincinnati could be switched to the tracks of the two other systems crossing through Mattoon. The Big Four round house used to sit at what is now 8th and 10th street of Richmond Avenue , There is now a set of ball daimond parks sitting in its place. Everytime I drive by I still remember. Well back to the topic I model my layout to the I.C. as much as I can. Most of the models , Ive picked up were at train shows, or from John Shoemacher. He has a shop called coryville station ( http://www.coryvillestation.com) heres a link you can check out to find buys on different things that John can order for you. He's a al-rite guy. John has traveled all over the country , setting up train shows and helping fellow model railroaders with advise. I model in HO scale. I have one Illinois central. U33C that Im proud of . The old color scheme of orange/white with black logo. its a Atlas. great running engine, quite too. I also have a I.C SD70 MAC by athearns genesis. Its a modern proto-type. good engine. I also have a old proto 2000 green diamond switcher ,and i ve got an old I.C F9 PASSINGER TRAIN color sceme brown/orange. my layout is 12'x 8' modelled around midwest area of the country. Time line, around1970 to 2000. My layout has 5 levels 8 ovals, 2ovals per level these lower levels run into tunnels and over bridges, then a point to point layout on the top of all. Im still working on the top level. thats where my city or town is going to be. the top layouts going to be a trolley line, with two train switching. Im adding blocks ,so I can run cab control. All together ,ive spent about two years on this layout so far." Well have a good one, and getter done".
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