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Like many, I got "bit" by the modeling bug at a very early age. I have been reading Model Railroader Mag for about 20 years I guess and I must say I have considered every single issue to be a great value. As you probably know, there is a column that usually discusses the merits of prototype modeling. In my mind the idea of strictly adhereing to a protype is unrealistic. I have seen many layouts that try to represent a division, or even a branch line. While these generaly look good in photos and diagrams, my imagination has a hard time with my locomotive in Kansas City and the caboose just clearing the yard lead in Saint Louis. In the first place, unless you have a Kennedy fortune and access to the L.A. Colosseum, you are stuck with modeling a very small portion of the prototype or using the proverbial "selective compression." Well, as soon as you do that all that is left that is prototype is operation and consists. My layout is based on the traffic entering St. Louis from the West end begining with the yard in Fenton Mo. My era is 1954 and Frisco still runs into St. Louis along the route that is now I-44. The layout is built in a salvaged mobil home and is 12 X 55 feet. As you can see, by snaking about I can get only about 3 scale miles of main. I used "selective compression" made believable by putting in an island with a divider that represents the Frisco to the Chaffee area. Since my passions are FA/B's, PA's and E units and since there are darn few (most times none) of these units in Frisco paint, I can also justify Union Pacific, MOPAC and even some Santa Fe running through the area. In short, my layout too, while loosly based on a prototype, is done so in philosophey only. The actual layout and operation is relegated to a "free-lanced" version by definition. We have to remember this is a hobby, not a religion. If I want to run an old 4-4-0 then I do so with great glee. When the nay-sayers write about how we should stick to prototype I would like to remind all that what are considered the two greatest models ever built, John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid and George Sellios' Franklin and South Manchester, are BOTH freelanced lines. My advice is to simply have fun and not worry too much about it. I think of the trains as scale models and the layout as a display case.
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