I just like Model Trains,…of all sorts…the scale miniaturization.
I’m particularly fond of steam engines, and particularly the large ones. I’m a fan of C&O, B&O, NW, etc, etc.
And as a kid of course I had the ubiquitous Santa Fe diesel engine,…those famous worldwide recognizable colors.
I had recently returned from Asia and was living in the Wash-Balt area when a company in Balt called Life Like made the bold move to really upgrade plastic trains to nice scale models. They introduced their Proto 2000 line. They introduced a whole line of detailed diesel locos, then they introduced that superb 2-8-8-2 steam engine…WOW. They set a standard in plastic scale model trains that the others quickly followed. Bachmann, Athearn, etc all jumped on the band wagon to introduce their premium lines as well. Plastic detailing became an art that eventually was a rival to brass locos.
I was collecting a little of everything. I would buy some stuff that eventually got superseded by even better stuff, so I would attend the Great Scale Train Show in Balt and sell off older stuff and try to upgrade to the better stuff coming out. I would visit John Glabb’s Peach Creek brass shop in Laural, Md, and droll over the brass locos which I considered beyond my reach, but then look what was coming out in plastic a few months later.
By this time I had collected quite a few steam engines of various lines, and principle a number of diesels from Santa Fe.
So when it came to planning my new layout, how could I choose just one time frame, or location, …if I wanted to collect and run all of those type trains? I wanted to run steam and diesel, and I wanted to run east coast and west coast lines…on one layout??
I’ve decided my trains are going to run from the east coast to the west coast,…Balt to Calif. I’ll call it the Continental Connector. Balt will be on the lower deck and Calif will be on the upper deck.
Since I am not a stickler on