Yes. I’m seriously considering something for my new layout that is slightly “out there”. Will post more when on a real keyboard. Some of the ides here are excellent!
Basically the Susquehanna & New York being bought and revamped into the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
In real life, as soon as the S&NY was in danger of financial collapse, it was abandoned. This was 1942, so it was abandoned to help support WWII demands. I got thinking to myself “What if the railroad was bought by a wealthy land owner to help support a sawmill that was going in just outside of Wysox? (Purely fictional, but plausible as to it actually happening. I live in a community that was just short of growing up with the lumber industry.)” There were also plenty of other industries that could have benefited from the rail industry. Meshoppen currently has Proctor & Gamble, Towanda had the Frost Furniture Factory, and has Global Tungsten Products, Sylvania and DuPont. The railroad was bought by the Lehigh Valley in response to the N&W acquisition of the Wabash in 1963, and much of the BT&S was abandoned or sold off to smaller companies that latter went bankrupt from 1965 to 1970.
The BT&S’s back story required quite a bit of bending of actual history, but worked into a railroad that I am happy to have.
Hummm…
Not too far fetched! What if New York Central had a ES44AC?
What if Nickel Plate had an SD70ace?
Hello Norfolk Southern Heritage Fleet!
http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Community/Heritage%20Locomotives/
My current layout is based on the assumption that a little known fallen flag named the “Santa Ana & Newport Railroad” was not absorbed into the Southern Pacific around 1900 but remained independent and in operation through the 1950’s. This “what if?” scenario allows me to model a transition era version of the SA&N on a prototype-based track arrangement with the added benefit of including the Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific and the Pacific Electric.
My 'what if"is the D&H.
Yes, in my world the D&H has been bought by the CPR but what if passenger operations hadn’t been done away with?
The D&H PA’s are alive & working well on my layout, along side AC4400’s, pulling D&H passenger cars teaming with paying customers.
I like my “what if”
Gordon