SPR: The Hazards Of Videos

Scratch-Pad Ramblings:
The Hazards of Videos

I recently started watching Pentrex's The Joint Line. That probably wasn't the best idea.

Now, I'm hankering to run Rio Grande, BN, and ATSF trains, rather than the Pacific Northwest roads I mentioned below in the Layout Design Journal series. I've decided I'm simply weak and easily influenced.

Plus, there's also the WP factor - the Western Pacific factor. You see, the Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific were hometown roads, scrappy underdogs against the yellow might of the Union Pacific. (The Southern Pacific was pretty much a non-factor until the D&RGW-SP merger in the late '80s, as until then it only had a presence in Ogden, which was outside my range then. Even after the merger I didn't pay much attention to it - I was mad that they were absorbing the Grande. Some of the moves involved in that merger still don't make any sense to me, such as why did the Rio Grande have to be the road that disappeared? The Rio Grande bought the Southern Pacific.) Not that it matters now - both of those roads and the once-mighty Southern Pacific have faded into a yellow blur. I never saw the WP run - something I could only make up for by modelling it, or some version of it.

But back to my lack of willpower for a moment. My model railroad roster is a reflection of my lack of modelling discipline. I can put together at least one decent train for any of a number of railroads: WP, D&RGW, SP, UP, BN, NP, GN, MILW, CPR... That's not a boast. That's an admission of shame.

And I still have videos of Beaumont Hill and the Highline to watch....