heaters and impressive trailing truck frames. A number of years
ago Division Point imported a beautiful brass model of these
engines. And my lovely wife presented me with one as a sur-
prise gift (it covered Christmas, Anniversary, Father’s Day and
Birthday in one package . . .) But like the 4-8-2s it couldn’t han-
dle the curves on the layout, so other than running it back and
forth on the straight track, it sat in the display case.
The Rapido Osgood Bradley cars and the 2-10-4 pushed me
over the edge. But both of these really didn’t belong on the
southern end of the railroad. That was the first big revelation
– acknowledge that what I really wanted to do was (finally)
return to my roots and model the Central Vermont Railway’s
northern division in Vermont. The compelling question
became: How many changes would it require to the layout, and
would the resulting plan be compelling enough to stomach the
thought of taking what may be a major step backwards?
