me going until the “V&O
Story” in
Railroad Model
Craftsman,
circa 1979.
Once I saw the power of pro-
totype-freelancing, I sold the
Morale Falls & Sadgino to a
modeling buddy, and I started
over on a new proto-free-
lance layout: my Northern
Railway, set in the late 1940s.
I envisioned the Northern
Railway as running roughly
on the route of the Great
Northern, but I assumed
the Great Northern and
the Northern Pacific never
existed. My only competition
was the western extension of
the Milwaukee Road.
I joined the Layout Design
Special Interest Group of the
NMRA (see ldsig.org) and
started drawing up track
plans for my dream Northern
Railway layout.
As I developed track plan
ideas, I kept advancing the
era, eventually landing on
the 1960s. I reasoned I could
borrow some elements of
