Steve, I like your ideas and plans! Gotta love those fictional railroad plans! My layout is mainly based on the BN, in the northern region of central IL. I'd like to say somewhere along the IL River, but that may be a bit too far north, even though it is a bit south of where I live. I picked that area of IL because it is less densely populated than the further northern region of IL, and I can still run just about any motive power I want. My modelling era is modern, so I can can use the modern cars that I love on the roads, and still run any type of motive power I want, including the rolling stock. I think you get the point. I don't want to hi-jack your thread here