MY GOAL: TO BE THE LARGEST MODEL RAILROAD BASED ON TOTAL TRACK LENGTH.

This model railroad is ficticious, but based on the old Monon Railroad. It assumes that the passenger era is still going strong into the 2000s (It is not - look at Amtrak). It also assumes that the Monon never merged with the Louisville and Nashville, who then merged into CSX.

I am taking some liberties with the roads you will see on this model, considering when the road name "died". For instance, you will see Erie Lackawanna running next to Wabash, running next to BNSF. You will see L&N running next to Pennsylvania, CSX, Milwaukee Road, Indiana and SOO. You will see Baltimore & Ohio next to Nickel Plate and Chesapeak and Ohio (Chessie) You will see Grand Trunk, if I can find it, next to New York Central. You will see Illinois Central on more than one occasion.

All of the railroads interchanged with the Monon along its Chicago to Monon to Louisville route, which is the route I am modelling. Most of them interchanged in Louisville or Chicago. The main exceptions were the Illinois Central interchanging in Bloomington, IN and the Milwaukee Road having trackage rights beginning in Bedford, IN as well as interchaning there. Bedford also had the B&O for a short time, and interchanged to the south of the former Monon station.

So here's some of the "what if's" I'm throwing out there:

• The merger with L&N and subsequent into CSX, didn't happen
• Double Track along the entire route. President Barringer had begun the process, but never completed. Mine will be COMPLETELY double tracked.
• Passenger Service didn't get consolidated into Amtrak (I'm still going to be running Amtrak)

My goal should be fairly easy, since I'm double tracking the entire main line. I also am going to be including the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, and Clearing Yard with a reversing loop for staging. Then I have Youngstown Yard just past the wye at the end of the Kentucky and Indiana Traction Railroad's bridge over the Ohio River. Add in Shops Yard in Lafayette and McDoel yard in Bloomington, you get the idea of how much track I will have.

Out of all the items I will be modelling, my favorite by far will be Old Comiskey. I have been a DIE HARD Chicago White Sox fan since 1988. Again, this is kind of screwy with history, as the BNSF didn't even come into existence until 1996 and Old Comiskey got replaced in 1991.

Blantant History Gaffs:

• BNSF next to Old Comiskey. BNSF came to be on December 31, 1996. Comiskey was closed on September 30, 1990 and demolished in 1991. Across 35th Street is its replacement, Guaranteed Rate Field.
• Milwaukee Road and SOO Lines. The Soo absorbed most of the Milwaukee once it went under.
• Well for that matter, CSX, Erie Lackawanna, Pennsy and NYC. Then Pennsy and NYC were combined to form Penn Central, which was then combined with the Erie Lackawanna to form Conrail. Conrail was then absorbed by both the Norfolk Southern and CSX
• Keeping with above, the L&N,C&O, B&O, CSX. Ready for this? L&N and the Seaboard Coast Lines (SCL) were part of the Family Lines System, and that was reorganized into the Seaboard Coast Railroad (SCR). SCR then renamed itself CSX Transportation and absorbed the C&O. The Chessie System held the C&O, the B&O and the Western Maryland as subsidiaries.