I'll try to get the topic back from the decal critique...
I started model railroading in the mid-1970's, and for a long time, that was my ideal era. This would be the 10-15 phase for me (b. 1964). But the more I learned about railroading, and in particular about railroad operations, the more I gravitated to a slightly earlier time.
I don't remember much of the independent WM... The big warehouse at Hillen with the gigantic =WM= herald on the wall, WESTERN MARYLAND spelled out on the grain elevator at Port Covington, and occasional glimpses of traffic next to I-70 during family trips to Ohio was about it. In 1983, I got to see the BL-2's live and in person working out of Hagerstown, mere moments before the facility was downgraded and the engines were mothballed. Mostly it was a friend of my dad's, who was the WM's Baltimore District sales manager, who would regale me with tales of what a bunch of nitwits ran Chessie and the B&O. I joined the WMRHS in 1982, and began my long education process that ultimately led me out of the mists of the Conrail era, which was something I saw first hand, and into the warm waters of Fireballs and Black Diamonds, which I now wish I had paid more attention to. Very much an evolutionary process.
Lee
