My earliest years of railfanning were family vacations along the Santa Fe and Route 66. At thirteen (1975), I moved with my family from California to Scotland, AR. No trains nearby, but frequent shopping trips to Morrilton, Conway, and Little Rock exposed me to the MoPac. I had my toy trains, but started modeling after joining the NMRA. "My" railroad was going to be a bridge line across Arkansas between two MP lines, so I started modeling that foreign power. We moved back to California in 1978, but I made three trips (1982-1984) back to MoP territory to photograph what I could before all the blue was gone. Model railroading took a back seat once I married and there were children to tend to. Still buying equipment and hope to get back into it someday!
And while I have your attention, I thought I might point out that some very good MP locomotive roster images from the 70's have been uploaded recently to LocoPhotos - http://www.locophotos.com/Search.php?SearchUserID=17633&Search=Search. You can also do a search to see all of the MP images.
Randy Keller
Simi Valley, CA
