One picture to last an entire life

When I was 6 or 7, I compiled enough lawn mowing spare change to buy a copy of “Model Railroader” from my hometown drug store in Danville, Ky. The back cover that month was adorned with an ad for United and its imported brass engines. The dominant image on the page that month was a unpainted C&S 2-6-0 with a park arrestor.

The little HOn3 machine was about the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was elegant, perfectly proportioned and inspirational.

I was transfixed and awe-struck by it. I kept that page in a folder of favored images for 50 years. Having earlier seen photos of John Allen’s G&D, I knew what my dream railroad would look like, and now, with the little United gem, I knew the sort of engines I would use to populate my magical universe.

Though I always loved the Rio Grande, RGS and Uintah, that one image shaped my dreams forever. I would be a C&S guy forever, and the 1930s images of Como still stir my soul.

Some of you likely had an experience like that.