Duality

“Opposites are always reconciled”
-Walter M. Miller-

Let me clear this up right now. I am not changing prototypes. My membership in the IAIS Historical and Modeling Society remains in good standing. And for my friends and fellow Iowa Interstate modelers who may be reading this post, I do not wish to have a visit from Neri and Luca*.

However… I could not pass this opportunity up.

Ever since I started modeling The Hills Line, I’ve always considered the possibility of incorporating CRANDIC Railway operations into the layout. It would be a very simple process to adjust my modeled era to 2011, one year before the IAIS took over the prototype Hills Line. I wouldn’t have to make any changes to the structures, customers, or track to make it happen.

The hang up was locating a suitable locomotive. Atlas came out with an EMD MP15 in CRANDIC colors years ago, but they’ve long vanished from the retail outlets and online providers. I had resigned this project to my “someday but not today” file bin.

Thanks to my friend T.J., I no longer have to wait.

Again, this is still an Iowa Interstate layout and I’m still an Iowa Interstate modeler. This project will take me a while, since I’ve got a fair amount of touch ups and additions to add to my new motive power acquisition. But don’t be surprised when you ultimately see CRANDIC yellow ride the rails.

*= my apologies to the rest of you, but it’s a major inside joke amongst my IAIS modeling friends. There’s a reason we call him the Godfather.