About Us

They say interest in hobbies start at an early age, and I'm no exception. I've been exposed to railroading (real and model) since I was a baby. My parents and I would go on vacations to, of all places, Wisconsin Central's North Fond du Lac and Stevens Point yards. My parents and I enjoyed watching the Wisconsin Central Ltd until it was taken over by Canadian National in 2001. After this time, we stopped going, and I got burnt out on railfanning and began to focus on a growing passion for sports. However, I've always had some kind of interest in railroading, helped greatly by the fact that my dad and I rode around Chicago on Metra three or four Saturdays a year for eight years. This sparked an interest in modelling commuter and passenger service, and eventually led to me getting re-interested in the hobby.

You may be wondering where the inspiration for such a railroad comes from. Well, I lived the first three years of my life in Riverside, Illinois, a quaint village just outside of Chicago city limits. Riverside just so happens to be located along the Burlington Northern's ex-CB&Q (now BNSF) triple-track main line. In fact, the tracks were literally in our backyard, and I distinctly remember sitting on the grass with my parents watching Metra commuter trains, Amtrak passenger trains, and BN intermodal and unit coal trains pass by. So we decided a Riverside railroad would be perfect. I initially saw it as a large midwestern regional railroad centered in Riverside, Illinois, travelling to towns such as Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. However, it's gradually been shifted about 200 miles to the north and condensed into a much smaller railroad in Wisconsin. This was mostly due to us already having a large collection of Wisconsin Central, Fox River Valley, and Green Bay & Western equipment. I've tried incredibly hard to find a time period that incorporates these railroads and much of the N-scale rolling stock we already have. From doing this, we set the RC in the early-to-mid 1990s.

We also figured this era of railroading would be a perfect time for the RC. The fact that first generation diesels were still in operation at the same time as the GE 8-40Cs makes it the perfect time period for our modeling interests.

I came up with the city names myself and named them after towns/stations in Chicago (Riverside, Cumberland), St. Louis (Webster Springs), and Wisconsin (Superior Falls). I also named a river, town, and road after our now-passed dog (Libby). I also wanted to find an area that hasn't been the site of any real railroads in decades, leading us to central Wisconsin. This would be perfect for modelling rolling hills and forests. And best of all, it's in a spot where a railroad can connect with all of the other Wisconsin railroads at the time: the Wisconsin Central, the Fox River Valley and the Green Bay and Western. The RC is basically a microcosm of all three railroads, but is also influenced by Chicago-area railroads such as the Indiana Harbor Belt and Belt Railway of Chicago, and non-Midwestern railroads such as the Bangor and Aroostook and Guilford.

But anyway, about myself. I'm Zach. I am 29 and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 with a BA in Sociology. I have a seemingly unhealthy passion for sports, and pledge my allegiances to the Chicago White Sox, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Blackhawks and, naturally, Wisconsin athletics. I'm also interested in a variety of other things, such as music, food, comedy, art, photography, politics, writing, history, and meteorology.

My dad, Jeff, is a lifelong railfan who had a huge effect on my railroad preferences. He grew up in West Chicago, Illinois, so naturally he is an enthusiast of the Chicago and Northwestern and Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern. In fact, his initials (JB) are depicted on JB tower, where the EJ&E and C&NW crossed in his hometown. Thanks to weekend getaways to Wisconsin with my mom, he has been interested in the Wisconsin Central since the early-1990s. This layout is his dream, as he's always wanted to model this time period. The switch to N-scale in 2001 was the first of his life, as he had always been an HO scale modeler.

My dad graduated from Marquette in 1976 with a degree in Marketing and Business Administration. He worked for several companies, notably in award sales. He lost his job in 2005 from a trophy dealer in town and now spends his time helping take care of my mom, who has had several serious health issues for the last 10-15 years. This makes finding time to work on a model railroad extremely challenging. In the rare instance in which he isn't busy helping my mom, he enjoys ranting about the White Sox and baseball in general, and during football season does the same for the Packers. I've relieved to say he and I have a lot to talk about and a lot in common, and he's been my best friend in addition to being a terrific father throughout my entire childhood.

I hope you enjoyed the read, and thank you!

-Zach