One other thing.....

I did mention that I had Frisco motive power in HO scale- well, in the real world this became part of the Burlington Northern, who, in a fit of line-shedding, sold off the A&A and Arthur Subs to the Kiamihci Railroad in 1987 (which is now a RailAmerica subsidiary). I am friends with the fellow who was the Chief Mechanical Officer of the Kiamichi, and was able to model two GP35Ms (one in KRR burgundy, the other MP), one chopnose GP9, and a GP7 and GP9 in Texas Northwestern colors. With these diesels, I could spin the clock ahead say, 10-15 years or so, completely bypassing the era of Bad News, and run this layout as part of the Kiamichi. Of course, the cabooses would be gone, and I'd have to have the train (nicknamed the Soup Job by KRR crews) come out of staging (which represents Hugo, OK) to do its work in the Betner yard as well as the Paris area, but by & large the buildings would remain the same. Why no BN? I don't have any BN power, and everybody and his dog models BN, so why bother?

For that matter, I could model the whole thing as a freelance shortline (the Paris Belt), but I'm getting ahead of things here.......for now, I'll focus on matters Frisco as close as I can.