I got my first American Flyer train set back in 1962 for Christmas, and I was later able to purchase a Lionel train set from money I earned. My Uncle George was also into trains and had a large American Flyer collection. He would set up his trains for several of us nieces and nephews in a spare bedroom in my grandparents’ apartment above the laundry business they owned. Uncle George later talked me into purchasing an HO Athearn train set. He told me that HO scale was the future. I cleaned the barber shop for my cousin we called Barber Bob and earned a whopping $2.50 a week. I laid away the Athearn train set and paid on it each week. From there it blossomed into a 4x8 layout in my bedroom until high school when I sold it in order to purchase a stereo system for my room and later take to college. 

After graduation and getting married, my wife and I were hired as teachers in my home town of Plymouth, Indiana. I was a middle school art teacher and my wife was a second-grade teacher. I once again started purchasing HO train equipment and after a couple of years started building my first real model railroad in the lower level of our new house. That railroad was published in the November 1985 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman (RMC). After a few changes and additions, the layout eventually was published again in Great Model Railroads 2008. 

When we moved to Florida in 2019 to be closer to our kids, I sold the layout to a friend and we later sold our house and the farm. We purchased a new home in Saint Cloud, Florida and the Cass County was born in a spare bedroom. My current Cass County Railroad was published twice: in the October 2022 issue of RMC and later in the 2025 issue of Great Model Railroads. I also had a couple of kit-bashing articles in RMC and a scenery to backdrop article in Model Railroader. I also had dozens of photos used in several books by several authors. I’m still adding lots of detail and changing or relocating structures. More magazine articles on coming. 

The Cass County Railroad was formed after Conrail abandoned several spurs and branch lines in Logansport and Cass County, Indiana. The Cass County serves several spurs throughout the city of Logansport as well as branches to Lucerne, Mexico and Clymers, Indiana. The branch to Lucerne on the former PRR South Bend Branch interchanges with the Erie Western farther north in Delong, Indiana. The Erie Western serves the north end of the branch south to Kewanna and Grass Creek, Indiana while the Cass County serves the southern end north to Lucerne. The branch to Mexico serves a large grain elevator. The branch to Clymers serve several large grain elevators.

My Cass County will be a part of Erie Western (ERES) and Louisiana Midland (LOAM) railroads, so I am mixing prototype with freelance railroads plus I’m extending the lives of Erie Western and Louisiana Midland to the mid 1980’s. It could have easily happened from what I’ve read. I guess money was not invested wisely in real life. This scenario is 100% what Trans-Action Associates (the owner of ERES and LOAM) was trying to accomplish...with very little money. Equipment was on lease from the manufacturers, track and operations were subsidized by public funds. Private investors found out the hard way how financial problems were mounting. Things changed when Cass County came on board. Things started turning to the positive. Very plausible.    

The Cass County roster includes RS3 30, C420’s 420 and 2072, GP30 524 and GP7 700.