Somewhere out in the vastness of cyberspace I somehow came across a kindred spirit of sorts by the name of David Holsinger. He is an accomplished composer, conductor and teacher who shares his musical insites with anyone fortunate to discover his website. This however has nothing to do with my reason for mentioning his name here. David is the designer, builder and operator of what he calls THE " ANY-TIME-ANY-SPRING-RUN-ANY-ENGINE-I-WANT-TO-NO-MATTER-WHAT-ERA-BECAUSE-IT'S-MY-TABLE-AND-I-BUILT-IT-AND-I-CAN-DO-WHATEVER-I-WANT-TO " HO TRAIN LAYOUT. As he chronicles the building of it at www.davidholsinger.com/trains.htm , you discover that the man has a keen sense of humour and is not adverse to the occasional needling about his exploits. I speak here from personal experience. Unlike many model railroaders, David takes neither himself or his hobby too seriously. In his words, " I like to play with trains. ". All this has been made possible by his " wonderfull wife whom I've mentioned before " who gets credit for her unending generosity and patience at appropriate intervals. I too am preparing that area of the house that my wonderfull wife has generously agreed shall be my personal domain for all things train related. In HO scale that is. As much as I initially wanted to build a prototype based railway I have come to the conclusion that geography and space limitations have conspired against me. I have decided to have my railway modeled in Nova Scotia. The major railways in my time period of the mid 1950's are Canadian National and the Dominion Atlantic Railway. My problem is that I want to model scenes from around the province and without an extreme amount of fudging this is not going to work. Enter the fictional but vastly more scenic Atlantic Coastal Maritime Eastern railway or A.C.M.E. for short. Envision the endless possibilities. Who hasn't wanted an excuse or opportunity to provide rail service to such industries as the ACME Anvil Co. or the ACME Birdseed Co. or the ACME Giant Rubber Band Co. for example. Ah! to dream. So, dare to dream I say. Let your imagination run wild and go play with your trains. The hobby needs to be fun. Don't let the " rivet counters " take that away from you. Remember, if you have the desire to do it your way, you're not alone.