The Freedom Central Railway (I use "Railway" to denote the outdoor layout, while "Railroad" is used to specify the fictional rail network being modelled.) started life as a mistake. I had always planned on modeling the Arcade & Attica Railroad, first in HO and then in Large Scale (any scale using 45mm gauged track, ala LGB). However for Christmas 1998 I recieved an Aristocraft 4-6-2 pacific type steam locomotive model. I immediately fell in love with the model, and through the Aristocraft website forum, was introduced to the idea of kitbashing toy trains to customize them into designs that i liked more than their original form.
With the Pacific came a problem with my original A&A plans; the pacific dwarfed any engine the A&A ever had. Heck, the pacific's tender dwarfed anything the railroad ever had. I had to either abandon my plans of modeling the Arcade & Attica or figure out a way to integrate the engine into the A&A's history, spawning what amounts to an alternate timeline... my scifi fandom shows through :-D .
Below you can checkout the development of the Freedom Central Railway and its evolution through the years.
All HO Scale Equipment
Original Modules
Initial Outdoor Plans
F.C.Ry's Sodor Industrial
Smurf-Tran (Trolley Line)