Back when I was beginning the development of the Freedom Central Story back in '98/'99, I awoke one night with a vivid image in my head: that of a powerful 6,000hp steam locomotive pulling a heavy double-stack'ed intermodal container train along the flat raceway of the former New York Central' "Water Level Route". The image was very detailed: the engine was a New York Central S2 class engine, better known by railfans as the "Niagara Class". The Niagara was pulling twin auxilary water tenders that looked distinctly Union Pacific in design; however one was painted in Freedom Central's diesel colors and the other painted like the cars of the 1975-1976 American Freedom Train. As this powerhouse of steam and power stormed down the rails towing 5,000tons of containerized freight on her drawbar, she thundered off solid ground and onto a modern steel reinforced, poured concrete bridge which carried the train across the New York State Thru-Way. These high-speed 4-8-4's ran the 600+mile route between Croghan and Chicago daily pulling the Central's premier passenger trains at speeds in excess of 100mph. Why I would dream of one headed west with a modern doublestack container train is inconceivable, however it lead to me writting a story just to fulfill this vision.
After that first story, I decided to put pen to paper (well, in all honesty it was fingers to keys) and record the old ghost story I'd created based on the 1902 Wreck at Wyman Bridge on the A&A predecessor "Buffalo, Attica $ Arcade". This story was first told in the summer of 1995 or 1996 on the bus ride back home from our Summer Rec(reation)'s end of the year SuperTrip. As I sat down to write it out, the details of the story were fleshed out and super detailed to make the story that much more enjoyable. In the end, I decided to add a bit more, tying the story to the Freedom Central's universe as well as setting up the story in the fashion of the old Nickelodeon show "Are You Afraid Of The Dark".
After the second book, I decided to repeat the creative process from my first book a second time: only this time setting the story on the railroad which I myself run trains: Croxton, NJ to Pittsburgh, PA. As I started the second book, I coined the phrase "Railfan Thriller", while not exactly over the top creative, it is unique and more importantly it is exceptionally descriptive.
