The Twilight Zone

Arnold, et al:

The Twilight Zone episode about Willoughby was a classic. I remember watching it as a kid.

Although not train-related, another of my favorite TZ episodes was "Monsters on Elm Street" -- a cautionary tale about the chaotic suspicions of neighbors to neighbors when the local electric grid goes haywire. At the end of the episode, we see that the disastrous calamity was caused by human-like aliens who manipulate the grid and prove that humans are their our worst enemy.  In college (1961) I wrote and essay about that episode as a moral tale.

Rod Serling was a one-of-a-kind producer/writer/genius. Perhaps the closest equivalent TV series in our time is The X Files.

BTW, my favorite Fallen Flag is the Rock Island Railroad. It was the railroad that served my hometown (Peoria, IL) with its Peoria Rocket.  That train is represented in my Lionel-oriented collection by a Sunset 3rd Rail model of a RI E8A as the Peoria  Rocket and the MTH Aerotrain model -- which began life on the RI as the Peoria Rocket for a time but was soon re-assigned to suburban commuter service along the Joliet-Chicago route.

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394
(also a retired PBS TV station exec)

There is a 1956-episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which I can't remember the title of which is on a train and when they show some outside scenes of the train running you can see the passenger cars are KMT being pulled by a Lionel F3 Santa Fe AA.

"There is a Fifth Dimension beyond that which is known to man . . ." [Listen to rest of Twilight Zone Introduction on YouTube - so cool]

Then, in an instant, I was transported by some mysterious force, back in time, to a another place, where am I?

Then, Lo and Behold, I was stunned by something so magnificent and majestic, it was, Oh - I cannot put it into words, so I took a video of it, here it is:

A powerful and beautiful Boston & Albany Hudson along the West Bank of the great Hudson River, hauling freight a mile long with a caboose no less (I haven't seen one of those in decades).

Oh My, am I losing my mind, could I be back in the 1930s when trains like this existed?

Could I be in - THE TWILIGHT ZONE?

Must be so.

LOL, Arnold