When I decided to get out of narrow gauge, I looked around for a "local" railroad to model. I wanted a yard at each end, some small yard in the middle, and decent amount of switching in between. I had done a bunch of train chasing of the KCS, so it was my first option. The KCS was too much mainline, point A to B and not much going on between the ends. Next up was MoPac. Loved the color scheme. but it fell through quickly. Then came the Frisco. KC to Springfield with a yard halfway there, decent amount of switching in between and the B&Y paint scheme as appealing. Throw in small passenger service using GP 9's and "winner/winner chicken dinner" I'm in.
For me, it always came down to the Frisco being the railroad I grew up with, albeit in the last 8 years of its independence. Granted, I grew up with orange and white diesels but it piqued my curiosity and natural affinity for history, which led to an obsession with learning all I could about 1940s Frisco and how to best model it. I’ve always felt that there are so many modelgennic locales on the Frisco that could be stand-alone layouts: Springfield Mill Street depot for those focused on passenger trains, Clinton Mo for smaller yards, Southeastern Jct. if you want to watch lots of mainline trains roll through an interlocking, and so on and so forth.
For me - the Frisco was the way of my young life - my dad worked there the whole time I was growing up. I rode on the Mississippian steamers, "racehorse" E units, black Geeps and up the Highline to Clinton. That was from 1950 - until when I left Springfield for my own life in 1971. Pop did surveying and worked for industrial engineering - worked up black and yellow paint schemes with the Scotchguard yellow stripes - later, red (chosen from his stock of colored pencils) with paper white from the copy machine side views. Hours and days and weeks on the auto haulers and Chrysler plant. He was a trainmaster, roadmaster and environmental engineer (designing all of the EPA mandated fueling facilities) We lived in Amory, Miss. and Memphis, St Louis, Ft Scott and Springfield (3 times). He finally took a retirement deal rather than the BN moving him to Montana. How could I make any other choice?
