Those of you familiar with my Kingsbury Branch model railroad (
http://members.aol.com/wdenton101/index.htm), may or may not know that it was inspired and based on an article in the April 1975 Model Railroader. The article was written by Randall M. Willis and documented the Milwaukee Road Chicago and Evanston line roughly between Hobbie St and Grand Ave. The line ran along Kingsbury Street much of the way, hence the name. I often pondered, after building Kingsbury, what the author would think of my model railroad. Friends occaisonally asked if I ever heard from the author. I would say no and wonder where he was or even if he was still alive.
Image my surprise when in May of 2005 I received an e-mail from none other than Kingsbury author Randy Willis himself. Randy explained that he moved from Chicago and had been out of the hobby for about 20 years when his interest was rekindled. He began surfing the Internet to see what was available and generally what was out there. The surprise was on him when he eventually stumbled across my website. He could hardly believe his eyes as he gazed at a complete model railroad built from the very article he had written some 30 years ago.
Several e-mails were exchanged between us over the next two years as we got to know one another and tried to arrange a visit. Randy and his wife Kathleen were finally able to make the trip to the Chicago suburbs on July 1,2007. I was excited as we headed down the basement steps. The Kingsbury branch had come full circle. I think Randy was impressed!
That\'s Randy on the left and me on the right
Bill Denton
The Kingsbury Branch
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