Welcome, welcome! I'm having trouble with the layout (of the blog, not the model train layout) but hopefully I'll get that sorted out soon and you'll have a nice banner image instead of something that the code isn't showing properly. Ugh.
Anyway, what is the Ruritanian States of America Railroad? Right now, it's just a figment of my imagination. It will probably remain so for quite a long time to come, although it will become over time a much more developed, nuanced and detailed figment of my imagination. Then, as we move into my post-working in an office all day home, wherever exactly that ends up being, I hope to be able to devote a room to developing and building the thing. The first step there is still a good... five years off, if not maybe a little more. And the second step will probably take quite a bit of time too. Updates may be sporadic for up to ten years as this thing comes together, if not even longer! And who knows what will happen in ten years, so... we'll see. That said, we don't know what we don't know, so we do our best to plan for things to be what we hope for them to be. What I hope for is that in ten years, as I approach 60 years of age, that I'm happily running actual model trains on a regular basis in Ruritanian America.
It might be appropriate to ask what Ruritanian America is, exactly. The whole concept of the Ruritanian Romance is one that is kind of forgotten, or at least the label for it is forgotten. I'll defer you to the Infogalactic page on the topic to get up to speed. Even if you do know what Ruritania and its use in fiction is, you may be scratching your head. Ruritanian stories feature two things quite prominently: 1) a pre or para German Unification Central or Eastern European monarchy, and 2) a plot wherein there's a decoy who poses as the King, and establishing the natural order of things is the main purpose of the development and roll-out of the plot. What is a Ruritanian America setting, and what does it have to do with a railroad?
First, let's explore the whole point of the Ruritanian setting. When Anthony Hope wrote The Prisoner of Zenda, he wanted to tell a swashbuckling romance in a familiar setting without having to worry about an actual place, actual people, or things that could be verified. Remember that several years later, when Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the Tarzan and John Carter stories, he still felt the need to set up this semi-apologetic framing device to the stories about how he didn't expect anyone to believe that it was true. Well, of course not. Everyone knew that they were swashbuckling romance fictional serials. But sometimes writers get locked into feeling like they have to do research about details of the real world and get them right. A Ruritanian setting makes that unnecessary. You can make up whatever details suit you, because Ruritania is a fictional place. Sure, sure... it resembles a real place quite well, and is vaguely described as being stuck between Saxony and Bohemia somehow. But ultimately it doesn't really matter where it's supposed to be, because the novel is pretty self-contained within the borders of Ruritania. It's got a kind of Austrian Monarchy romanticism about it. But what, then is Ruritanian America?
I got the idea from Red Dead Redemption, a famous video game by Rockstar Games. My youngest son picked up the second on for the PS4, and it marked one of the few games that I played extensively in the last twenty+ years. And... it showcases a Ruritanian America setting. Sure, sure... it makes references here and there to real places in America, like California, and New York, etc. But the entirety of the game takes place in fictional states like New Austin, New Hanover, West Elizabeth, Lemoyne and Ambarino. Fake states with fake geography, yet highly suggestive of real places without having to actually slavishly copy their geographical or historical reality. Brilliant idea! My Ruritanian States of America is a separate nation, though, much like Ruritania itself is. Again, it's culturally American, but politically independent. It can be seen somewhat as if the Republic of Texas remained independent like many of its early leaders wanted, didn't join the US, and just kinda hung out there as a different country all its own, but squeezed into a fictional geography somehow.
I don't really like or accept some of the labels that model railroaders use to describe their railroads. I guess in the common parlance, this would be somewhere beyond what is usually meant by a freelance railroad. Because I reject that label, I guess I'll create my own, the Ruritanian style railroad that is a combination freelance, Ruritanian romance and alternate history all kind of rolled up into one. To be fair, however... this is the original vision of the hobby. The hobby really didn't exist as we know it until guys like Bill McClanahan and John Allen and Andy Sperandeo and John Armstrong etc.; all kinds of them were into what was quite Ruritanian American in many ways. Especially John Allen.
I like Allen's railroad well enough, but John Olson's Jerome & Southwestern and Malcolm Furlow's San Juan Central are more direct influences on me personally (even though they were openly derivative of the Gorre & Daphetid in their own right.) But mostly, I just don't want anyone feeling entitled to run around telling me that I didn't do it right. To take the wind out of those kind of people's sails before they even start, I'm openly doing a Ruritanian America Railroad.
For my next post, probably not for a few weeks, I'll talk specifically about some of the details of what that means for the Ruritanian States of America Railroad.
Oh, and before I sign off... I actually plan to make use of the traditional Ruritanian Romance plotline in some way too. The rightful owner of the railroad is living as an outlaw in the wilderness with a merry band of other scofflaws and whatnot, but not because they're villains. Quite the opposite; a Yankee imposter from NYC who happens to be a dead ringer physically for the rightful owner is running the railroad and has usurped the role of robber baron and territorial governor into something like a combination of gangster and warlord. A Yankee Boss Hogg, if you will. I hope to have a few "diorama" style scenes on the layout that represent this conflict here and there.
As an aside; why isn't the banner working? I have banners on my other blogs, and they all behave very predictably. This one is misbehaving, and I can't seem to figure out why.
I will say, though. Although the banner looks terrible on my PC, it looks great on my phone. Maybe they did that on purpose... And maybe I'll just leave it.
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