The Concept behind the Augsburg & Concord Railroad

      Here’s the story behind the scenes at the birth of the Augsburg and Concord Railroad. I was attending Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, studying to be a pastor. In 1994, the last year of my studies, I suffered a heart attack and had open-heart surgery. I had to withdraw from classes for six months. Most of my recovery time was spent during winter, so I found myself confined to our apartment, except for rehab and an occasional visit to the campus library (where I could still borrow books).
      My wife suggested I spend the time working on my trains. At this point, all I had space for was a small shelf above my desk. This was 6 foot long and 12 inches wide. I set up a small switching layout and started dreaming of what I could have once I finished school and got a church.
      Dreaming led to a trip to the public library and to some maps of Central Illinois. I loved the time we lived in Springfield, watching ICG trains come and go. It had some possibilities. Then I got a map of the Chicago & Illinois Midland. This was a coal hauling subsidiary of Commonwealth Edison in Chicago (my home town).
      Since there was a real possibility of my hobby always having to share my office space, I started playing with railroad names that reflected my soon-to-be vocation. Two documents that make up the backbone of the Lutheran Confessions are “The Augsburg Confession” and “The Formula of Concord.” So the Augsburg and Concord was born. The herald was an easy one. Being Lutheran, we have something called “Luther’s Rose” or “Luther’s Seal.” That became the herald. The slogan is “The Confessional Line” since it’s named after the Lutheran Confessions.
      I spent a lot of time during my recovery thinking about color schemes and history. There was nothing better to do. I toyed with several and settled on an imitation of the BN using gray and red, with gray going where the BN used black. After a long time, and the purchase of a couple locomotives in PRR Brunswick Green, the color scheme was changed to PRR Green and yellow trim.
      Decals were ordered, using Times New Roman typeface off the computer. The first locomotive painted was 1530, which is the year the Augsburg Confession was signed. The next, 1580, is when the Formula of Concord was adopted.  Like I said, this is inside joke that most people don’t appreciate, but I do…so who cares what everyone else says!