I was born & raised in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. At one time, supposedly the logging capital of the world. Today I live a short distance from there.
Today, there are 2 RR lines in the Williamsport area. But when I was a kid, there were SIX lines that entered or passed thru there, tho a couple were inactive by then. In doing research on railroads in the area, I lost count of just how many there were over the years, that were actually in Williamsport, or were within 20 miles of it. And, to my knowledge, they were in two gauges. Most were standard, but at least a few were 3-footers. The 3-footers were the logging roads. In my walks thru the forests in the area, I have come across a number of the old 3-foot roadbeds, and at least one small section where there were still ties in the ground. Those ties were at least 10 miles from the nearest present day trackage, so I know those lines had very extensive trackage, most of which was never mapped.
It was those old beds and ties, that got me to switch from modeling HO standard gauge, to modeling HoN3. And to switch from no particular prototype, to modeling a fictional modern day prototype, that does what they did, but with a century of new knowhow on how to do things better.
And what I think is most impressive, is the number of lines over the years, compared to the population of the area. I can understand some city with millions of people having a lot of lines to serve it. But Williamsport is a small city, with an urban/suburban population then and now, of around 50 thousand people. I dont know of any other place with a population in that range, that had that many rails serving it.