WHAT IF?---IF ONLY'.."The Rocky Road to Nowhere" - an informal history of the Blue Ridge Rail Road in South Carolina, (1850-1860) now available from Blue Granite Books - offers casual readers, as well as railroad buffs and Civil War history fans, a tantalizing and entertaining look at what might have been. The Introduction to "The Rocky Road...", sets the tone: "Hidden away in a once remote corner of the state of South Carolina is a massive monument to man's best and worst inclinations... The unfinished mile-long railroad tunnel at Stump House Mountain stands as a lasting record of what might have been...Tales of murder, massacre and mayhem - some at least true - enhance and distort accounts of what really happened there." The actual history of the venture is every bit as fascinating. Begun with high hopes in 1853, as one of the most ambitious engineering projects of the day, it ended in failure in 1859. Strong men with strong characters, like John C. Calhoun, John A Wagener, and Father O'Connell share the scene with equally strong cheats, liars and swindlers. At the end of the day, it is the magnitude of the work itself, which is worth remembering 150 years later.