Like everyone else in this hobby, I had trains when I was a kid- American Flyer at first, then a bunch of HO stuff. And, like my baseball cards and comic books, I have no idea whatever happened to them. However, the 60s came and changed everything, and the 70s even more so, and by the 80s I don’t think I even thought about model trains more than once or twice in those several decades. Early 80s, however, a roommate got me an N Scale table top set, and I was hooked again! My first purchase was a Con-Cor UP E8 AA set. I was back in love with the hobby! This Con-Cor set, incidently, became the victim of my first attempt at painting, using a $10 airbrush and a tank of compressed air. I have certainly learned a few things since, but the most important thing was, Go ahead and try!

I had a few small home layouts when I returned to the hobby, but nothing satisfying. Deciding to try once more in the early 90s, I went to a Great American Train Show at the LA County Fair to get some inspiration. It was there I discovered NTrak, and my relationship with N Scale was about to take a giant leap forward. I became one of the founding members of the NTrak Express, a modular club based out of Orange County, California– not far from my home. We used to have meetings on a monthly basis, and it was at one of these meetings that I brought in a Roundhouse 50′ tank car that I had painted white and ran some red stripes around, making a candy cane.  I thought we might sell some of these for the club treasury.

One thing led to another, and we ended up consigning Microscale Industries to make us a batch of decals that would fit this particular car. Roundhouse was kind enough to sell us a lot (I cannot honestly remember if it was 100, 150, or 200) undecorated tank cars. Martin and Darren at the Freight Yard painted the lot white for us, and we started decaling. NEVER AGAIN!! There were 17 separate decals that went on each car, and it ended up being about 4 or 5 of us sitting in a garage, cranking out cars. It did not take us long to realize that having someone else do the cars was not only labor saving, but cost effective as well.

Thus began a wonderful relationship with Eric from Micro-Trains, who did several years of our cars, George (Hi, George!!!) from DeLuxe, who did our cars for a couple of years, and Paul from Atlas, who also did our cars. All great people, wonderful companies, and all of them gave us a high quality product to sell.

I did the artwork for our Christmas cars for 5 years, then passed the torch to LeRoy Bainbridge, who did an outstanding job, maintaining our club’s desire for a high quality collectible car.

Back in 2005 was an event that changed my relationship with trains once again, stepping it up to an even higher level– the NSC Convention in San Diego. Our club was signed on to be a part of the main layout downstairs, so I bought a hotel room for a few nights, and brought my 10 year old son Alex along for the ride. Needless to say, we had a ball. We lounged around the pool. I met a lot of people who had only been names before, ran some trains, and generally had the type of time I expected to have in San Diego. I ended up taking George and Roberta’s son Zach and my son Alex to Sea World for the day, and had a wonderful time. All this time, I had no idea that there were excursions we could have signed up for. All I knew was we had a big layout to maintain.

At the banquet, things changed my entire perspective of the NSC. This was an organization I was going to be a part of, and I was going to be more than just an idle bystander– I was going to participate!!

For the next several years, my son and I would look forward to these conventions. A wonderful time with friends and my son. I always figured I was the luckiest guy around– I had a teenage son who liked to spend time with me. We went to Hartford, Denver, Portland, Hershey, and Medford, missing Louisville and Houston due to uncontrollable circumstances

I always liked that Lowell made a special convention car, something Audra Goyette turned me on to back at the San Diego convention (they were still Californios in those days). So, for the Hartford convention, I made a limited run of Duracell battery cars, and sold out!  I even wrote an article for Fred about it later in that year. I learned to appreciate Lowell even more when the Portland convention rolled around, and I had nothing. Determined, I made up an “Old Frothingslosh” tank car for the Hershey convention, but again, didn’t manage to make anything for the Medford gathering.

One of the coolest things about the Medford gathering was renting a car, and taking my son to the site of my very first teaching job, a one-room schoolhouse in Mugginsville, CA– about 30 miles southeast of Yreka. I worked there for the 1977-78 school year, decided I was a city boy and quit (this is the same year California passed Proposition 13, limiting property taxes, so no districts in the state were hiring! Good move, right? Ended up in Reno, NV, but that’s a whole ‘nuther story!). However, the old schoolhouse had been closed for about 5 years, but one of my former students (and now local newspaper editor) took us to the school, and I was able to reminisce and share stories with my son.  This, among so many other things, is what makes these conventions so remarkable. The “extra fare” is always incredible, and gives us a chance to see the surrounding areas, and gives us a substantial taste of life in this particular part of the United States.

My own collecting has matured over the years. There was a time, when we were making Christmas cars, that I tried to collect every Christmas car ever manufactured. I also tried to get every beer car ever made, taking a bow to one of the other great loves in my life. Now, I finally have the layout I have wanted all my life. I am retired, so you know I am busier than I have ever been, but still have time to play with my trains. I am much more of a runner now than a collector, or should I say, more of an “enthusiast” than a “collector.” Expanding the mission of the NSC, I guess. I still do the occasional custom paint job–I have found that I really like painting up Kato GS-4s, and have done a couple in Northen Pacific North Coast Limited, another in Union Pacific City of Los Angeles, and a few Christmas styled, that I am really proud of! Other than that, I just play with my toys, happy and content in my retirement. I love traveling, and have been to China, Tibet, Cambodia, Vietnam, Panama, Ireland, Costa Rica and Machu Picchu, among other places. Earlier this year I spent over three months traveling around India with a backpack and not much more. Still on the bucket list- the Northern Lights

Funny thing- whenever I have guests at myhouse, they ALWAYS find their way down to the garage, and ask me to run something around the track. Like I’m going to say “No” to that, eh??