Gareth, my passion for railroading isn't really a secret(:<)).....My Dad spent his entire working life on the railroad. He worked on a section gang for 3 years and went into engine service in 1940 as a fireman on the Pennsylvania RailRoad. During WWII he was in the 719th Railway Battalion in North Africa and Italy. He was "setup running" (made engineer) in 1950 and had enough seniority to hold a regular slot on the board as an engineer in 1955. He always ran freight which he preferred and actually paid better but I grew up never knowing when he'd be home. He'd be gone about a day and a half and home for two. But if the board picked up or slowed down it changed. It drove my Mom nuts never being able to plan anything too far in advance.

He (and I) grew up in a railroad town where the Pennsy had had huge yard facilities back in the 20's but by the time I came along it was pretty well gone. But I still loved going over to the little used roundhouse and turntable and just watching. Pennsy had brought in diesels pretty early, but the PanHandle Division still had some steamers (K4's and M1's running freight in the early 50's. Gawd they were something to a small child! The M1 was a huge locomotive and as it simply sat there snorting and whooshing it was as if the thing was alive. But as a kid I was into the "modern" things that came with the postwar/50's period, so I loved the diesels back then.

We had a Lionel train set that got added to every Christmas and I would spend the months before going through the Lionel catalog every night and trying to choose what I wanted Santa to bring most. Dad and I would set the layout up in October and take it down in March every year. We never did much for scenery but we had a lot of track, engines, and rolling stock! It eventually covered 4 4x8 sheets of plywood.

He died in 1973 and while he was ill we made a trip to the yards to pick up some things out of his locker. He was very weak but insisted on climbing aboard an engine that was in the roundhouse. He was 54 years old and had always talked about the glorious day he would retire and he'd had it figured that by compounding vacation times and things, he could retire almost 5 months before his 62nd birthday. But I knew that was just talk. He was a railroader through and through and if he had made 62 he'd have been sitting at the roundhouse hoping for a final run! When we were in the cab of that engine, it is probably one of the most touching and vivid memories for me of him sitting there "on the box" and turning to me and saying, "I'd like to have made just one more run."

I wish he'd made a lot more.............

Spaw