Member Profile
Gerry Foster

Born in Greenville, SC, I spent most of my youth in Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA. I attended Georgia State College and went into the rent-a-car industry after school. My wife of 37 years, Anne, and I started dating in high school. We have four wonderful daughters, picking up four son in laws, and now have six grandchildren ranging in age from 18 months to 14 years. Anne, the lady of my life, is an Atlanta native. We have been transferred every 5 years or so during my career and have lived in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and New Jersey, and have been in Raleigh for the past ten years. After 27 years with National Car Rental, I am currently a real estate broker and work in the Raleigh area in both housing and commercial real estate.

I have always enjoyed golf, hunting and fishing. In 1995 Anne talked me into getting away from so much time 'in the woods' hunting deer. In looking for another hobby, a friend and fellow club member, Jim Craig, showed me his home layout in N scale. A few weeks later I visited a Neuse River Valley train show at the fairgrounds with Jim. After realizing that an individual member's single four foot module could be connected with other club modules to create a layout that was 64 feet by 24 feet and to run your trains on it — I was hooked. I do everything from chasing trains as we travel, to locating old depots and photographing them. From collecting too much rolling stock to building modules.

I currently model the Southern Railway, Central of Georgia, and Florida East Coast. I primarily stay in a period from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. I have five modules under construction. These will be constructed to use at home and to take to train shows. When finished there will be four four-foot modules modeling scenes from Atlanta to Greenville, SC. This will include mountains, textile manufacturing and the city. The other two modules will go to FEC territory modeling Tropicana and the cane fields of central Florida.

I have watched trains though the Swannanoa area up to the geysers. Chased coal trains up the Blue Ridge Mountains and through the tunnels at the Apple Orchard at Altapass. I have taken four of the six grandchildren on the Carolinian and Piedmont. I look forward to some day leaving Chicago and heading west by rail into Denver and to taking the train from coast to coast in Canada.

I encourage you to try the hobby. Share some phase of it with a young person. See you by the rails.

Legend

All descriptions refer to looking at the front of the module.
CCW = Counter-clockwise; CW = Clockwise
Crossovers indcate travel from left to right.
Div, Divn = Division
Mountain Division = Green Track
Mtn = Mountain