[?]

How it all got started.

For me the usual way.  Christmas 1958.  I came out and saw a Silver
Flash set running around the tree.  Later my dad would buy extra
track, switches, accessories for birthdays, tonsils taken out and the
like.  In 1960 we moved to a bigger house.  My dad built a train table
and we put my train on it as well as his old Lionel standard gauge tin
plate.  I think the trains were as much fun for him as they were for
me.  We added trestles and action cars.  I learned how to wire things
and about electricity.  We never did figure out how to solve the short
we got when we added a cross track to the layout.  When I was about
13, we put the trains away. Too many other activities, and Gilbert was
going out of business. Two years ago, we took the trains down from the
attic at the suggestion of my wife.  I took over the garage and well
I've been busy with them ever since.  Now I've even read how to deal
with the crossover track situation, although my layout has no need for
a crossover track.  It's fun.