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My Story

Well with all of you fessing up to your love of trains and telling us
what effect is has had on your career I find myself feeling the need to
add my two cents. So here we go.

I will be 52 in April of this year. I Also have a BA in Business but
current job is a Sr. Plastics Process Engineer. I am also a certified
Plastics technologist. Don't even ask what that means. Received my
first AF train in 58, a Yard King you know the one with 13 cars and the
figure eight that causes the switch engine to just miss the caboose even at
full throttle. I like fishing hope to go to Canada this spring and fish
for Walleyes, Pike and lake Trout and have a weeks worth of shore fries
and great fishing. I am also a amateur Astronomer, wood worker,
photographer, stamp collector, etc., etc. Happily married for 31 years
she still thinks I am the man, and she even plays with the trains with
me. I think that using your imagination when playing with the trains as
a child has helped me start the long road to learning how and why
things work the way they do. I fixed my old Flyer stuff quiet often and
learned from that experience how to often make do with what was available to
fix things and at least get them running again. It also gave me a head
start on diagnostic skills I would need in the job I have now. Most of my
Flyer stuff is Steam and as a boy we had a coal trian rummble pass our
house just a few blocks away. I can remember picking up large pieces of
coal to mark on the side walk with and the noise and smell of the
switch engine that delivered the coal to the factories in our neighborhood.
Lost my first AF set when the parents didn't see eye to eye any more
and went there seperate ways. So I found all the pieces and rebuilt the set
I had as a kid and it still just misses the caboose when I put the
figure eight up and run them around. I enjoy this forum and mostly just
read the memos and learn about the who, what where, when, and how of AF
toy trains. And yes I play with my trains and share them any time I get
a chance. I have so far put together 4 AF sets all frieght sets to give
to childern less fortunate than I was usually around Christmas. All of
these kids just love the smoke and choo-choo sounds even if it is just
a small loop with 3 frieght pieces and a caboose. I would like to be
retired but my advisor tells me I have to work at least 6 more years so
playing with the trains helps me get through the times when the stress
levels are out of sight. I am a high rail guy and run all kinds of
stuff, including the L stuff. Have a lot of the accesories and most
have been repaired or fixed one way or another but I still get a kick out of
watching the kids operate the sawmill, log loader, semaphores,
whistles, danger signals etc. Have more fun showing the kids how these things
work and letting them run the trains than just about anything else I do.