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It started with an Erector set in 1962.  One of the really small
ones, but inside the back cover of the "How To Make 'Em Book" was a
picture that was also used ( I think ) on a '58  AF catalogue
cover.....it showed a Hudson climbing a trestled grade with smoke
pouring out of the stack and those whitewall drivers !  Made my
Lionel General and my second-hand Marx set look anemic.  Never did
end up with AF as a kid.  Fast forward to about 1980 and seeing a 290
in a train store.... I remarked to my girlfriend that I'd always
wanted one of those engines with whitewalls and smoke......and lo and
behold, it appeared wrapped in a box for Christmas that year along
with a 630 caboose and a box of track. The post-college re-discovery
of model trains was just starting.....and so was the lure of the real
thing. They both went hand in hand.  Visits to train stores showed
flyers posted for steam fan trips, in this area it was N&W 611 and
later on their 1218. The sound the exhaust from that northern at 70
mph and the mournful sound of it's low-toned whistle instantly got
into my blood.  The N&W trips came to town just once a year, the
craving for steam, grease and coal smoke was enough that I commenced
weekend trips to Owosso, a mid-Michigan town about 75 miles from home
to work on the 1225, a Pere Marquette 2-8-4 Berkshire.  A few months
of that and I was pretty well hooked. During all this time I was
completing a second college degree, and shortly after graduating with
a BSME, saw an advertisement for a helper needed in the railroad shop
at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village.  On a whim, I applied
figuring it might be a fun thing to do until a real job presented
itself. 13 years later the "real job" still hasn't presented itself
and I daily work with or on or repair or maintain one of our steam
locomotives, sometimes using machine tools that were built around the
WWI era.  I was fortunate enough to be part of a group that
documented an 1880's roundhouse originally located in Marshall,
Michigan. It was later recreated on the Greenfield Village grounds
and again  I was part of the group that worked closely with the
architects and construction firm during the planning and construction
phases, the building is now my home base of operations.   All of this
due to acquiring that first little 290.
My main job for this project though, was the restoration of a number
of large, specialized machine tools designed specifically for
railroad use ~ a driving wheel lathe, a draw-cut shaper, a 400 ton
capacity wheel press, an axle truing lathe and a radial arm drill
press, the arm of which is 6 feet in length and it stands some 14'
tall.  Yes, the ME degree helped some, but more than any other
training I might have had or picked up over the years, I have to
credit my ability for dismantling, assessing and then rebuilding
those machine tools ( and the locomotives too ! ) to the hours and
hours spent with the Erector set that showed up Christmas morning in
1962 ( along with a subsequent set that came a couple years later ).
Learing how parts inter-relate, how gears mesh ( and to keep fingers
clear of same ), how levers and cams do their thing, so much of the
basis of that understanding came from freelancing projects with those
Erector sets.  Once you get into it, there really aren't that many
principles of mechanics to learn, it's more how they inter-relate and
being able to break larger assemblies into smaller ones or realizing
that some of these things are just bigger versions that require some
ingenuity in handling.  So in my world, AC Gilbert and his toys
really shaped how the boy turned out !
And a standing invitation to any on this list that happen through the
Detroit / Dearborn area to stop in and visit the roundhouse......it
was created with the visitor in mind and the public can tour the
building daily, April 1st. through the end of the year.

Regard"S",

Smitty