I live in Southington Connecticut, located 20 miles west of Hartford, and I retired in 2002 after 47 years of service to the Otis Elevator Division of United Technologies Corporation (UTX). My earliest memory of Trains go back to about 1940, when at the age of 5, I receive a Lionel Train for Christmas. This was the age of Steam and much time was spent with my father watching trains in nearby Providence R.I. Over the years I have made many friends among railroad workers, a great group of people who taught me much about railroading. I joined the Train Collectors Association (TCA) in 1973 and has compiled a reasonable collection of O gauge Lionel trains, some going back to the 1920s. I also run G gauge models on over 500 feet of track in my back yard.