When I was nine years old we lived next to a small petroleum distributor.  I'm not sure what they did, but they had a couple huge tanks and a train would come in several times a week to bring in some kind of petroleum product to fill the tanks.  The train crew would spend their lunch hour stopped on a track next to our yard.

Most young boys are intrigued by trains and I was no exception. It wasn't long before I had befriended this train crew and started to eat lunch with them. They invited me on board the locomotive and I fell in love with trains.  I got my mom to buy me jeans and work boots just like the engineer and I spent many a day playing trains.  I have been a train nut ever since.  I made my first train trip at the age of ten on board a CNW passenger out of Chicago. I loved the look of those F7 locos.  Eight years later I traveled across country on Amtrak and especially loved the northern route through Glacier National Park.

I've always wanted to build a layout.  It was not until this past year that I finally took the plunge and started to build my HO layout.  I am enjoying the hobby immensely.