Standard Gauge Article In January Issue

[SPMan]

I just received the January issue and it was special for me because it featured the collection of an old friend of mine, Chuck Stone.  The article brought back a lot of memories from over the years since I have known Chuck.  I was introduced to him in the early 70's by a mutual friend of ours, Ed Harrigan who turned out to be my best friend.  Ed, incidentally was one of the best repair and restoration men in this hobby in my humble opinion.  He has retired from that business due to bad health but that's another story.  The article names a hobby shop where we used to hang out owned by Mr. Paul Kirby called the Train Stop in San Dimas, California.  Chuck was one of the guys and that little group was the origin of a group of train collectors and operators who came to call themselves the Thursday night group.  We have met continuously since that time until the present day although our current membership is down to just 4 or 5 guys from maybe 20 at the high point.  After we left the hobby shop, we met at Ed's house for many years.  It is presently at my layout and has been for several years.  Getting back to Chuck's collection, he was the guy who introduced me to Standard Gauge.  Before that, I did'nt even know it existed.  When I was growing up during WWII in a working class neighborhood, the only trains I ever saw were Lionel O Gauge. American Flyer or Marx.  The Standard Gauge trains and buildings were beautiful with all the different colors and it was made of metal, not plastic. You could imagine what it was like for a well off kid to get something like that for Christmas, especially when you consider that some of this stuff was made during the depression.  I give Chuck a lot of credit for sticking to his goal of collecting these wonderful examples of the Standard Gauge Period.  I only collected O gauge trains myself but had some prewar at one time. My own taste gradually moved to the more modern, state of the art trains which we have today and I was more interested in realism but I still have an appreciation for those wonderful tinplate trains that started it all and guys like Chuck, who are keeping it alive.  Thanks CTT for a nice article. 

Ray