My father bought his first train set when he got out of WWII, in 1945, for my older brother. When I came along, I had no choice but to get interested in model trains or move out. Since I was too young to make it on my own, I picked model trains as a hobby. I was born and raised in Strasburg, Lancaster County, PA , as was my father and his father. We can trace our roots back to the early 1700s in Lancaster County. My father started the Choo Choo Barn in 1961. (www.choochoobarn.com/history.php) I worked there throughout my pre-teen and teen years and finally had to do something on my own. I took a job in an Iron foundry that eventually took me to another foundry as a melting foreman. After nearly being electrocuted, I grabbed onto 277 volts with each hand (that's one leg of 440 volt 3 -phase), I decided that foundry work was not meant for me. My parents had talked of retirement and after some friendly negotiations, we came to an agreement whereby they could retire and my wife and I would take over the family business. This whole history is on our website so I won't bore you with any more details. http://www.choochoobarn.com/history.php