Born in PA and introduced to American Flyer S Gauge at age 6. Moved to Texas at age 8 and shifted to HO. Foolishly forgot about trains in high school and college. Married wonderful girl out of college and spent 3 years in Military Intelligence. Rediscovered trains in grad school at Ohio State and traded in all previous trains for N-Scale which I have been collecting for 30 years. Have 3 children and two grandsons and am just now getting around to designing railroad. I spent last 30 years as Supply Chain/IT exec and consultant for Sherwin-Williams, Sunbeam, UniSource, Paper-Pak and Arrow Electronics. All the travel allowed me to visit hobby shops in every major city in the US. As for the railroad, I am modeling Erie's Mahoning Division circa 1950 which included my birthplace, Sharon, PA. The Sharon, PA - Youngstown, OH area was heavy steel and manufacturing served by the Erie, the PRR, NYC, P&LE, B&O and a number of smaller regionals and shortlines. The name of the road comes from an early effort to connect Sharon and New Castle. The Erie bought it, but it remained a legal entity until the fall of the EL.