Born in 1959.  I work on elevators in San Francisco, many of which are old vintage elevators from the 1920s to the 1960s.  I have found many similarities between wiring on the old elevators and trains of the same era.  I started with trains in the 1960s when a family friend gave our family her son's trains from when he was young.  We always played with them at Christmas when our dad would put a piece of plywood across a couple of saw horses.  Dad bought some new pieces home from time to time, mostly bought at Bill's Terminal in San Francisco.  I became interested in HO and as I got older, and the Lionels were played with less and less.  After I had kids, I wanted to share with them the Lionel experience that I had when I was little, so I persuaded my father to let me take them home.  The old trains were in rough shape from many years of abuse and many drops onto the cement floor of the basement where we always set them up, so I set out to restore them to their former glory.  I happily repaired and replaced broken parts on many of the cars and locos and caught the train bug again.  I set up some of the restored trains under the Christmas tree one year, but sadly, my children never became enthusiastic about them.  Too much competition from video games I guess.  But I have faithfully  set up a layout under the tree every year since, hoping that when my grown sons come over they will take some sort of interest.  I makes me sad that they will not have the warm memories that I have of Christmases past and the warm sound of the Lionels racing around the tracks that always reminds me of my childhood.