I was born and raised along the Southern Pacific line south of San Francisco in the early sixtys. Recieved my first train set at age 7, " HO scale Tyco set, blue and yellow Santa Fe F7 ".  Well I was hooked. I started my first layout when I was in jr high, a 4x6, with a track plan from that little blue Atlas book of track plans.  About this time I discovered Model Railroader magazine. At age 16 I moved to the foothills up by " The Hill ".  Great train watching.  Had my 2nd layout up and running, a 5x10 set in the Bay Area.  Well sometimes bad things happen and I lost that layout in a major forest fire back in 1989.  I did manage to grab a couple of engines off of it as we ran out of the house.  That one hurt as I had rolling stock that I  had since I was a kid.  I took some time away from the hobby,  got married, moved, had kids. Now I'm building layout #3.  10x12 double deck layout with a 4x8 center section.  It's a free lance layout set in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  I've been a Tour and School Bus driver for over 25 years.  I now live 15 miles from Western Pacifics Feather River canyon. Good train watching there too.