Hi!

I was born in 1944 in Chicago, and spent my youth around the C&NW tracks - and the IC tracks in southern Illinois in the summers.  I started with Lionel in the '50s, went to HO in 1960, and did a short stint in N in the '80s.  My current HO layout is under construction, replacing a room filling 11x15 two level layout I built in 1993/4.  My main interests are the Santa Fe and Illinois Central in the 40s/50s, along with the DCC operating system I went to with the new layout (2009-20020).

Due to the aches and pains of growing old, and various other concerns, I took down the layout and sold off most all of my MR stuff.  I have to say my timing was right, and everything sold on Ebay and the monies more than covered the repurposing of the layout room into a treadmill/tv haven.  

I did retain some select locos for display, and still have a sizeable Lionel postwar collection.  And, I continue to subscribe to Model Railroader and Classic Trains, and monitor this forum almost daily.   I did resign from the NMRA, and the Illinois Central Historical Society no longer exists.  Thankfully, the Santa Fe Historical Society is still with us, and I've been a member for about 40 years.

The HOBBY has been a lifelong joy and got me through some difficult times, and I enjoyed it immensely.  While I was a "lone wolf" modeler, I really enjoyed the communications with the Forum folks, and the guys at various hobby shops over the years.  Sadly, they are all gone.  

I'll hopefully hit 80 this year (2024), and still am with my wife (# 2) and we live just north of Houston.