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Congrats Ron to you and your spouse on your new baby. It's a funny thing in a way, but it made me feel kinda okay when I heard that you have a new child, when I think about what may have become of my nephew. As one life leaves this world, another one emerges as a baby all innocent and full of curiosity, with boundless opportunities for discovery and adventure the rest of their life. I am very happy for you. My daughter is expecting her third child - a daughter - next month. My 19 year old son is moving back to the nest later this year, and although the empty nest has been peaceful, its been too quiet. Working at home has its advantages and disadvantages, and often I find myself having long conversations with my three cats ! For years, I worked in the corporate semiconductor world out in 'Silly Con Valley", as Jim Manley accurately describes it, then sold real estate for ten years both in California and in North Carolina, where I also sold 'high-end' cars to pay the bills, before starting my own business building custom Craftsman style furniture (Stickley, Greene & Greene, Frank Lloyd Wright, Roycraft and other similar styles) and a product line of period mantle clocks. I'll never get wealthy doing this, but I've found something that will forever challenge me and as long as I can work, I will. The stairs to the basement are the only barrier to getting to work, and no more fighting traffic, airport hassles, and eating expensive and unhealthy meals with heavy breathing people you don't really care to dine with. . . The time I used to spend commuting and 'doing lunch' is now my hobby time, and it has enabled me to dive back into model railroading once again after a ten year absence from the hobby. That my model railroad room-to-be is on the other side of a 2x4 wall from my shop has its advantages ! Sometimes it's fun to reflect on where one lived in terms of the railroading unique to those places. I spent my formative years as a Northeaster - NYC, upstate NY, Jersey, and Connecticut: I have fond memories of the New Haven, NYC, Erie Lackawana, Jersey Central, PRR, the NYC Subway System, and even the PATH trains in NYC/NJ. In upstate NY I lived close to both the NYC four track main and near the old NY,O,&W RR line. My family has a burial plot w/ many generations residing there in Oneida Castle, NY not far from a fascinating multi level railroad station, the subject of a construction article in MR some years back. In high school we used to cross country ski along the old NY Central right of way in the Adirondacks, later reopened from Utica, NY to Lake Placid for the Winter Olympics. I remember riding NH RDCs on vacation to Conn. in the summer, escaping the heat and the noise (incl that of the IRT elevated just a couple of hundred feet from my parents' apartment ) in Queens. Or riding the Long Island and the PRR to visit relatives, or poking around in PRR's Sunnyside Yard in Long Island City with my Dad. I discovered lamb chops riding the NYC to a Columbia Univ. high school press convention in 1962, and that was the highlight of that week (for my Mom refused to cook lamb, but made us eat liver -ugh). When I used to work for United Technologies (Norden Division), and was bored to death tracking down parts for F111s, I used to sit in front of the window and watch worn out GG1s and Turbo Trains wizz by between New Haven and NYC. I have photos of the Sierra RR and the Felton & Big Trees RR in our breakfast room, a painting of the DRG&W narrow gauge in the hall, and a 'Rail Fair' poster from the California Rail Museum in Sacramento - all places I have spent time with my kids, when they were kids. Backpacking the route of the South Pacific Coast (SP), with my German Shephard, through the Santa Cruz Mtns between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz reminds me of the first and only time I got poison oak. Or the time I walked through the WP tunnels east of Newark, Ca to capture one of my all time favorite b&w pictures of an engine emerging from the dark void I had just been in (and it taught me a lesson - it scared the crap out of me !) (My wife later told me that she and her girlfriends used to walk through the Chatsworth tunnels on the Espee north of LA when she was in highschool.) There was the business trip back east from California when my girl friend tagged along, and we spent the weekend in New England. We visited the now defunct Edaville 2 foot narrow gauge (ex Maine Two-footer equipment) around the 'Ocean Spray' cranberry bogs outside of Plymouth. I had been modeling HOn30 at the time and it was quite a thrill to see how 'big' the little trains were. The tourist line was shut down for the day when we arrived, and she persisted until she wrangled a cab ride for us (because it was my birthday). They agreed to just run the little Forney sans cars a couple of laps around the place, the only cavaet being that we had to sign a waiver and declare in writing that we were married ! Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue. But damnit, one thing led to another, a bottle of Jose Quervo (very hard to locate in New England back then), a nice dinner, and I proposed to her later that night ! We paid a visit to the Skunk tourist line in northern California on our honeymoon, and several years later we were touring the backroads from DC to New England and stopped by the Strasburg RR and the PRR museum in Pennsylvania, only to once again arrive at closing time. So I parked the rental beside the fence in front of the museum to snoop around the premises. She elected to remain in the car because she was six months pregnant with my son. My promise to return in fifteen minutes evolved into an hour, and she was madder than hell when I returned to the car, because I had apparantly parked over a very ripe and fairly recently dead cat. And it was warm outside and I had the car keys with me. And that my new home is located within the sounds of the Georgia Northeastern RR (ex L&N) short line is still more evidence of how train people may define their lives by the trains that run nearby, Or, at least I do. Hopefully I haven't bored you to tears with my rant, but I guess I just wanted to share some of what trains mean to me. BILL
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