For those of you who came looking for "real" models, we apologize

The love of trains can lead to a lot of things. As a child, I used to stand on the front porch and watch the steam engine powered L&N passenger trains pass in front of our house on the way to the L&N station near the riverfront in New Orleans. I earned several stitches under my chin while doing this..... walked right off the end of the porch and fell to the ground. You think I'd have learned.

NO, A Lionel train set given to me kindled that spark again. While it was only the large toy train going round and round on the living room floor, the fire had been lit. I graduated from Lionel 027 guage to what I felt was more realistic American Flyer S guage (simply because it was two rails instead of three. As I grew, I graduated to HO scale, and finally built a "layout" (Something more than trains going around a circle on the floor.) This led to having to learn something about electrical current, you have to run wires, connect devices, and lighting to make your layout look like something. You also have to learn to do some craftwork - working with plaster of paris, and painting. And I almost forgot, you have to learn carpentry to set up mountains and tracks.

A friend gave me an old 35mm film camera, and I began to take photos of my creations. Of course they were crude, I was still a kid. Now I was as we say today - multi-tasking.

If you decide to really be realistic about modeling, you have to watch trains. Watching trains sometime leaves you sitting around for hours, so you become aware of your surroundings, you learn to love clouds, flowers, and animals - nature. Then there is history, with all of the mergers of railroad companies, and abandonment of track, it poses a challenge to keep track of what was.

If you know a young person that seems to like trains..... encourage them, you will be creating someone that will conceivably turn out to be a well rounded individual.