just curious

[Matt Bumgarner]

Hey Bervernie-

Just down the mountain from you in Hickory, NC. Hope you are coming to our trainshow on March 31st this year!!

I model 1:1 (I have an SR caboose and ET&WNC Motorcar #2, as well as some other motorcars). Have some HO, a smattering of N, and waiting to jump into On30 when/if an ET&WNC tenwheeler comes out !!!

Matt

[Terry Shellenberger]

Portland Oregon is home; used to do G guage professionally, am now happily playing with 0n30.  Spend my 'day' hours helping folks get familiar with Microsoft's Vista.

Terry

[the Bach-man]

Hi, Terry!
I hope you'll be stopping by at the World's Greatest Hobby show next weekend!
Best,
the Bach-man

[cary]

Greetings all -
Born in Modesto CA, raised in Sonora (think Shays and Heislers from Pickering Lumber Company as well as Petty Coat Junction from Jamestown) - lived in the Bay area and Brasil briefly before finishing High School, joined the Navy - traveled the world; visited or lived in about a third of the countries the world has to offer, including tours in the Pacific and over 5 years in Spain. I learned a couple of foreign languages along the way. Spent 10 years in Hawaii and now live (permanently, perhaps) in Maryland - Government employee. I collect, play with and am starting to model trains.  Collect in two scales (O, HO), play in three (O, HO and N), model in two (HO, N). With a 5 and 6-year old, we also have quite a bit of HO Thomas running on our various tracks.
Regards,
Cary

[Mark Damien]

G'day All,

Forums are such a great idea to share & discuss common interests, but more than that, it gives us a chance to know each other, when there's no chance to actually meet. Currently, I'm debating topics with David & Stewart & having a great time - I hope they are too. bevernie, good thread - 10 out of 10 - you deserve the rest of the day off....to stay on the forum of course

I'm Mark, recently made reduntant after far to many years, on the Government railways in New South Wales, Australia.
My interests are in machining, woodwork, I.T. electronics, world politics & events, Psychology & motivation, and a host of seasonal sports.
As Stewart & David will surely testify , I really love model railroading to a fault.
I recently pulled down my old HO/00 layout & now intend to start another. I model  N, HO/00, ON30, G narrow & standard.

I've learnt so much from others experiences, & thank Bachmann for providing this forum & all the participants for their contributions. It's always been a pleasure being part of it.
   

[SteamGene]

I currently live in Hampton, Virginia, but grew up as an army brat in Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas (three cities), Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Japan (two places), Massachusettes, and Virginia (two major places), where I also went to military school and college.  In Milwaukee the Road built a spur just for me <g> and we lived close to tracks in several of the places I've lived.  I'm a retired English teacher and also spent 27 years in th army - active, Guard, reserve.  I'm a photographer and author with two published books.  I've been married since 1969 with two adult children, four grandkids and a boxer named Sioux.  I'm currently building a 26x17 foot HO layout in a two car garage designed by Sheldon who also designed the layout.  Sheldon, btw, comes highly recommended. 
Gene

[Seasaltchap]

Mark (The Damien),

I wish to echo your sentiments.

NSW has several cities. Are you in a population, or out on your own to share your interests?

The internet has brought the greatest of all social interactions. Often the elderly are trapped in lonleyness to live out their days. Retirement has been revitalised by the contact now available through the internet.

SO, DON'T MEET ANY STRANGE SHIELAS ON THE INTERNET !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lanny]

A 'homegrown' midwesterner ... garden variety. Iowa. That pretty much says it all :-)

A 'war baby' ... WWII that is  :-)

Lot's of railroads going every direction in Iowa, everywhere ... small towns and bigger ones ... they all pretty much had at least one rail line. Highways in Iowa up through the 40s and 50s were notoriously narrow, curves, hills, not good ... and the majority of roads probably were, country gravel ... so rail was the obvious choice of travel ... until highway improvement started <sigh>

I live in the Des Moines area ... Now hosting the Iowa Interstate (old Rock Island mainline to Chicago), UP (former CNW, CGW, RI and several others, now all UP), BNSF ('mainline' branch to mainline from Chicago to Omaha and points west), NW (old Wabash and, or others, to St. Louis ... still a very well maintained line, but not a 'heavy duty' mainline). Lot's of grain elevators and unit grain trains (most for corn and soybeans), as well as unit coal trains.

Grew up 70 miles north in Iowa Falls where the ICRR mainline from Souix City/Fort Dodge to Chicago and the mainline Rock Island from Minneapolis to Kansas city crossed. Passenger trains from both RRs stopped several times daily, until the demise of passenger trains :-(

Whole population of state of Iowa (little over 2 million) would not make a very big suburb of LA, Chicago, NY City, etc ... :-)

Nice and quiet around here ... most of the time :-)

lanny nicolet

[Mark Damien]

A hearty G'Day to you Stewart,

I live in Sydney but grew up in so many places. My dear Father would never let the grass grow under his feet. Although based in Sydney, we spend little time here on the weekends & holidays. I grew up meeting people from all walks of life, cultures & humours & learnt so much from them & still do.

"DON'T MEET ANY STRANGE SHIELAS ON THE INTERNET !!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That's precisely what my wife tells me I'm doing now - she said "all that train stuff is just code I use to talk to my girlfriends". She has a good sense of humour. So listen here Ladies, I'm off to run some trains - see you soon.

[bevernie]

Hi, ya'll, and GREETINGS!! from NC!THANX!! for the "DAY OFF"! Few of you know, though, that for the past week, I've been at home IN BED, mostly, with the flu! I called my boss yesterday, and told him to go ahead and schedule me for my usual trip to Western Kentucky, Sunday, because I can't afford to be sick anymore! I'm very glad that you are enjoying this thread that was started with the intent of bringing us a bit closer together, and even with the thought of perhaps finding someone just around the corner with whom we might find a real friendship. About seven years ago, I left Alabama to get married and move to NC. Since then, I've not really found anyone who really shares an interest in trains. I thought I had when a little shop opened in a local flea market, but they soon went out of business, so I'm right back where I started! Even if I don't find anyone close by, though, it's good to know that we have FRIENDS!!

[nhmanhere59]

Born and lived in N.J. until age 18,had a Lionel O-27 layout, then lived in N.H for the next 46 years,had several HO layouts in various homes,now live in San Diego,and have an indoor "N" scale layout,and am starting a large scale layout on my patio area. My grandfather was a locomotive engineer for the CNJ and LV,and gave me my first electric train when I was just 7 months old.
David

[gardenrail]

Seasaltchap said :


It is the Tasmanian Government railways original 1909 Beyer Peacock Garrett that is now in the NRM at York.

No, it is now alive and well and has just started steaming again on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway. Actually, what remains is an amalgamation of bits from the original K1 and K2 locos plus all the bits needed in the restoration.

[John C]

Hi,  I now live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and have for the past 10 years.  Spend most of my life in Toronto, Ontario with a short stint in Sterling Heights, Michigan.  I've been interested in trains as long as I can remember, and fortunately recall seeing Canadian steam in action in Toronto in the '50's.  There was also streetcars in town and a subway system.  I started model railroading in OO with a trainset, but switched to HO as there was much more available product.  Stopped during my later teenage years for motorcycles, cars and girls, then got the bug again in my 20's.  I've worked for CPR for almost 38 years, have 2 sons, 1 daughter, one grandson, and 2 ex wives (one at a time).  I've built several layouts, planned more, collected brass and now have a good collection of Spectrum & P2K equipment. I'm planning a new layout in a 12 X 22 ft area.  This one will be between 1900 - 1920.  I love the small loco's that Bachmann has provided and appreciate the availability of the website that has been created.

[GlennW]

HowDEE Yall!

I'm a transplanted Chicago Bears fan now living in Nashville, TN.
Home of the Grand Ole Opry & the Music City Star.
THe MCS is our new commuter passenger train that goes east from Nashville to Lebanon & back on weekdays. It uses the tracks of the old Tennessee Central. Everything else is CSX, from L&N days.

I work for Cat Financial. We help the dealers sell Cat equipment. Helps to keep a roof over my N scale equipment. My first set was an Aurora Postage Stamp Trains set.

[pdlethbridge]

Born and raised in Massachusetts near Boston. Saw plenty of B&M steam, 1st generation deisels and of course, the Flying Yankee growing up. Moved to Rochester, NY, yellow box country. (kodak) Did bindery work for 26 years here until I retired because of a stroke in 1998. I have an interest in HO scale and help my brother with his HO scale layout in Farmington