Howdy folks!
I’m happy to join a group I can relate to in this field, since no one else in my circle is even remotely
interested in things railroad. I’m 59 and I grew up in Iselin, N.J., where, since I was old enough to
ride a two-wheeler, I would go downtown to our little train station on the Pennsylvania R.R. and
watch for hours the GG-1’s and E-44’s as they passed my town. MP-54 commuter trains in Tuscan
Red paint were frequent visitors. My Dad took me to the circus in New York when I was five and we
rode one of those '54’s. To be honest, I remember more of the train ride than the circus. I can recall
the tracks being clogged with freight traffic then, particularly the yellow reefers. I guess this was
pre-Interstates, before all the trucking came along and robbed the railroads of traffic. More’s
the pity.
We often visited Grandma in Middletown, N.Y. when I was a boy (a mere 0-4-0 in the train
scheme of things. It was usually on weekends when we visited her. She lived right on the
Erie right-of-way, so I had some wonderful views of Erie trains as a tired old E or F unit would
pull out of town with some old coaches. In winter, the snow would add to the magic of the
scene. These memories gave, and continue to feed, my love of trains. Right now I’m in the
planning stages of a medium-sized Lionel-type layout for my basement. My two grandkids
(girl of 6 and boy of 5) will hopefully enjoy helping me run it. Who knows??? Kids have so
many different things competing for their attention now, most of it electronic. Me? I’m a
lover of “the way it was”.