In the middle 1970’s I was a trackman for the Boston & Maine RR out of the East Deerfield yards and help
maintain the track between the town of Hadley and as far to the north as White River Vt. I have always loved rail roads and that love seems to continue to the present day. I rode my first train back in the early 60’s and it was on a train that was called Steam Town and as I remember we boarded it in Keene NH at the news stand and rode it north to the town of Bellows Falls and then returned to Keene and the engine that pulled the train consist was a Steam Loco. Well fast forward to the middle 70’s and I spent a spring summer and fall digging out switches and replacing rail and ties when that was not to be done I rode the rail in a dump truck set up with the wheels that enabled it to ride the rail so it was both rail and pavement enabled kind of a neat way to continue my education. Fast forward a few years and I was friends with a fellow who had a lot of track and many parts for a railroad that was assembled at the Springfield MA train show he also had a train set up in his basement that was amazing it was on two levels with a helix up to the second level and as I remember he had a pusher train come out of a side track to help the train make it to the top then removed it from the consist and back down thru the helix to the side track and wait till the next train went up and needed help making the top.Up to this time I have never had my own train set up I have had a healthy set of trains and still look forward to having my first full running train set and not just something that sets in the box or displays cases around the house or shop. Again fast forward to 2000 on May 15 I was driving a tractor trailer hauling two fully loaded trailers at a weight of 135,000 and I do not know where my brain was but I started to pull onto a crossing and at that time I found out that two object may not occupy the same space at the same time and I was hit in the drivers door thank god the train was only g