I have been fond of steam trains since my childhood when I sat at my dad’s knee and listened to his stories of adventures in Burma. For 2-1/2 years my dad, Sgt. H. G. Surface, served in the 748th Railway Operating Battalion, Company C in Tinsukia, Assam Province, Burma during WWII. He was trained in Camp Jessy Turner, Arkansas and sailed with the 748th ROB on the USS Mariposa for the far east. He operated a meter gauge railway as engineer and conductor handling munitions and fuel from the port of Rangoon north to Tinsukia, Burma. From there war material was transported by aircraft over the “Hump” into China. Unfortunately , my dad died from his war connected disabilities thirteen years after I was born. His stories led me to a fondness for steam railroads to this day.