It was a sad week for me at York. Steve Feinman, a TCA member since 1982, died on Monday 4/24/17 at Old Country Buffet in York. I first met Steve in 1977, we became friendly, and he re-introduced me to trains in the early 1990's. I started coming to York in 1993 and think its great.
Most of you probably didn't know Steve because he was primarily a collector of pre-war trains (and some post-war). His desire was to get an item as close to original as possible. He also was a huge believer in privacy, and you really had to know him to get to see his trains. So the thought of posting on the Forum (or even joining something like the Forum or other public or semi-public "spread the information" sites) was not something he would do.
In my earlier days at York, I would love to go to the bandit meets and would hang around with Steve. What many of the people interested in new trains don't realize, is that there is really more than one "York". The pre-war group is a much smaller group than people interested in the newest toys, and the money is really serious money (Rich's post about substantial cash found reminded me of that). A lot of the pre-war dealings were done York week, but prior to going to the Fairgrounds. In fact, many times Steve would not even stay until the Fairgrounds opened because his "wheeling and dealing" were done by then. I suspect that the pre-war group is not the only group like that. And BTW, when people who collect newer trains think about an expensive item, they might think of a BigBoy for a couple of grand. Chump change for the pre-war guys.
Although our paths diverged in more recent years, I will miss Steve. And I will forever thank him for his friendship and getting me back into this hobby.
Gerry
