Growing up in the late-50's, my two older twin cousins had a large permanent Lionel layout in their basement. My bother and I each had our own smaller basement layouts that went up the day after Thanksgiving and stayed up until sometime in January. A friend of my brothers also had a large Lionel layout in his basement. He was always getting new locomotives, rolling stock, and accessories. We were jealous.
I met my closest train friend at work. We had known each other for years and one day I was in his office and noticed a piece of Super O track sitting on his desk. When I shared some pictures of around-the-tree layouts I had set up he started talking about his trains and we've been BFFs since then.
John
