I graduated High School in 1984, and the machine shop classes were eliminated my senior year. I’d suggest looking for a “Maker Space” near you that has milling machines etc. Most of those places are pretty friendly environments and would either offer instruction as part of your membership, or there would be people there that could get you started. In Philadelphia there is NextFab but similar operations all over. Many are going to have CNC mills, so that would require you to develop some CAD/CAM skills, again, probably class are offered. These CAD/CAM skills would be transferable to 3D Printing, laser cutting, CNC Routing, vinyl cutting etc, so would be well worth the time and effort. I’m convinced the future of this hobby, especially O Scale 2 rail, and even more so Proto 48, will require one to be able to make more of your own parts and models. This isn’t a bad thing, in my opinion, as it frees you up to model whatever prototype you want.
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