My story beings at age 3 in 1956 with a Monon AA diesel Marx set that was lost and re-acquired in the 90s. In the following video, you can see my with it (represented by a Marx trestle bridge) at about the 50 second mark.
In 1958, at age 5, the Lionel era begins and you can see this starting at about the 2 minute , 8 second mark and layouts continue on the video until 1963.
I continued to do Christmas layouts every year until 72 or 73, but they got progressively small and short-lived.....pictured by the floor layout in my room.
I the late 60s, I dabbled with becoming a rock star. However, though I was enthusiastic, I lacked an essential ingredient: talent. After graduating high school in 71, I became much more serious about schoolwork and then spent 1975-79 in Buffalo New York, getting a medical degree.
I then moved to Baltimore where I started a residency in internal medicine at University of Maryland Hospital. One Saturday in the late winter of 1980, I saw an ad for a Greenburg Train & Toy show at Towson State. I went and my interested was immediately rekindled......
Here is a floor layout in Baltimore in the early 80s:
I haven't stopped since.....I married in 84 in Philadelphia and we moved to Richmond in 85. Here are a few pictures of my 1st layout in Richmond in 86.
The layout in 92-03:
....and the rest is history....the OGR Forum making this a "social hobby", another move in2004 with a new layout starting in 2011.....and in 2009, joining a newly formed local modular group in central Virginia.
So, I will say that I was interrupted from 73-74 to 80....
Peter
