Reply to "What do your trains mean to you?"

I got my first train (American Flyer three rail) in 1946, I was two. I don't remember much about it other than there was a steam engine with a white box car. My Dad and his friend burnt up the transformer so I never got to run it. My love of trains really started in 1948, yes Christmas day with a Lionel freight set including a 2026 steam engine. From then on all I wanted was more cars, track, switches, bigger transformer and crossing gates. I got them one at a time for Christmas or birthdays. The O27 switches I got one day when my Pop took me to this great train store in Los Angeles and just bought them for me. Not a birthday or Christmas no real reason so it was a wonderful thing. They didn't have much money so it was special in a lot of ways. The store had a layout with Gargraves track and I thought that was amazing stuff. That's all I wanted that Christmas, Gargraves track. He came through. Also they had a 0-4-0 Lionel switcher on the layout. I didn't get that tell I was almost a teen. I thought the working coupler in front was the most wonderful thing. All my layouts have had Gargraves track. They even used a picture of my last layout in their adds. I have had trains in my life all my life and always will. Lucky I married a wife that had a Dad that worked for Southern Pacific. I'm also lucky to live three blocks from a narrow gauge steam train that did it's first passenger run in years last night. I work with them all the time. After all it's in my blood. Don