Elliot, that was truly a fascinating history of all of your endeavors. It actually puts your current modeling efforts in much more perspective. Thank you for sharing.
I clicked on this thread since I saw the name enterTRAINment as I live in Ohio not far from the the G-scale layout known as ENTERTRAINMENT Junction. I have gone several times and have enjoyed it each time. Someone asked if it was still open and it is. Seems that their layout was built a lot by volunteers, many train folk around the Cincinnati area and surrounding area. This facility is actually located in West Chester, Ohio. Here is a web site and check out the video. http://entertrainmentjunction.com This layout starts out from early years of railroading and then progresses through all of the eras up to present day. It is very well done and worth a stop. It reminds me a lot of many of our forum member's O-Gauge layouts.
Rick