Lanes Trains About Me

Here is where is all started!

This might explain how I “got this way”…

Christmas 1967 Christmas 1968

I have liked trains since my earliest memory. I have often asked myself why at various times throughout my life and have never been able to even come close to an answer. I just DO…The American Flyer trains shown above were bought for my oldest sister. I know that my parents went to great lengths to preserve the Christmas morning anticipation for me since I am the youngest. Keeping Santa Claus “alive” as long as possible was a little challenge. That ½ hour from when the presents were first discovered until they were opened was probably one of the happiest moments of the year for my mom. We went to bed on Christmas Eve with the living room somewhat decorated for Christmas but still relatively intact. There was no Christmas tree or train platform. Everything magically appeared on Christmas morning, obviously set up by Santa Claus. Note the 1968 photo has such a complex track layout the Christmas tree could not fit on the platform any more. My Pop was not into trains but liked changing and adding to the set up for me.

I distinctly remember that extreme anticipation for Christmas morning 1967. My Pop ran a rope between my bedroom doorknob and the bathroom doorknob right across the hall to TIE me in my room because I kept on getting up while they were setting everything up. Since I was still a little asleep, I was quickly shuffled back into bed and didn’t think twice about what I thought I saw.

It was not about the new wrapped toys I would be getting. The completely unbearable anticipation was ALL about getting to run my trains again after a whole year went by. I stomped on and over all the new unopened toys in an effort to get the trains running as soon as possible. Again, I very distinctly remember my mother being forced to unplug the trains to get me to open my presents. I also remember very clearly that for Christmas 1968 that there was a PATH cleared in the presents for me to the quickly reach the transformers.

I designed and built my first permanent American Flyer layout with minimal help from my father at age 12. My second larger A F layout was built about 1 year later. That lasted for about 3 years. Unfortunately there were only a few bad Black &White photos taken of that layout. Here are 3 of them that I could find so far. The small structure that is near the grade crossing at the lower right of the right photo was made by me when I was 14. It is made from the cigar box from when my oldest nephew was born in 1975. Now that I look at the photos again in 2007 I can still see what the photos do not show here.

I became interested in HO when I was 16 where I was involved in what was the only Explorer group in all of the Boy Scouts whose theme was model railroading. I was at a train show in about 1985 where I saw and bought an old S Scale boxcar that was not American Flyer that was built up from a kit. I did not know about any of these kits until I saw this car. It sat on a shelf for months next to some of my American Flyer I had out for display. I looked at it daily thinking if only American Flyer were just “bigger HO” with slow speed DC operation. I did not know it yet but the seed had been planted. In 1987 a truly life changing event happened. I went to my first Central Jersey S Scalers Get Together in South Amboy NJ. The church hall was FILLED with an S Scale modular layout without any American Flyer running. I walked into that meet an HO modeler and left as an S Scaler.

I thought about forming a new S Scale group in my area in 1988. Many members of the Central Jersey S Scalers are still some of my closest friends today. I just wanted something more local though. When I met Roy Hoffman, we co-founded the South Jersey S Scalers in 1989. I was active in that club for about 12 years. My interests were modeling S Scale. The main interest of the SJSS membership majority was almost always Hi Rail and American Flyer. The South Jersey S Scalers became the South Jersey S Gaugers in about 1995 and they are very active today. Lives and interests change. I met my wife in 2000. I am just not active with SJSG anymore. I run my trains at a private S Scale layout that is about 20 minutes from me. Many of the people I see at this layout including the owner were a part of the SJSS/SJSG club years ago. See the Running Trains page for more information about that layout.

I have been an S Scaler since 1987. I model the Mighty PRR in 1957. I also like PRSL, B&O, C&O, N&W, East Broad Top and most other Northeastern roads as well. I have been a member of the PRR T&HS since 1990, and the B&ORRHS since 2005. I restarted the PRSLHS after a 20 year hiatus. It is on line only. I have been accused of being a Slobbering Pennsy Freak and a Rivet Counter. All I can say is somebody has to do it! I have been “brass bashing” exclusively for about 6 years now. I don’t remember the last time I painted or assembled a plastic kit. I enjoy working with brass most because I believe in the stability of solder more then I do of the longevity of adhesives or glue.

It is ALL about the details….

I have had brass parts, like PRR Trust Plates, PRR Round and Keystone steam engine number plates made (Please see my Solidworks page) and functioning draft gear from my master patterns because the parts did not exist in S Scale. I realized that the ends of a car are usually the most neglected area. So my standard detailing upgrade includes installing Cut Lever Brackets, phosphor bronze wire Cut Levers, and Draft Gear where it is possible. I think many production brass models are a good place to start to make a complete and correct model. I have not finished a model of my own in the past 7 years without adding a detail or changing something before it was painted. Even though there may have been 100 pieces of an item made in the production run, the models are distinctively mine when I have finished them. It is my way of “making them my own”.

Custom Made Detail Parts

Updated 11-29-08