By Bill Ness

Author  Bio I was born in 1940 and grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. On summer nights, when the wind was right, I could hear the Central of Georgia switching cars in a small railyard about a mile from our house.

I was born in 1940 and grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. On summer nights, when the wind was right, I could hear the Central of Georgia switching cars in a small railyard about a mile from our house. After graduating from Georgia Tech, I met Carol, who has put up with me for 45 years. We have four grown children and 7 grandchildren.

I spent most of my working life in the aerospace industry, but during the mid 1970s worked in land surveying for a while. After leaving aerospace, I worked in the train department of a large hobby shop for a while, then worked with my son helping him get a business launched. I am now fully retired and living in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

As a child, we had Lionel trains in the house, but no permanent layout. Those trains, and the big department store layouts after World War II, sparked an interest that has lasted all my life. Even though the interest was there, with college, work, and raising a family, conditions were never right for me to have a layout until the children were grown. In the early 1990s my son gave me some LGB items, and I was soon hooked on G-gauge. Those first LGB items motivated me to set up a modest layout, although the house we lived in then didn't have much room for a layout and an outdoor layout wasn't practical.

We moved into our present house in 1998, and I have taken over the basement with trains. My layout has about 800 feet of track, with about 640 feet of that mainline. I like trains from all eras, and so my layout has no theme and I like it that way. Also, I like having my trains indoors where I can enjoy operating whenever I feel like it. I am basically content with my layout, even though it is very crude compared to the beautiful outdoor layouts of fellow members of the Georgia Garden Railway Society.

Bill's trains

I have been to Bill's house and his basement is absolutely WONDERFUL...... One could sit down there for hours and just keep watching the myriad of trains he has going all at once ..... I know I was enthralled !!!!! Carl Kokes

carl kokes - 12/10/2011 - 13:44

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