By Llyn Rice

Author  Bio I've always loved trains. In Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, where I grew up, there was a four track rail line through my back yard. Heaven!

I've always loved trains. In Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, where I grew up, there was a four track rail line through my back yard. Heaven! When I was four years old, my parents gave me a Lionel boxcar and a bit of track to see if I'd treat it well. I did. And my parents bought me a whole Lionel set. As I was growing up, I modeled in HO and then did some O scale as a young adult. After earning my mechanical engineering degree, I spent three years in the Navy serving as a Civil Engineer Corps officer. One of those years was in Viet Nam.

After, leaving the Navy, I worked for a time in Boston and married. Then, we escaped to Vermont where I have worked as an aerospace engineer for a defense contractor for thirty years. During the child-rearing years, my model railroading tended to go up on the back burner. By the mid-nineties, large-scale railroading was getting more popular and the bug bit me. As luck would have it, one of my co-workers was a member of the Vermont Garden Railway Society and he encouraged me to get involved. My experience with VGRS has convinced me that the best way to really get going in the hobby is to join a club. I find that club members have a wide array of skills and are always very willing to share information and help with tasks you may not be sure how to do.

My first layout had about 450 feet of track was a joy to run. I've since moved and, last year, I just got the main loop for my latest incarnation of the Vermont Scenic Railway installed and operating. My layout represents a modern railroad in 1:29 scale. The premise is that a group of wealthy rail fans bought a small railroad which was about to be abandoned and have managed to make a go of it moving freight in interchange with the Vermont Railway and operating tourist trains. Thus, I can mix my USATrains Hudson and stream line coaches with modern freights pulled by a pair of Aristo-Craft Dash 9s with a completely straight face.

During my time in VGRS, a fellow member who also works with 7.25" gauge ride-on trains has introduced me to that side of the hobby and I'm now active with Adirondack Live Steamers as well.

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