By Paul J. Bottino

Author  Bio First of all, growing up, we lived in the heart of coal country, which meant lots of coal trains.

Born in Price Utah, and raised in the coal mining country of Utah for 20 years. I attended Utah State University where I received a BS and MS degree. I then moved to Washington State University where I got my Ph D in Genetics in 1969. I moved from the west to Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, and spent four years doing research on the effects of simulated radioactive fallout on crop plants. In 1973 I moved to the Botany Department at the University of Maryland in College Park. I was a faculty member there until retirement in 2003. At UM I spent most of my time teaching genetics to students who thought that they would be doctors, and doing research in Plant Molecular Genetics. I trained over 20 MS and Ph D. students.

Upon retirement, my wife of over 40 years and I moved to southern Delaware about 6 miles from Bethany Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. We enjoy going to the beach every day in the summers. We have two daughters, Angela who lives in Salt Lake City, and Kristin who lives 30 miles away in Salisbury Maryland, and has three beautiful and smart children, Taylor 8, Wade 3.5 and Blair 1. I also have a 1967 Chevy Camaro which I take to car shows through the eastern shore of Delaware and Maryland

I was introduced to railroading two ways. First of all, growing up, we lived in the heart of coal country, which meant lots of coal trains. Also the town I lived in is called Helper, a real railroad name. In Helper additional "helper" engines were added to long freight and coal trains passing in 17 miles from about 5500 feet elevation to over 7200 feet. Helper also was the crew-changing place between Grand Junction Colorado, and Salt Lake City. Second, in 1946 my father bought me a Lionel train set, #671 loco, two cars and a caboose. It was put up every year at Christmas, and taken down until the next year. After moving east, I got interested again in O scale model railroading, and regularly attended train shows, buying anything I could afford. In two homes, I had the attics completely filled with Lionel trains. Upon moving to Delaware, I didn't have the space to store my trains, or to put them up. It was then in about 2002 that I discovered G scale model railroading. Since I have an acre of woods around my house, I immediately began selling my O scale trains on ebay, and buying G scale trains. (I still have #671 and it still runs at Christmas). In June of 2004 the trains began running on my outdoor layout and have continued to this day. I would classify myself as a "train runner" rather than a model builder or gardener. I don't build much, I seem to be moving a lot of rocks all the time. I just love to have trains running, whistles blowing, and my little grandson is just like me.

My personal train website can be found at www.paulbottino.com/gscale

The website for our club is www.trainweb.com/shoreline.

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