Oh boy, I've been waiting for this!!!
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This is my current Lionel train collection. I've got stuff from the Pre-WWII era, up until now. Unopened special sets in original packaging are on top of the shelving. The small totes are a collection I bought from one of my attendings during residency, it was his grandfathers. The finished basement in this new house is mine to fill with a layout.
My "serious modeling" is done in N-Scale with an emphasis on the Kansas City Southern around Baton Rouge, set in the late 80's-early 90's
For many years, I've volunteered at railroad museums in Arkansas, Louisiana, and now in Kentucky. I've gotten to work on restoring steam locomotives at all of them.
Made friends with one of the local paramedics who has the same trains and HAM radio 'tism and we go railfanning if we get the same days off. I do some amateur rail photography.
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Both when I was an exchange student and when the Army sent me to Europe, made sure to ride as many trains as possible, including the French TGV.
I took November of '23 off after my late wife died and took the AutoTrain home from Florida. It was a bucket list for me, but gonna have to do it again when I can really enjoy it.
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'99-'00 timeframe, I worked for Genesee and Wyoming RailLink as a switchman, but was cross-trained as an engineer, and maintenance of way. We were an industrial short line between a quarry and a plant in Little Rock. The pic got destroyed in a move, but my engineer and I had our picture taken by a rail photographer out of Nevada.
And Ironically, I'm watching the movie "Unstoppable" while typing this