HO SCALE 1957

My Life as a Model Railroader Like so many, started when I received my first HO scale train set for my 12^th Christmas. I don’t remember much about my early layouts, back then none of my family or friends were interested in my trains. It wasn’t until I got my first job/paycheck that things started to happen. It was 1962 and Westerns were big on television. For the next 50 years, due to many moves, I built several DC layouts of various sizes depending on space available, all with the 1870’s in mind. From 4 x 8 sheets of plywood to 6 ft. by 18 ft. open grid. All were built with several levels, one train per level. Lots of mountains and canyons, even running water. It was not until 2010 that I met some fellow modelers; they came to see my 14’ x 15’(era 1875) layout under my house and suggested I get into ‘operational’ modeling. After a couple of ‘ops’ sessions at a layout owned by David Loveless of Watsonville, I was hooked, and quickly built a DCC switching layout on one side of my garage, era 1957. Special thanks to Chuck Catania for wiring assistance. After a couple of operating sessions, (very fun, by the way) I decided to remove my old west layout from under the house and rebuild 1957 in the 17 x 17 space.