The Men Who Loved Trains

For most model railroaders, me included, the fascination with model trains started with a fascination with the real thing.  As a young boy in the early 1970's, living less than a block from what is now the New Jersey Transit's River Line, I spent plenty of time running to the end of the block and watching the freight trains rumble past.   As the trains passed I would love reading all the different road names on the engines and freight cars.  The Penn Central was just formed a few years earlier so I got to  witness the transformation of paint schemes on some locos and cars from Pennsylvania to Penn Central.