Name is John Kistenbroker, site handle is trilbyman. Live in Trilby, Florida - about 30 miles north of Tampa. Got started into trains 70 years ago - grandfather operated a tower 30 miles west of Chicago and my dad would take me out in the middle of the night to go to the tower. Watched him count cars on the way into Chicago and telegraph the data into Chicago - I guess that was to let Chicago know how much space to give the train. Started with Christmas Lionel layouts - sporatically messed with layouts - got more serious 30 years ago with HO in an outbuilding in Tennessee. Filled up the building and went thru the normal progression of making bigger and bigger and then started getting smaller and smaller. Went to N scale in Florida - started big and again got smaller - started using Fast Track turnouts - latest layout is about 30 by 40 inches. Now I'm getting into Z scale and will stay small probably. Starting with a double oval and progressing to a folded dogbone.
Welcome, John. Wow! Seventy years ago! Your story is fascinating. My maternal grandfather was a section gang foreman for the CGW in the nineteen thirties but I never knew him as he died of tuberculosis 12 years before I was born as a result of mustard gas exposure in WWI. My paternal great grandfather was a station agent for the Milwaukee Road during the same time period and I never knew him either. I would have loved to tag along with either one of them. Doug
Don't know the name of the tower. It was 10 miles west of Chicago in the town of Forest Park. The elevated trains going into Chicago started here. They crossed over the railroad tracks and my granddad had to keep throwing switches as they left and returned from Chicago. Roosevelt road was the North/South road. All the different trains coming from the west joined up here on their way into Chicago. I remember he had to go out on the track and tend fires at the switches in the winter so they wouldn't freeze up.
