I like steam trains. That's just the way it is. My father read me the Rev. W. Awdrys books about steam engines when I was a child back in the late 50's/early 60's (I probably qualify as one of the first generation fans of Thomas the Tank Engine). At that time, British Railways were still running main line steam - and did so until 1967, so I got to see the real thing for the first ten years of my life. I have fond memories of Dad taking me to Clapham Junction to watch the boat trains coming up from Southampton. If you've never stood on a bridge above a Pacific hauled express train barreling through the station, I can't describe it - or, at least, do it justice.
Back around 1965, one of my sisters moved to Thames Ditton and came across the Malden and District Society of Model Engineers. They took our parents and me there; Dad promptly joined up. I became a junior member and spent many happy hours in my teens participating in the development of the club.
I slipped out of the hobby in my twenties due to various personal circumstances, but after moving to the USA in 1989 I found myself with a strong urge to get back into the hobby. During a visit to a local model shop I came across a copy of Live Steam Magazine and flipped through the pages. I was hoping to find something near the Twin Cities, but was afraid the nearest club would be somewhere in Chicago. There was nothing listed under Minnesota, but there was an entry for the St. Croix Railroad in Wisconsin. It turned out to be about 30 miles from the Twin Cities and had their Fall Meet that following weekend. I drove out and signed up as a member the same day.
I got elected to the board in April 1993. A year later, at the end of a long day in March (having just flown in from a couple of weeks in the UK) in I was attending a board meeting in a "not really awake state". Dangerous... it was announced that the secretary of the time had been taken ill with a long term illness and an alternative secretary needed to be elected. John Schmidt, bless him, nominated me and the rest of the board assented before I realized what they were doing. Maybe a year or so after that I picked up the Newsletter Editorship and did both for... quite a while. Come 2003 I was elected President, and I'm still playing that role as best I can. Bob Ahrens, one of the founding members, first President and owner of the land we leased for the railroad, passed away a few weeks after I was elected (hopefully unconnected...) - so my baptism in the role was to start dealing with our inheritance of the land. In the subsequent years we have had to deal with a corporate reorganization, inheritance of the land and development of the land next to us - I seem to have spent precious little of my hobby time actually playing trains of late...
So what do they look like? Here's a shot of me with #500, a Hudson (4-6-4) I jointly own with Cliff Hudson. It's been in pieces for a year getting an overhaul and we're trying to put it together again, time permitting. Soon, I hope!