Back when I was a little kid I used to look in the toy store window on those chilly snowy evenings when our family walked downtown. It was so warm and bright, and right in there in the middle of it was a huge red and green train rolling over glittering gold fields of tinsel and what not. It was so warm and comforting to imagine a big cold train all warm and sprightly inside such a shiny and dazzling place.
Maybe that’s why I still love designing model railway layouts. I’ve made them out anything from ostrich egg shells old to old tempera painted shoe boxes of various sizes to represent buildings. When I was just a kid I designed a layout made of Christmas tree lights and ornaments and set it under the tree for Santa. As I got older I began to make more serious layouts, often depicting famous battle scenes which I faithfully tried to recreate using old film footage and photographs.
Once I was in college I found myself drawn to political themes and made layouts depicting scenes of foreign occupation, natural disasters and student protests. This phase lasted until I got my masters degree in civil engineering and with it a nice well-paid position at a large corporation.
Now, I may not have time to spend creating my own model railway layouts now, but I like to encourage young people to engage in wholesome activities, so in the future I might try and set up some sort of scholarship for young model railway builders. In the little amount of spare time I do have I’m slowly working on a secret model railway layout located in a very remote model abandoned salt mine. If the project works as planned, I may try to build a perpetual motion rail system based on some fairly esoteric physical principles. Hey, we can all dream, can’t we?
