I got into this forum because I have been getting back into one of my favorite pastimes. After about a two decade hiatus in which I made it through adolescene, college, architecture school, got married, became a parent, and finally got a decent job, I have just recently managed to purchase a house that has a decent sized room in the basement that my wife says I can "have" for my N-scale layout that she is now letting me build.
My grandfather worked for Union Pacific from the 1930s until the 1970s, and now, in his nineties, I often try to mine him for rail stories. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and have had many encounters with the SP&S 700 and the much more well-known SP 4449. When I was quite young I used to see the 4449 at almost every rail show I was taken to and became convinced, I guess, that it was my train. I used to call it my train.
Most of my rail travel has been Amtrak's Coast Starlight or Cascades service. I have also ridden trains in Europe, including several in Italy, Talgos in spain, a TGV, and some trains in Ireland, too. I dislike flying, mainly because I don't like being cramped in a cabin and hassled getting on and off the plane, and, probably more than that, flying makes me feel disconnected to the lands I am traveling through since I often cannot see them. (We get a lot of cloudcover in the Northwest.)
I am currently cooking up my plan for an N-scale layout based in the 1940-1960 timeframe and reflecting some aspects of railroading in the Pacific NW at the time, including steam and diesel locos and something having to do with logging.
Anyway, I hope to exchange ideas, stories, etc., with others on this list.