I was barely old enough to walk but the intrigue of New Haven's Framingham, MA to Lowell, MA branch, which ran close enough to observe from our home in Framingham, was all it took to put the love of trains into my blood. When I was about 12, starting with my older brother and I riding our bikes from our home in Stow, Massachusetts to Boston & Maine's Ayer Junction, 15 miles away, I began taking photographs with a Kodak Instamatic camera. I received a hand-me-down 35mm camera in the late 70's, and by 1982 I began shooting slides. That first 35mm camera caused me a lot of pain as the light meter was untrustworthy, and about 50 percent of my shots were over-exposed junk. I went through a few cameras after that and in 1986 My love for shooting video and producing commercial DVDs (Broken Knuckle Video Productions) had begun, although I continued to take lots of photos. I went digital in 2005. That digital camera remains the last 35mm camera I ever purchased. My cherished memory's of visiting many great locations in North America will be etched in my brain and 46 Kodak Carousel slide trays until death. My interest in modern class one railroading faded quickly with the mega-mergers, "genericization" of class one railroad lines, modern motive power that sounds as ugly as it looks, and rolling stock that no longer carried the proud names and slogans of many railroads, getting replaced by graffiti and nothing more than initials for reporting marks. I now re-live the good ol' days on my HO scale layout.