My Childhood Train Layouts
By the time I was six years old, I shadowed my dad as he did various projects around the house, soaking up how to do things and how to use tools, from small repairs to significant remodeling projects. He maintained a work shop in our basement, well-stocked with both materials and tools. I loved to tinker with things there and often left his area in a big mess. I remember many stern scoldings. At some point, he made me a small but usable work bench and gave me some basic tools I could call my own. By the time I was about ten I knew I wanted to use my newly acquired skills to make a train layout for my American Flyer train; one that didn’t have to be picked up and put away each time I played with it. With some pleading, I was allotted a space for a small layout in the basement family room. The layout was built from a scrap piece of ¼-in plywood the size of a single bed, left over from my dad dismantling a bunk bed. The size of the plywood limited the track arrangement to an oval with an...