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Topics - steamrocket

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General Discussion / New Member Steamrocket
« on: October 16, 2020, 12:45:16 PM »
Hello, everyone. My name is Martin Chiaverini (Marty). I just joined a few days ago when I received a note alerting me to this forum in the shipping box of a really nice 813 stock car that I had purchased from starfire700 on eBay. (Thanks, Jim! Until I got here, I didn't realize you were the same individual that produced modern Marx a while back. Very cool!)

I grew up in the 70s and 80s outside of Pittsburgh and got started with some prewar O gauge trains from my grandfather, then later picked up a few postwar and MPC Lionel sets from local hobby shops. My father, grandfather, and I built a small layout in our basement. Like a lot of people, I temporarily lost interest in the hobby when I went to college. 20 years later I got interested again when my boys were old enough to appreciate the trains. This was about 2007. At the time, we had just moved into a larger home, I had discovered eBay, and my boys got into Lego trains. We built a small layout that has been expanding as I've continued to collect.

I collect primarily pre-war O gauge Lionel, American Flyer, Marx, and a few others. Despite my boys aging out, I still acquire and build the Lego trains, too. Recently, I've started collecting pre-war Standard and Wide gauge. I just picked up a really nice 402E and some 200 series freight cars. Really love these as they are huge and incredibly well built. I'm an engineer by trade (work in the aerospace rocket industry, hence my username) and really appreciate the design and mechanics of tinplate. I'm currently planning for a much larger layout and trying to figure out how to incorporate my varied interests in a coherent manner.

My quarantine project this summer was installing a small G gauge layout in my shade garden. Now, I'm also hooked on vintage LGB from the late 60s and early 70s... Biggest challenge this winter will be deciding which of the varied collections to set up under the tree.

Anyway, very happy to be here!

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