My Trails into the Past

I thought this week I would write about some technology I have been involved with in my life. I have always been interested in mechanical things. Trains I loved trains, especially when we had to stop for them to pass by. We kids would then count the cars until we saw the caboose. Later, I joined a model railroad club and am still a member. In the early days when we were building the layout, I laid a lot of track, which we hand-spiked. Today, since the layout is all built, I run trains from the operating cab. The technology behind our layout is very old. We run DC and have blocks we plug and a big board schematic that we follow, especially when we cannot see our train because of the many tunnels. During college, I began going up to the California Railway Museum, which is now called the Western Railway Museum, with two friends from the train club. This museum mostly had trolley cars that volunteers could run for the public. I learned to run the Sacramento Northern Birney car. There w...