My name is John. Today, April 17, is the third anniversary of the day I bought my first O Gauge train car. A mug shot of the culprit is below: REA box car Lionel 6-16237. I grew up using H0 trains but had been free and clear of it for decades when I read Ron Hollander's book, "All Aboard!" That started me on a path to financial ruin that I've tread for 1095 days. I found the innocent-looking car below at an equally innocent-looking local hobby dealer. It and a single piece of Fastrack went home with me that day. I carefully placed the car and track on a bookshelf, promising my wife that it was "just to get it out of my system," and added, "I'm not going to start collecting these things." Little did I realize that this colorful box of toy goodness was in fact a gateway to a habit. Occasionally I removed it from the shelf and opened and closed the doors, tested the springiness of the sprung trucks, discovered the unreliability of the lobster claws, and spun the pizza cutter wheels that, by then, I realized were mounted on extremely wobbly axles. That was three years ago - before I knew the dangers of that first piece of rolling stock. That is my story.
