My name is in honor of my father, who loved railroads. He worked for the Jersey Central part time while he was in college. The 23 is because he was born in 1923. He got a job at CRRNJ as an office boy, but parlayed his pervious experience working in the garage of a bakery and then a car dealer to get a job in the shop, working on locos. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps, figuring that all that engine experience would let him be an airplane mechanic. Nope, he ended up flying as a radio operator.
Half of our basement was his train layouts. We went to train (and car) museums when we traveled. Rode vintage trains. He and my mother went to train shows. While Dad was buying "train stuff," Mom retaliated by collecting railroad china. I sold their collections when I cleared out their house, but I did keep a few things, including an Amtrak blue bud vase.
