There once lived a man in central Pennsylvania who in his youth used to weave dreams about designing the model railroads someday. In fact, he successfully built his marvelous railroad set up in a segregated corner in the basement of his home. With the help of that railroad setup, he even taught his son and his niece, the thrills of the model railroading. His niece still cherishes those wonderful days she spent learning about model railroading.



Even though the niece no longer keeps in touch with her cousin, she is still very much in touch with the immense interest in model railroads that grew along with her age. She still fondly remembers the time she spent with her uncle in the basement during those days.

In fact, her uncle incorporated one fact about central Pennsylvania into his train set. That fact related to the names of the train stations in central Pennsylvania. The uncle and train lover managed to find some model train accessories that broadcast the names of certain train stations.

This was in a time well before widespread use of the personal computer. It was during the 1960s, when the public began to enjoy the advances made in audio technology. One model train manufacturer, possibly the maker of Bachman model trains, put out a system that allowed the train operator to have announcements made while a model train stopped at a model train station.

The niece and her enthusiastic uncle incorporated that train announcement system that mentioned the train stations in central Pennsylvania, into their own private setup. When working, it called out to the fictional passengers, for instance, the name of the Paoli rail station in central Pennsylvania where the trains coming from and going to Lancaster stopped frequently.

Her uncle, knowing that his train loving niece had visited the Paoli railway station in actual, gave a pleasant surprise to her one night by making her listen to the announcement system. As she heard the male announcer voice calling out the name off the Paoli station, she couldn't resist jumping with joy. The idea of having an obscure place like the Paoli railway station finding a mention in an imaginary railway station announcement simply thrilled her beyond expectations.

The same girl is now a grown up adult, but she is still to come across a person who so passionately dedicates oneself to the hobby of creating and repairing model railroads, like her uncle did. At one point of time, that uncle of hers stayed within a 5mile distance of an outlet that stocked myriad models of railroads and their accessories.

The uncle now stays in New England. That store which used to stock breathtaking model train accessories has shifted one block north and now sells photography equipments. It was an unusual tryst with destiny when the same niece who had once visited the old train store, checked into the new photography equipment outlet.

She remembers how her uncle introduced her to the fun of railroading. She suspects that her uncle would have also had fun with a digital camera. Perhaps he would have taken such a camera down to the corner of his basement where he had his model train set. Perhaps he would have taken pictures of his family taking part in the fun of model railroading.