Re: (erielack) pecking order

[StanErie_@_aol.com]

Stan Sweatt  ELHS#1586

I read my list mail only once a week so I'd like to add my profile. I've 
copied all 60-plus other "peckers" and am slowly reading through.

Born Elmira, NY 1946, age 59. Rode trains to NY and Texas as young child. 
Moved to Belleville, NJ in 1st grade and lived there til 1961. Moved to 
Southern California and here since.

My interest in primarily Erie is from being a dedicated model 
railroader.A modeler since getting an early Model Railroader magazine (in 
sepiatone) featuring construction of John Allen's original G&D. As kids 
we operated in the Belleville/Nutley/Newark Branch Brook Park areas, from 
Lyndhurst to Montclair. Did not have an awareness of RR prototype details 
at that young delinquent stage, but I liked trains. Later in Calif. I 
decided to be more prototypical in my modeling so first studied the 
Nickel Plate Road (my 1964-founded  corporation is NKP Creative Services, 
Inc.... website currently being revised is nkp.com) but soon decided to 
revisit the memories of my youth. Studying Erie and the Lackawanna was 
difficult from CA, but was able to join ELHS and get to a meeting in the 
early 90's, revisit some haunts and try to match trackage (some long 
gone) to book photos. Another late 50's MR yielded the trackplan for 
Forest Hill Jct. in it's heyday, very modeleable! A "Discovery Daze" walk 
of the trackage right after abandonment with Paul T. and ELHS fellows was 
terrific! My layout was themed around Forest Hill, details including the 
Arlington Draw (then the Sopranos came out with it in their intro) and 
the Tiffany building but had to demo it all last Christmas to move to 
another home that alas has room only for the 28th Street float Terminal, 
my next project, which I had kept in mind for years as a shelf layout 
along with the Bronx operation. To my amazement there it was covered in 
detail in our magazine the Diamond!
Some early "hangout" memories...
...the Yanticaw park bridge on the Newark Branch in Nutley, we'd crawl 
out on it!
...the Newark Branch thru Belleville, especially the supermarket 
retaining wall North of the station overlooking the tracks where we 
stashed our smokes and flattened pennies on the tracks...
...the bridge over the river from Belleville Park to the street leading 
up to the Forest Hill Jct.
...the old LST ship on the Passaic river
Also for several years I commuted Belleville to Newark for Saturday art 
class at the Newark School of Fine & Industrial Arts. I bused to Franklin 
St. and rode the trolley to Broad. I loved that ride!!! I had bus fare up 
the hill to school but walked and saved the money to buy a Lionel O27 
track section at Bamberger's. 

I do not know any other Erie modelers out here in So Cal Orange County, 
but would like to. I currently reside in Seal Beach, CA.
My profession is graphic artist/designer for print and web.

 Thanx, Stan
"Easy does it...Mac ;-)"


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