Steve's Web Junkyard

I cajoled my Dad into taking me down to Lloyd's Hobby Shop in downtown Baltimore and purchasing a Mantua locomotive kit. We selected a 2-8-2 Mikado freight engine. I never got the thing running as riveting the running gear was beyond my seven year old abilities, but it came with a wonderful gift: a six month free subscription to Model Railroader magazine. This was at the beginning of the Linn Westcott era, where he led the hobby into transistorized electronics with the series of TAT throttles and Twin-T detectors and new structural designs based on his L-girder construction.