Being merely "interested" in something versus having an intense PASSION for it….two entirely DIFFERENT things !

As members of WTTC, most of us own three-rail, O-gauge trains. (For those S-gaugers in our midst, most of this will still apply---stay tuned !!!)

Many of us are old enough to remember the fascination with, perhaps even obsession over, the latest Lionel catalog when it came out….seeing department-store layouts at Christmastime….
or travelling somewhere (maybe on a REAL train !) to see some
major layout ( at a friend's or relative's house, or at a museum.)

Maybe some of us were fortunate enough to have been able to see one of the Lionel showroom layouts on East 26th Street in New York City. (I wasn't.)

My most memorable experience as a child was travelling on a Burlington Zephyr passenger train to Chicago in 1961 to meet up with my father (who'd gone there on business) and getting to see the seemingly HUGE train layout at the Museum of Science and Industry. We later ended up at the large Marshall Field department store---the toy department---and I came away with a brand-new Lionel NYC gondola (black with three orange cable reels) which I still have. It isn't particularly valuable in and of itself, but it evokes these special unforgettable moments.

On our honeymoon, seventeen years later, I made certain, while in New York, to take a subway to Brooklyn to see "Train World", the largest Lionel store in the country at the time. That, too, was a thrilling moment for this kid.

Most of you probably have similar stories to relate; many could tell much better ones. The point is, for those of us really PASSIONATE about our trains, we have deep feelings and great memories of them. In earlier times, when most of us were "surrounded" by the trains of our youth, we could afford to be indifferent. (After all, didn't a substantial number of our childhood friends either have trains, or want them ? Wouldn't the Lionel Corporation go on forever ? Of COURSE there would always be a new catalog every year to look at !!!)

I had a boyhood friend who had a great layout, 2343 NYC F3's, 3356 horse corral, milk car set, and other terrific items, but it was only ONE of his interests---and he sold it all off, later on.

When I contrast this friend's quiet indifference with the PASSION of a "Bill Taggart" and his magnificent layout, the attention to detail, the skill of a craftsman….or the PASSION of a "Mark Mason" to knowing all the prototypical paint schemes and road rosters.…or the PASSION of a "Henry Jones" when he literally "attacks" the latest hot-off-the-press MTH catalog, where does the difference lie ? You guessed it, in the PASSIONATE approach to the hobby !

For us to REALLY make a difference nowadays, we have to SHOW this passion to those around us. People get excited and truly motivated by those of us who are genuinely and openly PASSIONATE about our hobby ! They want to bring some of that excitement into their lives. I've seen this happen over and over, many times this year alone. It's our personal level of enthusiasm for our trains, and our ability to share it, that will bring others into our 3-rail "world" and into WTTC.

I don't know about you, but I'd love to see more people---a LOT more---get into this hobby, and swell the ranks of our club, and the local market. It would be healthy for ALL of us.

How can this happen ? It starts with each one of us, and a little thing called PASSION.

See you at the suite,

Bill Laughlin,
President, WTTC