To All: On Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014, Angela, Aydan and Daniel Garza from Greely, Colorado (home of an excellent railroad museum and model railroad), visited my layout. Adyan, age 2 years really loves trains! The Garza's are my wife's relatives. Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout

To All: A point of View--Model railroading and rail fanning is not a plug and play hobby, it is a challenging hobby, not for the lazy person. It is the road less traveled, it is expensive, time consuming, requires multiple skills and is not for everyone. We search it out. If we did not get a blank stare when we tell others we like trains and are model railroaders, I suspect we would take up a hobby that most others do not have. What is your opinion? Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout

To All: I am starting a new SIG known as 1940-1970 Freight Car SIG. The purpose of this SIG is to feature prototype freight cars and modeling efforts toward the same. Membership is free, but will be an internet site, not printed material. This SIG is on my Facebook page, layout concepts. I encourage posting of your efforts on this page. Check it out. Yours, Elvin Howland/1940-1970 Freight Car SIG

To All: Here is a 40 foot FEC boxcar I scratch built with stanray sides. It is inspired by a photo in a rolling stock book. Decals custom made by Ricky Rupp of Modern Rail Company. I plan on painting the roof and ends blue like the prototype. Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout