Mike Vandiver

I'm Mike Vandiver, a United Methodist minister presently living in Rock Hill, S. C. I am 65 years old and I got my first train, a Lionel passenger train (green cars) when I was 5 years old. I still have it and it runs great. I got my American Flyer (322, tender, coal car, cattle car, search light car and caboose) when I was six. I did not know at the time that Santa (my father) got it for me with "credits" he got for buying automotive repair tools (he was a mechanic) from a local Firestone store. A year later, I got an Erector set the same way. Methodist ministers get moved from one church to another quite often and we must live in a house (parsonage) provided by the church. I had not had room in any of the parsonages to put up a permanent display. After seeing some trains overhead in some toy stores, I decided to put my overhead and in the hallways of two of our homes. I put up this three layer display in our kitchen in 1994. My first AF is on the top layer. An O gauge AF is on the second layer and an HO and N gauge are on the third layer. I also developed a way to attach small accessory platforms to the various layers. I also have a platform built which is on grocery car wheels so that I can take the tracks down from the ceiling, transport them to schools, shows, etc., and put them up for displays. I really don't know a lot about the electrical or mechanical end of this hobby, but I'm learning and I appreciate the patience demonstrated by the folks on the chat line with my questions and comments.