When I was very young, my parents brought me this model log train-set. I used to play with it all day on hours end. I used it constantly from the time I was like 2 years old on through 4th grade. It was then that I really spiked an interest into trains. The first train trip I took was when I was 5 years old. My mom & I traveled to New York City to see my uncle. I remember riding up onboard an NJT Comet 4 car that had an ALP-44 powering the set. I specifically remember coming home onboard an NJT Arrow III MU train, which serviced on the North Jersey Coast Line all down the line to Long Branch until electrification was changed in 2002 & all Arrow IIIs were re-routed to South Amboy & Aberdeen-Matawan stations, in which they couldn't progress further south from those stops.
During my kindergarten year when I was 6 years old, my mom & I took my first long-distance trip onboard the Amtrak Silver Star Train #91 southbound from Newark Penn Station, New Jersey to Delray Beach, Florida which is where my grandparents lived in 2000. This was an annual trip that we did from 2000 on through 2005. I loved the train trip more than the destination, infact I absolutely never wanted to get off the train. It was this growing passion I had and continued to grow through my years growing up & my family & I did multiple train trips throughout those years.
During the summer between 7th grade & 8th grade, I began my railfanning career. I would ride my bicycle to Oceanport, NJ to watch trains for various afternoons during the months of July & August 2007. It was then that I also gained more independence which was perfect for the main trigger into my railfanning career. In February 2008, my mom & I took an Amtrak long-distance trip to Savannah, Georgia for a week vacation during my winter break & did a 3-day Amtrak trip to Johnstown, Pennsylvania during my spring break in April 2008. During that summer I started to gain alot more train knowledge from my railfanning & train travel experiences & really looked into getting my own personal video camera. I watched videos on YouTube on trains & it really inspired me to make my own personal videos. Such accounts at the time like EMK623, PKingman, NJCoastExp, metroktransit, & others were my main inspirations to start my own YouTube account.
On my birthday on August 20, 2008, I got my wish: my own personal Flip Video Camcorder. I was so excited. 2 days later I took the train up to High Bridge, NJ with my mom in which I used my camera for every single part of the trip. My interest for trains was really growing at rapid constant rate & with the more knowledge I was gaining, this camera took my passion & experiences to a whole new level of love & passion for them. I opened up my YouTube account on September 26, 2008 in which I started to upload my videos. The first videos to go up was an NJT trip to NYC & Grand Central Terminal on November 7, 2008 (the videos went up a day later). I started doing more serious railfan sessions of filming trains, uploading them, & taking multiple detailed notes of them. I also received an engine guidebook on trains & many other train books to help to really increase my evergrowing knowledge of them.
