I thought I’d share this short video. Yes, it’s only a circle. But it’s more than that. This fall we buried a member of our church, Steve Diser, who passed rather suddenly.  But while I was visiting him in the hospital, one day we talked about trains and the Massillon Railroad Club where I am a member. After he died, Steve’s brother, Richard, brought me a box with a small HO set and explained that Steve had remembered our conversation and wanted me to have it.

I kept the box in my office for a while, but we thought it would be nice to put it under one of the trees at church during the season of Advent and Christmas. But when we set it up, the engine, a Santa Fe F-unit, needed some work. So, while we looked for parts, Lynn, our church custodian, brought in some track, a transformer, and two similar Pennsylvania Railroad engines.  A day or two later, I found my box of train stuff in the basement and dug out my own Santa Fe F-unit that hasn’t seen daylight for more than 30 years.   

That engine has been in a box and moved from one house to the next since I was in the train club above the old Pennsylvania Railroad train station in Ada, Ohio while attending Ohio Northern University (so at least since 1988). So, what you see might look like a little train going in circles around a tree, what you’re really looking at is a little bit of Steve, a little of me, a little bit of Lynn, and a lot of memories, history and joy.

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