A little history from a newbie

I am new to this forum. My hobby is model railroading. I build steam engines in 1-1/2" to the foot scale. I have a Sheldon 11" engine lathe(circa 1940s) with all the attachments and a Select(Taiwanese) vertical mill. Besides all the rest of the stuff that goes with it I also do a lot of woodworking. I am retired so I am now devoting more time to my hobby. I'm in the process of expanding my workshop so I can get down to some serious business. I love tools and have been involved with tools for at least 55 years. I got my first drill press when I was 12 years old. All my allowance as a kid was spent buying tools, precision and hand. I would go down to Patterson Brothers hardware in New York City and spend hours fondling the tools until I found the one I had to have and within my budget. Other kids my age were into baseball and Lionel trains. Not me. I guess I was looked upon as weird. Anyway, I grew up and went into the Shipbuilding business and was awed by the massive machines used to build ships. Imagine a lathe with a 72" swing and 30' between centers. I have been fascinated by machines and tools all my life. I'm still learning and now have the time to pursue my interests full time. I have been mostly self-taught with some community college shop courses thrown in. With your indulgence, I will have lots of questions to ask of this forum. I hope I don't become a nuisance.

Ron, I just read your post and saw that you and I are neighbors. I am in Gulfport. I am about to retire and am getting tooled up, too. It may do us some good to get together sometime. Bobby Jones

Bobby, Sounds good. Contact me when you want and give me an E-mail address when you get it.

Ron, which (and where) shipbuilding yard did you work for ?

Mr Thomas, I worked for many different shipyards. Portsmouth, Boston, San Francisco, Bremerton, but retired last year from Ingalls in Pascagoula, Ms. My most recent job was affecting fixes on ships during overhaul. Although I was a marine designer, my work took me to all parts of the globe to survey ships damaged. If I had still been at Ingalls, USS Cole might have been one of my jobs.

Although I have spent 45 years in the shipbuilding field, my first love is railroading, both full size and scale models. It's my love for model railroads that got me involved in machine tools. I build locomotives to a 1-1/2"=1'-0" scale. My 11" Sheldon is a bit small for building but the smaller engine models.

Very interesting sounding job. I'm a "boat guy" myself, sounds like a job I would have enjoyed if I had the foresite to get involved with that field when younger.

(sorry I'm just now reading your response for the first time..don't know how I missed it)