As my little sole proprietorship slowly grows, it occurs to me that I should offer some identifying transparency. People like knowing something of potential businesses. I know I do!

This is Mulligan and Me! Mulligan is the most wonderfullestness! She and I met in Durango, Colorado, and I brought her with me when I moved back to Illinois.

Below are photos of my progression of model train interest and love for what I do.

Mom placed this little plastic toy train set around my 1st birthday cake, and that’s what started my love of trains.
This was taken while I lived in Dallas, Texas, and worked briefly as a Band Instrument Repair technician. I wasn’t repair trains at this time, but I was learning skills that were still applicable.
Upon completing training as the model train technician for HobbyTown USA in Dallas, this was my first model! A customer placed this on consignment, and it needed minor repairs to a couple of its guns.
While at HobbyTown, I was sent to clean the elevated G scale track in this dentist’s office. I don’t like height, but they paid me to do it. I think this took three days. I climbed a twelve-foot ladder many times.
This is Maximus Arcturus Livingston. He was an excellent counter weight when working on this Z scale foam layout. He’s still small in this photograph, but he grew to fill my arms.
This layout turned out to be compact and fun until it was crushed during a move from apartment to apartment.

My model train repair career began in November 2016, when I was hired as the model train technician and sales representative for HobbyTownUSA in Dallas, Texas.  I worked there until October 2017, when I decided that the retail environment was no longer for me.  Livingston Lines officially began work on 4 October 2017, and the business has traveled quite a distance with me since then: from Texas, to my parents’ basement in Illinois, to multiple apartments and houses in Durango, Colorado, and eventually to my father’s childhood bedroom in my late grandparents’ home.

Why do I enjoy model trains?  The answer begins with why I enjoy trains themselves.  Trains are big, loud, powerful machines, and many of them are full of moving parts.  I enjoy watching these enormous machines roll through the countryside, hauling some of the greatest loads imaginable across the land.  Trains are machines of remarkable strength, but they are also machines of precision.

I love the sound of a locomotive’s whistle or air horn.  Although I do not have railroad tracks immediately nearby, I can sometimes hear distant horns at night when the wind is still.  As a child, I loved watching the moving rods and running gear of steam locomotives when my parents took me on excursion rides.  I still find the geometry of railroad trackwork fascinating.  At its most basic, track is simply two parallel rails, yet switches, crossings, curves, and junctions can form remarkably complex arrangements while guiding every wheel along exactly the path it is supposed to take.

That combination of strength, motion, sound, mechanics, and precision is much of what drew me to trains in the first place—and ultimately to repairing their miniature counterparts.

How did I learn all this?  It started with music.  I pursued instrumental music education and later tuba performance at Eastern Illinois University.  Afterward, I earned a trade diploma in Band Instrument Repair from Minnesota State College Southeast Technical in Red Wing, Minnesota.  That training took me to Dallas, where I worked professionally in band instrument repair before moving on to HobbyTownUSA.  I learned some remarkable skills in Red Wing—particularly in precision mechanical work, troubleshooting, soldering, and working with small components—that have proven extremely useful in repairing, modifying, and upgrading the tiny mechanisms of model trains.

What does Livingston Lines truly do?  The bulk of my business involves upgrading clients’ models from conventional DC operation to DCC operation.  Some models were manufactured with easy conversion in mind, requiring little more than replacing a DC dummy plug with the appropriate DCC decoder.  Those installations are usually straightforward, although even they can occasionally require some extra work. Livingston Lines is an authorized retailer for SoundTraxx and Train Control Systems, allowing me to offer a variety of sound and mobile decoders to suit the needs of many different models.

Other models require considerably more effort because of their age, worn mechanical components, or electrical and mechanical designs that long predate modern DCC standards.  Those conversions can involve troubleshooting, rewiring, modifying existing mechanisms, installing lighting and sound components, and finding ways to fit modern electronics into models that were never designed to accommodate them.

Where does the magic happen?  Livingston Lines is based in Crawford County, Illinois.  I serve members of my local model train club as well as clients from farther across the region, many of whom I have met through area model train shows.

When I began repairing model trains professionally in Dallas, I served clients throughout the greater Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as well as several out-of-state clients from New Mexico and Louisiana.  My farthest client to date was a man from the Mackinac Island area of Michigan.

I happily accept mail-in repairs, and they now account for most of my business.  Whether you live nearby or across the country, I can work with you! Contact me via livingstonlines@gmail.com.

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