Phil Brooks
Phil has been a model railroader for over 55 years, with home layouts in HO and N scale, building NTRAK modules and traveling with the Knoxville Area Model Railroaders. His career experience includes model building, graphic design, exhibit design, and photography for trade shows, displays, museums and government clients. He has experience in urethane pressure casting, laser cutting, etched metal design and construction, and CAD design for 3D printing. Phil authored roughly a dozen articles for N-Scale Railroading, Model Railroad Planning, and contributed to three Kalmbach modeling books, featuring his home layout, the Clinch River. Phil frequently enters NMRA model contests and has won national and regional awards.
Steven Flowers
I have been interested in trains since before elementary school. I have worked for two Class I railroads since 2002, first as a conductor then promoted to engineer in 2006. I love operations and use JMRI Operations Pro on my HO scale layout. I model the Class II Regional, the Paducah & Louisville Railroad. I am currently the Bluff City Division Superintendent, a position I’ve held since 2018.
Bob Frankrone
Bob Frankrone has been a model railroader and a member of the NMRA for over 35 years. His model railroad, the Louisville Southern Line, has been featured in a couple of model railroad publications and continues to be a work in progress. Bob is the author of the series “Love Those Loads” appearing bi-monthly in the NMRA Magazine. He has presented countless clinics over the years at both regional and national NMRA conventions. Bob lives in Louisville, Kentucky and is a member of Division Eight of the Mid-Central Region, NMRA.
Allan Gartner
Allan Gartner has been interested in model railroading and electricity since elementary school. Allan has worked as an electrical and computer engineer in the telecommunications, robotics, and defense industries. He authored Model Railroader’s “DCC Currents” column for three years, the book, “DCC and Model Railroading”, and his website, WiringForDCC.com, since 1996.
Tom Gordon
Tom began model railroading at the time he received his first train under the Christmas tree. Now he models the Seaboard Air Line in the era of first-generation diesels and is building a layout resembling the prototype between Atlanta and Birmingham. He also enjoys (sometimes too much) the electronic aspect of the hobby, with Arduino based control systems for yards, and C/MRI – JMRI based signaling.
Dr. Walter Laseter
I am a retired pastor with a doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy. I worked with church ministry for 51 years. Working with a church, I’ve had many opportunities to deal with people. I’ve worked with Vacation Bible School and working with crafts for children. Trains have been a lifelong hobby. My parents got me an electric train one year for Christmas. It was an American Flyer S scale train. I had expressed a desire for a model train that had two rails because I didn’t like Lionel because it had three. From that year until I left home for college, my parents added to the collection. Now due to space restrictions and the availability of models, I have moved to HO scale. So since I retired in 2021, I have dedicated an outbuilding for my trains. I’ve had one setup which I just tore down and am working to create a new layout. In working with my trains, I’ve gotten into weathering my models. I’ve taught weathering for the Palmetto Division prior to this.
Steve Todd
Native of Horry County, SC, resident of Upstate SC. Current co-author of EngineDriver:Android throttle for JMRI. JMRI Developer: panel.js, web and withrottle server. Author of RPi-JMRI image for RaspberryPi. Contributor to DCC-EX project. N-scale modular (PiedmontNSouthern.org). Secretary/webmaster for the Palmetto Div NMRA (PalmettoDiv.org). CIO of Mount Vernon (one of last textile companies in USA)