I grew up west of Pittsburgh, listening to Rege's radio show every morning.
It was fascinating to me how one person could create a program with such a
large cast! I graduated from high school in 1959 and moved on to college and
then the Army, losing track of Rege. I never knew until many years later that
we shared the same hobby, model railroading. 
   Through the years, I heard that Rege had left KDKA and moved on to California.
I occasionally caught a glimpse of him on TV, usually playing the part of a
judge, it seems like.
   I got my first train (Lionel, of course, as everybody knows the prototype
runs on 3 rails) when I was five, and the hobby took off for me from there.
I did just general modeling in HO, not really getting interested in any
specific railroad. I looked into narrow gauge after a tour in the Army in
northern Maine, in the 1960's. But I got really serious about narrow gauge
stuff when I moved to colorado in 1969. Finally, HOn3 proved too small for
me to do what I really loved: building stuff. In 1/2" scale, I can go out to
the shop, rip some scrapwood on the table saw, and turn the sticks into a car
frame, mortise joints and all, and there's some sense of doing it like the
prototype did.
   When I saw Tony Pearle's [now Clover House] dry transfers for an HO scale
reefer, I purchased them for nostalgic reasons, not really knowing what I
could do with them, since I modeled in 1/2" scale, much larger than HO. I
solved the problem by proudly applying the transfers to a 1/2" scale truck,
which now holds a place on my layout. I'm attaching a photo of the truck. I
thought it turned out pretty darn good!
   A side story is that the truck I used was one of the TEXACO collectibles.
I bought two, one to keep as original, and one to do this Olde Frothingslosh
modification. The truck I didn't modify is now worth close to $450! 

Joe Crea

[Joe's layout is featured in the June 2003 MR - Ric]