His father had left the family and gone north to work in the steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio. His mother worked as a cook and housekeeper. Gray lied about his age to get a job as a carpenter's ...

Lou's article focuses on the latter, a 24 x 47-foot freelance model railroad set in northeast Ohio ... Youngstown as it appeared in the late 1950s and early '60s, before the closing of steel mills ...