When I was a kid in Teaneck NJ, Eastern Model Railroad Co., owned by Arno Rinck, was my hobby shop. New Jersey doesn't issue driver's licenses until age 17, and I discovered Eastern when I was about 14 (in 1953). I biked to Eastern in Hasbrouck Heights maybe once a month or so, a 20-mile round trip. I got really spoiled there because they always had anything I wanted in S. Arno had Exacta, Super Scale, Nixon/Nimco, PermaBilt, Midgauge/Sylvania, Strafford, etc., etc. It was only after Eastern moved to Montana that I realized I was very lucky -- Getting S stuff elsewhere was nearly impossible.
Arno had a store assistant -- his father-in-law. Despite the length of time the father-in-law worked there, he never learned a thing about model trains. He never understood what I wanted, so he would always go into the back of the store and Arno would come out to wait on me. Arno commissioned custom-building for his customers who wanted something special. One of his builders was Bob Garrelts of Cresskill NJ. He had been an S scaler but was getting out of S into O because of the lack of products he wanted. One of the things I got from him was half the chassis for an S scale Cleveland Union Terminal 2-C+C-2 electric (he never got around to building the other half of the chassis). I still have that half-chassis to this day, beneath a 2-C-2 boxcab electric. There's a photo of this loco on page 45 of the July 2012 "Railroad Model Craftsman." The move to Montana was Rinck-family-related. By the time the move occurred, I had been able to drive for a few years. Dick Karnes
