Years ago we bought a G scale train for around the Christmas Tree.  It was a Bachmann Ten-wheeler, Tender and a few freight cars plus a caboose.  It was battery operated with a simple Radio Control.  Had it for years without another thought about that other expensive G Scale stuff.  But then the bug got me and my wife after attending the large scale show at the Queen Mary in 2005.  She got her Eggliner and I started looking into the sparkies.  So after getting a Bachmann 4-6-0 Big Hauler and a Bachmann 4-6-0 Annie, I made the plunge into Live Steam with an Accucraft Ruby Kit.  Needing some cars to pull, I put together plans for a backwoods work train, which was part kit and part scratchbuilt. This was followed by an acquisition of a 2-4-4T Forney type Loco, already bashed from a Ruby Kit. And the latest is a Cricket, one of 45 being manufactured. The Cricket is a butane fired, single cylinder, geared 0-4-0 locomotive.  And, along the way I also built some special tooling to do the kitbashes and scratchbuilds. As time permits, I am building a 15-ton Class A Climax Locomotive for which I had to acquire some tabletop machining capability.