# What got you started in G/Large Scale?



## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

As garden railway season is upon us all here in the USA(those of us that deal with brutal cold and snow that is). Its interesting to look back at what got us all started in G/Large Scale trains. I suspect most of us modeled in the smaller scales prior to G scale and many probably still do model in smaller scales. 

For me, I modeled in O scale with postwar era Lionel at home and was a member of a large HO scale club here in town. I had a small 3 rail layout with Dept 56 buildings in my parents basement, then in my bedroom once the basement developed water problems. My beginings with G came with the give of a LGB work train starter set from my aunt and late uncle upon them returning from visiting his family in Germany. Was about the time I turned 15 I think, I remember they went to Europe on the QE2 and came home on the Concorde(I have seen pictures of that!), so it can be said, that my set rode in the belly of the Concorde! While the exact trains are long traded away, I still have the set box, the curved track is part of my outdoor layout and the transfomer, I use for testing trains at my work bench since I converted the outdoor railway to battery power. 

After receiving this set and getting my drivers license the following year, I discovered Watts Train Shop in Zionsville, not so much for the LGB at first, but for thier excellent selection of Dept 56 buildings for my Lionel layout and my own xmas tree in my room(I love old world blown glass ornaments!). Thru the kindness of Dave Watts and second hand LGB he would get in with collections that lacked boxes or was dirty and well run, I was able to grow my G scale train collection despite the high prices that LGB was back then. Mom refused to let me put a railway in her garden, but the elderly lady across the street that I mowed her yard did. She loved watching the trains run and would have me leave her the train on the weekends her grandchildren would be visiting for them to enjoy as well. Once I got my own place, the LGB set ran under our Christmas tree and outdoors in our garden. .
I still enjoy my postwar era Lionel indoors and am building a new layout, which will again feature Dept 56 buildings. But it plays a minor role as I enjoy my G scale so much more, thanks to its size, and quiet running(I dont have to wear my noice canceling headset to enjoy running trains for hours!!) 

Now back to enjoying my trains!!!! Mike the Aspie

Here is the engine from the original set, along with 2 passenger coaches purchased at Watts the weekend after Thanksgiving 2001, under our first tree in our first home as a married couple.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

About the time my On3 K27 RGS 455 arrived so did a psycho kitty. Outside! I bought 'trex' boards and sliced them into ladders for the On3. Spring and Summer I was busy and nearly ready to begin hand laying my track when the Monsoons blew in and everything around. Scale boulders covered my right of way and I saw instant futility! 

At my nearest Ace store they have a ceiling suspended loop of G track about 40 x 80' with Aristo dismals hauling long trains.
I asked and found out about their sister store where they sold them... 
I came home with an Aristo starter set. I went back the next day and came home with a box of 10'D and another of straights ....
That was in 2006 when I bought an acre with a house on it.... 

I run a 'what if' railroad to an actual mine in the area. The year 1909 (my father's birth year) and our old C-16 leaks and groans, but still makes it home each run. The Brass Hat has a 4-4-0 (HLW) pulling the pair of Sierra cars and his 'Daylight' red and orange Sierra Obs on the end. Both trains carry canteen cars behind their tenders, as we supply the section gangs and their families at every stop. "Rub' an engineer the right way and you can get hot water for your wash tub! Cakes and pies were the best rub.
The mine had a smelter so we ship bagged concentrates. A drover's caboose provides space for our bag tossers. We get more accurate counts using company men.

Thanks for asking.
John


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike;

Was in eastern Pennsylvania training for a new job in December of 1985. There was a hobby store in Nazareth, PA that sold LGB. Went in just to admire the stuff. The owner grabbed a Stainz off the track and put it in my hands. I couldn't believe the heft and the robustness of that little locomotive, I left with a freight starter set: Stainz, 2-axle gondola with swing-open side doors, 2-axle yellow banana van, four figures, circle of track, and power supply. I sold it a number of years ago, but it still performed like new back then.

Since then I gravitated more toward North American narrow gauge, then the live steam bug bit really hard in 2013. Have only bought one sparkie since 2013, and that was only because it was a Reading camelback.

Also started kitbashing and building equipment for my Middle Earth fantasy railroad, the Brandywine & Gondor Railroad, about 2011.

Cheers,
David Meashey


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

I thru down a Westerfield boxcar kit in HO that I trying to build in disgust, I just couldn't see 
well enough anymore to put the details on it... Accidentally discovered LS shortly afterwards, 
been here ever since... That was 25 yrs ago....
Paul R...


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Seeing the large scale at a show, and realizing I had more outdoor space and no place indoors for even N scale.

Greg 1,201


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## fockewulf37 (Mar 26, 2012)

When the first Bachmann 2 Truck Shay came out... Had to have one....


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

I had an 0-27 layout in my room as a kid on a couple sheets of plywood. 

Long years of near poverty followed after I moved out. Then, things got better. I bought land, built a house on it. A couple years later, I tacked a garage onto the side. While doing this, I realized that if I changed the roof pitch a bit and spent a few hundred extra dollars (literally) - I could have a great big room above said garage. At the time, I thought extra bedrooms. That didn't happen.

Instead, a few years later I came into a minor windfall. At around the same time, I saw the 'Polar Express' and was brought back to my 0-27 days. I thought 'why not' and began looking at the various catalogs. The '0' stuff intrigued me, but I didn't care for the center rail. I started noticing 'G' stuff tucked into the adverts, and decided 'bigger is better.'

Years of acquisition and construction followed. Didn't really make it past the 'track on plywood' stage. Had all sorts of electrical and 'reach' issues. Layout fell onto the back burner about five years ago. Seldom even went into the train room, gave serious thought to ripping it all out and selling everything.

Matters changed late last year - the daughter gave birth to my grandson, and informed me that among other things, I was supposed to 'teach him all about trains.' I'd long had a few ideas on how to simplify and streamline the layout, so I began mucking out the train room and rebuilding the railroad this winter. 

I decided the best way to avoid the electrical issues that plagued me in the past was to go with battery power, so I picked up a couple dirt cheap battery sets to play with. The 'New Bright' one was pretty much a waste. The Lionel 'Crayola' set intrigues me. The goal is to convert at least a couple of my track powered loco's to battery, but getting the dang railroad rebuilt right comes first.

(is there some sort of 'complete idiots guide' for converting locomotives to battery power? Or an outfit that does that?)


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## jimhoot (Mar 21, 2015)

I do building maintenance as a full time job.
Several years ago a young man moved to California around the first of November.
He left a box in the outside storage closet with a Bachmann set in it.
He was out of touch for 2 weeks as he traveled from Branson Mo. to Cal.
When he finely called back I offered to buy it but he said he forgot to through it in the trash and I could have it. It was only the 4-6-0 engine, tender & 3 passenger cars.
I took it home and contacted the only hobby shop I could find at the time.
He was a big help as he set us up with enough track and a transformer to go around our CHRISTmas tree. After CHRISTmas I was looking a you tube and showed my wife someones trains out side in the back yard.
She asked can we do that? YES and that how we got started. about 4 years ago.


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

Depends if you want RC control of said battery powered engine or just a switch to turn it on and watch it go after that. Since my enjoyment is just watching, I go the cheaper route with no RC control. Just a simple toggle switch and a common RC car battery that I install either in the locomotive boiler or tender. I try to pick models that I can keep the battery power self contained and not have to run a common battery car behind the engine. I have about $45 dollers in the battery, switch and charging jack for each engine I convert. They all use the same charger. Run time is around 4-6 hours depending on the engine. Speed is a nice sedate narrow gauge speed, not to fast but not to slow in my opinion. Mike


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike Toney said:


> Depends if you want RC control of said battery powered engine or just a switch to turn it on and watch it go after that. Since my enjoyment is just watching, I go the cheaper route with no RC control. Just a simple toggle switch and a common RC car battery that I install either in the locomotive boiler or tender. I try to pick models that I can keep the battery power self contained and not have to run a common battery car behind the engine. I have about $45 dollers in the battery, switch and charging jack for each engine I convert. They all use the same charger. Run time is around 4-6 hours depending on the engine. Speed is a nice sedate narrow gauge speed, not to fast but not to slow in my opinion. Mike


 RC control is a must. That's why I like the Lionel Crayola engine: the RC unit is toy-like, but it works.

I would greatly prefer the battery pack be in the locomotive, not a trailing car. Locomotives under consideration for conversion are an old Annie (I guess the batteries could go in the tender), a Lionel 0-4-0 railscope engine, and a Hartland Mac (I have two of these, one missing the roof, which exposes a roomy cab.) I'd also be amiable to another small diesel loco.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

My go to guy for R/C,

http://www.gscalegraphics.net/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

We try for onboard, if the loco/tenders are big enough. Some folks use a trailing car, I model the desert so each train has a Canteen behind the tender, if I need extra space.

John


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

Since your in alaska and if you want to splurge a bit on engines, the LGB White Pass Alco DL535e is a natural choice. Or one of the smaller 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 diesel switchers. Any of them without sound are easy battery conversions. The Lionel 0-4-0 without Railscope has room for onboard battery, but the version with is filled with electronics so a trailing car would be needed. The Bman Annie 4-6-0 is a good one to do as well. If I cannot fit my standard RC car pack, I build battery packs using Nimh AA batteries since I have the electronics soldering iron to do this safely. Holds temp within .001 degree of spec under most all conditions. MIke


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## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

Was always into HO scale for most of my life. Had a little HO scale layout I was working on. When my wife and I found out we were expecting our daughter (third child), down came the HO layout to make room for her. 

Years before, I had purchased some G scale USAT engines and cars in aspirations of an outdoor layout. So with no HO layout I figured I'd set up a little outdoor layout. I was then bit by the G scale bug. I enjoy the scratchbuilding/kitbashing needed for G scale. Reminds me of earlier HO days.


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## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

Greg Elmassian said:


> Seeing the large scale at a show, and realizing I had more outdoor space and no place indoors for even N scale.
> 
> Greg 1,201


Greg, what's with what the countdown that seems to be behind your name? Countdown to 20,000 posts?


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

My family and I were vacationing in England in '75, and saw an outdoor display of LGB trains running at one of the places we visited. It was the typical "liquid sunshine" England is famous for, but the trains kept on running. We would shortly thereafter find those same trains on the shelf at Hamley's (a large toy store in London). Dad's brother was stationed in the UK with the Air Force at the time, so when we got home, dad mailed him a check with the instructions to go to London, buy us a loco, track, and a few cars, and send it across the pond. 

The rest, as they say, is history.

Later,

K


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, countdown to 20k posts, either me or the forum explodes at the 20k mark I think!

Greg 1,118


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

After many frustrating years messing with HOn30. I found a new LGB Stains set for sale at a hobby shop that was closing. I have always loved looking at G scale trains, and having recently bought our house I resolved to go back the next day and get it but it was gone, so I decided to look on this new fangled thing called eBay, and found an LGB Porter for a very low price, bid and won, that lead next to a Bachmann starter set, some track and a small triangular shape layout. Then I moved to the garage with a larger indoor layout, onward and upward since.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, where do I start? I guess I was around 3 when by dad built an HO train layout in my bedroom next to my bed. A little Penn Inc. brand switcher and caboose painted blue were mine to run. From there I dabbled in N scale. Inherited my late twin uncles S gauge American Flyer and after my father passed away in 2006, inherited his G gauge trains. I still have that little blue engine and caboose along with all my uncles American Flyer. After getting my father's trains, I bought a pair of Rock Island FA1/FB1 diesels because I liked the black with red and white stripes. Then because I worked in the coal mines of WV, I started collecting coal cars. Sadly, while I love trains, I'm no modeler and while I love collecting, I seldom ever actually run anything. I sit and ponder what it would be like to set up a large layout around my property, but then I haven't run a train in the garden for months. So what's the use. But the saddest part is, I have no grandson to enjoy running trains together and give them to someday.


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Marty Cozad and all the great people at one of his open house events. Was hooked the first time I went and immediately sold off my HO and got started in G.

Chris


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

That is sad Randy. I will have the same problem when the time comes as we never had kids and sister's two little boys have no interest in trains. For now I try to enjoy what I am able to afford and run on my small railway I am building. I have started a new indoor Lionel layout that will have a year round Christmas feel with Dept 56 buildings and snow. Mike


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

My Dad got me an 0-27 set when I was a kid. All piled up in a big cardboard box. I got it out and played with it when the mood struck. But, I was then hooked on trains. In my 20's I had a small HO set on a 4x4 piece of plywood for a short time, but never did much with it. No time and no room. Many years passed by. While in Sierra Vista, AZ one day, we drove by the local model railroad club as they were having an open house and stopped in. They had a small G gauge layout in back of the club building. First I had seen or heard of G, but found it fascinating. Stayed in the back of my mind for a few years until I moved to Dallas, TX and went to a model train show in Ft Worth. There was a large G layout there and I was hooked. Joined the club, subscribed to GR, found MLS, discovered Marty's Thingy and away we went.


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

When I went to the very first "Big Train Show" on the Queen Mary in 1991 and saw all those beautiful models. I made several trips to the car trunk with LGB items from Al Kramer's booth. I also found Bachmann loco's and discovered that they responded well to a razor saw and I started making big ones into smaller ones. I'm still chopping them up.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Randy Stone said:


> Well, where do I start? I guess I was around 3 when by dad built an HO train layout in my bedroom next to my bed. A little Penn Inc. brand switcher and caboose painted blue were mine to run. From there I dabbled in N scale. Inherited my late twin uncles S gauge American Flyer and after my father passed away in 2006, inherited his G gauge trains. I still have that little blue engine and caboose along with all my uncles American Flyer. After getting my father's trains, I bought a pair of Rock Island FA1/FB1 diesels because I liked the black with red and white stripes. Then because I worked in the coal mines of WV, I started collecting coal cars. Sadly, while I love trains, I'm no modeler and while I love collecting, I seldom ever actually run anything. I sit and ponder what it would be like to set up a large layout around my property, but then I haven't run a train in the garden for months. So what's the use. But the saddest part is, I have no grandson to enjoy running trains together and give them to someday.



Grand Pa Randy,
I waz a good boy today...
-----
I know the feeling, best I can do is offer to nephew and niece's kids...
As quirky as these trains are, are they a good gift or a pocket full of problems?

John


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## Tomahawk & Western RR (Sep 22, 2015)

what got me started was a bachmann 4-6-0 PRR liberty bell limited set, may i mention itr got lost in the mail for 4 months?


How do you lose such a huge box??!!!


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## Scott (Jan 29, 2008)

Children. 

When the kids came along I downsized my HO stuff and packed it away. I always admired the larger scale stuff and thought I couldn't afford it, etc, etc. Having had wood trade training in my younger years, and a love of scratchbuilding - it clicked. I could make stuff to offset the financial outlay, so I settled on 1:24 as it's a half inch to the foot or 1mm = 1 inch. 

Also South Australian railways was 3ft 6 in gauge so it's ideal for 45mm track. Having a mix of US, British and home grown influences you can modify and adapt as per the prototype. The added benefits are also the gardening aspect, plus the larger stuff is more robust for kids. The boys like trains too so that's another plus.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Watching Thomas the Tank Engine with our son. We were living in Belgium at the time and had no (English) TV. They had all the Thomas videos at the PX.


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

The early years of the Thomas shows, the trains were Marklin gauge 1 models with scratchbuilt bodies. The later and current shows are all CGI computer generated images. Mike


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

These were in the Ringo Starr/George Carlin days.


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## Esppe Pete (Jan 21, 2008)

Aristo U-25B in Southern Pacific at Gold Coast Station. I had 0-27 As a Kid then my younger brother had LGB as a kid. When I saw big American mainline equipment that would run on two rails I was hooked. That U-25 is the most unrealistic 1/29 Loco I have, but shes' still around!


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## Huh? What? (Jun 20, 2017)

My dad had a n-scale layout when I was very young. As I got older, my older brother started playing around with HO-scale. I was given a bunch of Lionel gear, most of which was probably collectible. Then in high school, a friend was getting rid of all his N-scale stuff and gave it to me. I joined the Navy right out of high school, which sort of put an end to trains for a while.

Then last year the wife and I did a trip on the Cumbres & Toltec. That reawakened the train bug. We just bought a new home that came with enough property to do a g-scale layout, and here we are. The first section is likely to end up in the whimsical section, as my wife wants to put it in the middle of what is becoming her fairy garden.


Oh, and my 77-yr-old father just bought an HO-scale set for the apartment he and my mother live in.


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## josephunh (Mar 27, 2013)

I got started in trains when I was young as for Christmas one year I got my fathers only Lionel train set, which I grew and had a setup in basement for years. In early 90's a train shop opened up in my home town of Little Silver, NJ and all they sold was G scale which is where I first learned about it and saw the Aristo Craft Blue Comet Set. I thought it was the coolest thing at time. My parents were not interested in me jumping scales and decided I was going to save up and put it in one of my grandparents yards. Sadly while I did eventually save up the money the parents prevented me from buying it (though with all the issues the original engines had that might not have been a bad thing looking back now). 

Now that I am older and have a house and money I needed a hobby for myself and wanted to get back into trains but realized I was never going to have the space for an indoor layout, and that's when I thought back to the G scale I was never allowed to get. Now here I am.


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

That was one of my issues as a teen and in my early 20's, Mom was not having a railway in her garden. While I did have that one starter set, it just went around my little xmas tree in my room along with my Lionel. Wasn't till the neighbor lady had me build a small loop in her garden did I get my taste of trains in the garden. Now I am moving away from the narrow gauges and toward gauge 1 and an elevated wide radius loop in our back yard. The loop is about a year away right now, but I have been picking up and swaping for some of the Marklin Maxi tinplate metal cars and regular gauge one items. I also swapped my 3 smaller live steamers with a member here for one nice Aster gauge 1 Swiss live steamer. So just as the scale realism of HO scale took over my teens, at the local club that is, the scale realism of gauge 1 is doing the same in the garden. Thanks for all the great stories, I love reading them. Mike


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## DennisB (Jan 2, 2008)

I had purchased an HO set for the kids but really did not look into the train hobby very seriously. Twenty years later I saw a G scale club display in a mall. I was hooked. Regards, Dennis.


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

Had it not been for my grandfather keeping my father's Lionel set, it might have been a bit longer before I got into the hobby like I did. The poor into into the hobby with HO scale Tyco sets was quickly replaced with Lionel till my aunt and late uncle got me into the LGB craze. But, I was to obsessed with trains to have gone much longer without a proper train set back then. Mike


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## Mike Flea (Apr 8, 2014)

My eldest brother is 17 yrs older than I am, and he had a Lionel set. Steam engine and tender, a diesel engine, hand car, the lighted bumpers, the automated milk car, the log car and automated dump, the crane car, auto carrier, and a few other automated cars that I can't remember, oh, and the big 2 handle transformer. The ones I mentioned were the ones that most intrigued me as a 4 yr old. When he married in '68, he left it all in a 6'L x 2' W x 2' D chest in the basement of our parents home, and dad would set it up once in a while, but didn't leave it up, so it became a "hands-off" curiosity. A year later, there was a heavy rain, and mom and dads basement flooded, and the chest, and its contents got wet. During clean up, dad pulled it all out of the chest so everything would dry, including the chest, but never bothered to do any maintenance to the train set.
By that time, I was around 11 yrs old, and I had asked my brother, if I clean everything up, can I run it. "No!, leave it alone, I'll come get it some day and take care of it myself!"...it sat in that mildew smelling chest for 4 more years before he finally came to take it to his house.

So, in the meantime, I had saved my grass cutting money, and bought an inexpensive N scale starter set, which I set up on a 5' x 9' ping pong table.

Got into HO after I was married, and my wife and I made a nice layout in her mother's basement on that same ping pong table complete with mountains, freight yard, industrial area and a town. My wife is very creative when it comes to scenery and modeling.

After we moved to our own house in '93, I made a few N scale 2' x 4' mini layouts, that I would sell at the local model train swap meets, or to hobbyshops. It was at these swap meets and train shows that I had my first taste of G scale trains, and decided that was the route I wanted to go, so I sold off the HO and N scale stuff and purchased a Bachmann Emmett Kelly circus train. Well, when I did that, the wife wanted the Royal Blue set also.

So we laid down a couple small loops of track in the house while we planned a small layout, around a pond outside. The pond was 7' x 5', and the track plan was a double loop, with one of the loops crossing the middle of the pond. That lasted about 15 yrs, and then the up and down on the knees, the meniscus tear and the broken foot didn't help, and the blue herons and raccoons raiding my fish every year, the pond got filled in, and the layout was raised, and we've been rebuilding ever since.


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