Tom Oversluizen, A Brief Biography Cont.

During this friendship, he obtained an original blueprint of the design of a Dutch steam engine. Tom meticulously copied the technical drawings and eventually started to build it. This was the beginning of his "career" in the hobby of building engines.

Tom's original workshop in a small basement consisted of just some very basic tools; yet. he managed to start building. It took several decades for his shop to grow into a wonderful workshop - still in the basement, and overflowing into the garage - with all the necessary machinery.

When he bought the house in East Patchogue, one of the attractions for him was a nice big yard - suitable for building a railroad track! He had just started constructing a few feet of a railroad bed when the advertisement in the British magazine, "Model Engineers," appeared looking for model locomotive builders. The advertiser was Ted Fishman living in the next town! The first get-together at Ted's house culminated into the founding of the model train club, now known as The Long Island Live Steamers.

Many years of weekend, after weekend, after weekend, were spent in the park, building tracks involving backbreaking work of digging and hauling; countless hours of designing, and most recently redesigning the highline. Tom's hobby life revolved around the building of this club. He has served as secretary and president.

Tom is the only member who has been a FULL member for the entire existence of the club. Even during his professional stints abroad, he maintained his full membership. And, needless to say, he visited several train clubs in Germany, Holland, and Japan.