RAILROAD REDEMPTION:

Toy trains sidetrack a life -- but in a good way (DAVE HOEKSTRA, December 22, 2002, Chicago Sun-Times)

Filmmaker Tom McComas is driving his Forest green 1997 BMW across the Chessie System/Seaboard Coast Line train tracks near the Indiana-Michigan border. Like any good cinematographer, he looks both ways.

"The last thing I want to do is get killed by a train," McComas says with a laugh.

McComas owns the I Love Toy Trains store at 16 S. Smith St. in New Buffalo. The shop is named after his award-winning "I Love Toy Trains" children's video series. The
store is a great whistle-stop for a last-minute Christmas gift.

McComas also produced a "Celebrity Train Layout" series on video and DVD that features the mind-boggling home train layouts of Frank Sinatra (Part 1), talk show
legend Tom Snyder (Part 2) and Mandy Patinkin (Part 3). Rocker Neil Young is on deck for Part 4. Young is a part-owner of Lionel Trains.

That nearly makes up for "4 Dead in Ohio". Posted by Orrin Judd at December 22, 2002 11:02 AM