Joe lives in South Eastern Michigan and is a Stationary Steam Engineer with Ford Motor Company. His trade as a steam engineer was acquired while working as a Maritime Engineer on Great Lakes freighters.

Joe has been a model builder nearly all of his life and started with HO railroading in 1976 with a Tyco Chattanooga Cho Cho (ARRG on that one). Since then he  has built up, dissolved and sold off, and built up again into an HO Empire consisting of over 350 locomotives and nearly 1000 pieces of rolling stock. Joe also collects railroad paperwork and railroad conductor’s uniforms (his pride and joy is a 1960’s period NYC Conductor uniform that is worn for special events). He also builds model aircraft, armor, and vehicles. He is also member of the Willow Run Bomber Plant International Plastic Modelers Society Chapter

Joe's current DC Block Controlled 22’ x 10’ Basement Layout (It is now in the process of being completely rewired with a new control panel and manual signal system) is the redesign of a large layout that he downsized and modified into an old Atlas inspired double main layout. This figure eight layout allows for two-direction train operation requiring operations coordinated around traffic thru three diamonds. There are numerous options for switching operations, including a Hulett Unloader dock serving the 500” lake freighter Leon Frazer. The GCW also has a reversing loop and allows for reverse traffic crossovers between the two mains. All of the locomotives operating on the GCW are straight DC, but half of them are DCC compatible. Joe has not made the DCC change because of the large number of vintage DC units that he has and the fact that, as a Lone Wolf Railroad Baron, his layout suits his needs for rail operations enjoyment.