Chi-Town Union Station

The Main Crew

Paul "BD" Gribbell

Paul "Big Daddy" Gribbell is the owner, Chief Engineer, and the bear at the front door. His love for trains outweighs his size, and his voice can be heard all over the building saying" More trains running!, More trains running!". His financial shrewdness in the reclaimed lumber business financed his dream when Detroits' urban renewal plans called for the distruction of thousands of abandoned homes. Paul has gathered togeather a crew of highly talented misfits who have nothing better to do but throw plaster, drive splinters into their hands, and perfect low voltage electrical shocks to stay awake during all-night track cleaning marathons.

Randy "Sparky" Sullivan

Randy "Sparky" Sullivan is the electrical guru of the layout. He surgically implanted rollers into his back in order to move under the layout quicky to solve complex wiring equations and to chase errant electrons that escape when his back is turned. Siting in front of his four viewing screens located in one of the lavatorys, he monitors the trains as they race around the layout. Looking for misbehaiveing trains, he can order each one to blow their whistles backwards as punishment for not keeping to the computor schedule and delivering passengers and freight on time. His electrically burned fingers poke at the keyboard repeatedly as he mumbles" I know they're out to get me, I know their out to get me".

Tim " Cranky" Maslyn

Tim "Cranky" Maslyn is the mechnical/electical wizzard of the layout.Four times a year they let him out of the Tampa Bay Sanitorium to perform electical and mechanical miracles on Chi-town Union Stations engines and rolling stock. While burning chicken bones and pouring hot peanut butter over himself, he conjours up the spirits of model train repairmen of the past in order to diagnose aliments that afflict the trains. Kept in an elevated room to protect him and the engines from ground stalking dust mites, he carefully perfroms surgery on the mechanically deranged engines and mentally challanged rolling stock. Other crew members try to avoid him because of his constant grouching about not having enough sock lint for his pillows.

Robert "Didn't do it" Beuvais

Robert "Didn't do it" Beuvais is the workhorse of the crew. His prowerness in removeing nails and staples from reclaimed wood with his teeth rivels a beaver. His balance is uncanny as he tightropes narrow sections of track escaping blazing fires after trains crash during the show. If anything goes wrong on the layout, he is immidiatly blamed even if he was not present. A carboard photo of himself has been created to point at when a train derails or stops running. Working at will, benchwork, trackwork and garbage removal will mysteraly appear and disappear without explanation as the layout progress towards completion.