Frank HeppnerFrank Heppner was born to a railroad family. His father was a doctor for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco, he had his first train ride when he was three and he made his first scratch-built HO railroad car when he was thirteen (he still as it). He's ridden over 500,000 miles by rail in twenty-three different countries. As a graduate student, he talked his way into cab rides on the Shasta Daylight in California and the Super Chief through Raton Pass. Between train rides, he picked up a PhD in zoology from the University of California at Davis and taught first-year biology to over twenty-five thousand students at the University of Rhode Island. He retired from this day job in 2010 after writing more than sixty scientific papers. He was a founding member of the Friends of the Kingston Station and is today its chairman. He is also active in the Rhode Island Association of Railroad Passengers and is a member of the Little Rhody Division of the National Model Railroad Association. Read More Read Less