Mike Schafer hails from Rockford, Illinois, where he recalls his earliest train-watching experiences on the Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road, Burlington Route, and Chicago & North Western. He vividly can recall his first train rides, circa 1952, on IC�s Hawkeye and Land O� Corn between Rockford and Chicago. Eventually he would declare the latter � America�s railroad hub � his �honorary hometown.� While attending East Rockford High School in the mid-1960s, he met Jim Boyd at the Forest City Model Railroad Club. Jim inspired Mike to combine his railroad interests with his art, writing, and photography skills all while learning the ropes of railfanning � a move that would lead… to Mike�s full-time career in railroad book and magazine publishing. After high school, Mike attended Rock Valley College and Northern Illinois University where he received degrees in art, English, and education. But instead of becoming an art teacher, he landed a job at Kalmbach Publishing in Milwaukee. There, for nearly ten years, he helped edit and lay out numerous railroad and model railroad books produced on behalf of Trains Magazine and Model Railroader. Mike spent all of the 1980s art directing and editing Passenger Train Journal, Prototype Modeler, and a line of books for PTJ Publishing (later purchased by Interurban Press). In 1990 he became part owner of Andover Junction Publications, another railroad book and magazine publisher and production house. In 2005, White River Productions hired Mike to help edit and produce railroad magazines and books, including a revived Passenger Train Journal. Mike and his little dog Archie reside in a house (which includes a 1,600-square-foot model railroad) next to BNSF�s busy Twin Cities mainline in a small town outside Chicago where he also serves as village trustee and occasionally mayor pro tem.