The train tracks outside Tom McKee’s Boone Lake home are quiet these days, but soon he’ll be out repairing sections, bridges and tunnels to get his various engines up and running.
McKee’s “rail yard” is a child’s dream world. McKee might be one of the coolest grandpas ever, partly because he is a self-proclaimed kid at heart.
“I never did grow up,” McKee said recently as he looked across part of his 800-feet of G-gauge tracks. “I’ve done a train hobby for years, but when I got out here I got into the G- Gauge because I had all this land I could go out and piddle with.”
There’s also a playground — with the latest addition of a zip line — for his 12 grandchildren. The land has been in his family since 1959 and once served as a summer getaway. These days, it’s where McKee and his wife, Kim, live and can relax in the nature setting around their home. He moved there full time after his last term on the City Commission.
Read the full article at the Johnson City Press.