About Us

William has been a model train enthusiast from the moment his father, Gerald Bannon, gave him a HO train set for his 2nd birthday. His Father and Grandfather both worked for railroads, the Penn Central and Conrail, and he has always been fascinated with trains. While in college he chose N scale as his modeling medium. Later, he noticed that many of the trains he was familiar with as a child weren’t available from manufacturers, so he thought, why not build them? Since he grew up in Indiana where his father worked in the Avon yards, the first thing built was a Penn Central jet snow blower and it turned out pretty good. After trying a few other small items like transfer cabooses, passenger cars, and tank cars, he tried something a little more challenging – engines and slugs. His first was a N scale Conrail SD38 with a MT-6 slug.

In 2002 he moved to Savannah, GA where he became a director for the local train club, The Coastal Rail Buffs. He also joined up with “Travel N Trains” (TNT). TNT is a 12’ x 28’ N scale layout owned by Louis Sommers, who does from 6 to 8 train shows per year in GA, FL, SC, and NC area. Doing these shows with Louis gave William a great way to show his custom built pieces. After the first couple of shows, people coming up and asking “Where did you get that?!” and “Is it for sale?” With such a great demand, he decided to market his custom-builts. 

In 2004, 2nd Chance Trains was launched. William made a booklet with pictures of the N scale locomotives he had previously built and would display it during the train shows. The response was greater than he had anticipated and in 2005 he started selling on eBay. By the end of 2006 the volume of orders was so high, he quit his job and made 2nd Chance Trains a full time job. 

We currently accept PayPal payments, cashier's checks and money orders.  We hope to add you to our growing list of satisfied customers from all over the world.

Enjoy browsing our site!