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Chuck Heidorn married into
trains. By that we mean that he grew up fascinated with
airplanes and cars, mostly. It wasn't until he drew a picture
of a train for Christmas to give to his brother-in-law, Jeff, that
the idea of making prints came alive. Jeff, the lifelong
railfan, used to drag his sister to the tracks when they were
kids. Jeff encouraged more drawings and said "I think we could
sell these!!" Hivan Productions became the railroad art print
business of the two men--Chuck, the artist and Jeff, the railfan
accountant. The name Hivan is a made-up word using letters
from their two last names.
A few years ago, through a small business
grant, Chuck was able to make a website of his railroad
art, called Hivanproductions.com. Not being very
computer literate, Chuck had a lot of pictures but not a lot
of "traffic." This year with the help of a new team, we
are setting up a more user-friendly way to sell railroad art.
We chose the name http://www.railroadartprints.com/
and have moved our inventory to the new site. We hope you will
enjoy navigating the site, and we plan to expand the offerings for
your use. New items are being added as soon as we can put them
up.
You can see Chuck's
art each year at the Big Railroad Hobby Show sponsored
by the Amherst Railway Society. In 2007 the show will
be at the Eastern States Exposition Center, West Springfield,
MA, January 27 and 28. Check it out at their website, http://www.amherstrail.org./
You'll meet the crew and have a wonderful time.
All year 'round visitors are welcome at
Surroundings Gallery & Custom Framing, where Chuck is a humble
custom picture framer. Visit us at 377 Main Street, Gardner,
Massachusetts, just north of Route 2 at exit 22. When you
cross under the railroad bridge we are the 5th building on the
right, in a restored post-and-beam livery
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