I am also privileged to call Tom Gildersleeve a friend -

Our paths first crossed in April of 1977 when he was setting up some flash equipment in Saugus, Ca. to capture the northbound trip of the Royal Hudson and its P.R. train which had come south from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles the previous week, and we have shared a few adventures over the years - such as a Nevada Northern winter special in 2004 and Pete Lerro's 2012 Virginia & Truckee charter.  At one time Tom sold meticulously color-corrected duplicate slide sets, so his photos – not always credited – show up here every once in a while.  IIRC, he made over $30,000 his peak year — pretty good extra income for a hobby, especially back in the previous century!

Tom gave me one of his old backup external hard-drives a couple of years ago with scans of all of his D&RGW slides on it, so I have been able to post a few of his wonderful photos here on the NGDF from time to time in response to questions that would take 1,000 words each to answer otherwise, but now his narrow gauge shots are all in one place and easy to access on The Friends' gallery.    

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender