Subsequently learning that he would not be called up for some time, he took a job as an advertising representative for the Seiberling Rubber Company, which required him to travel extensively through the southern states.
After military service during World War II with the Army Signal Corps in Iran, where he studied the Persian railroads and learned to read Persian, he returned to his job with Seiberling, but made repeated vacation trips touring the Colorado's narrow gauge railroads in 1945, 1946 and 1947, eventually deciding to make his home there.
The grounds offered a fine place to display some of the narrow gauge equipment he had purchased, along with that saved by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club.
Construction of the Iron Horse Motel next door was intended to be an additional source of operating revenue, but instead proved to be overly time-consuming and was sold.
Several years down the road, the motel was purchased and razed to make way for the roundhouse restoration facility and to enable completion of a loop of narrow gauge track.
Bob served as Executive Director of the Colorado Railroad Museum until 1991, when he decided to retire and move back to join family in Pennsylvania, where he had been raised.