James W. (Jim) Lilly was born in Huntington, West Virginia in 1968. He credits his love of railroading and its history to growing up watching the Chesapeake & Ohio (Chessie) system and playing with his Grandfather Jim's post-war Lionel trains. The defining moment for Jim as a rail fan was in October 1985 with a first-class steam train ride on the New River Train behind Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765. He spent the entire trip in the vestibule and came home covered in soot and grinning from ear to ear. A Chapter member since 1990, Jim has been heavily involved in planning and operating excursions and trips. As Chapter Vice President from 1995-2000, Jim was responsible for developing the dcnrhs.org and doverharbor.com web sites that brought the Chapter into the Internet age, an effort which won him the Bent Spike Award in 2000, and for two grants for the DOVER HARBOR that the Chapter received from the NRHS in 1995 and 1997. Jim is a qualified Mechanical Officer and Steward on the DOVER HARBOR and can frequently be found aboard the car on trips and on Saturdays during work sessions at Dover Park. He is also well connected at the National NRHS having served as National Director of NRHS' Internet Services since 1999. Jim's most recent railroading adventure was riding the Indian Pacific across Australia.

About our Chapter Jim says, "I love the people of our club, the DOVER HARBOR, and the fact that we are a club that 'does things.' We have much to be proud of, but together we must embrace and fix the significant financial and personnel challenges that are facing our club; we must act now. These challenges and my love for the club and its people are the principle reason I accepted the responsibility of leading our organization. I plan to address the needs and concerns of our members directly to improve the services we provide, and have fun!"

Jim has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Clemson University (1990) and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University (1994). Professionally Jim works as a program manager and software developer in information technology and on Internet projects. He lives in suburban Maryland. He has two school-age children, Grant and Mason.