In 1947, when Glenn Ritter of Honey Brook was 6 years old, his parents bought him a new set of Lionel trains. Each year, the train cars ran under the family Christmas tree. Glenn's aunt and uncle owned a model train store in New Jersey, so he grew up collecting and running model trains.

By the time he was 9 years old, Glenn knew he wanted to be an architect, and at the age of 11, he accepted Jesus as his Savior. Glenn recalled that after finishing his homework on Oct. 22, 1952, he opened his Bible and was confronted with God's truth. Glenn prayed to receive Jesus and immediately experienced a warmth and a feeling of peace. The memory still brings tears of joy to his eyes. In 1961, he attended a Billy Graham crusade, where he rededicated his life to Christ.

Raised on a farm in Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Glenn lost his father at the age of 15. After graduating from Norristown High School, he attended Drexel's day college course in Civil Engineering. "That was the closest (the school offered) to architecture," said Glenn, who noted that his mother had $5,000 to help him through his first year of school. "I transferred to evening college of architecture so I could work during the day," said Glenn, who completed architectural drawings for a firm in Ardmore to help put himself through school. Glenn worked for a number of Philadelphia-area architectural firms, including Howell Lewis Shay and Associates and Anthony T. Rienzzi. He then moved to Richard Martin & Associates, where he designed apartment buildings until passing the Pennsylvania state licensing exam for architecture. Glenn was licensed in February of 1970. He next worked for Leon Altemose until he was laid off and began his own firm in 1975. Among many buildings, Glenn designed a five-story building for the elderly in Souderton and a library at Westminster Theological Seminary.

In 2004, Glenn was living in Harleysville, when his car was hit head-on by another car, and Glenn was taken by helicopter to the Lehigh Valley Hospital trauma unit. His injuries were serious, and Glenn spent several days in intensive care and a month in a rehabilitation center before returning home. At about this time, he and his wife, Lin, became involved with The Camp of the Old Mill in Honey Brook. "By 2005, it was apparent that I could not care for our in-ground pool and two acres of grass," said Glenn. When looking to downsize, the couple chose a community for seniors over age 55 near the camp in Honey Brook.

Glenn's love of model trains has not waned. He has served as secretary of the National Association of S Gaugers, a model train organization, requiring travel to places like St. Louis, California, Cleveland, and Wisconsin. In his Harleysville home, much of the basement was devoted to his layout, about 300 feet of track, which he based on the setting of his childhood home. "God ordains things," noted Glenn of his meeting with Jim Lyle, who lived in Paradise, at a train show. Lyle asked Glenn to help the Pequea Valley Model Railroaders (PVMRR), which included Rich Glass, Paul Herr, and Gary Boyd, among others, to set up a train show at Dutch-Way Farm Market in Gap. "We were in the lobby there (holding holiday events) for three years," recalled Glenn, who noted that after Dutch-Way renovated the building around 2008, the club moved to the Paradise Township building. The next year, the club moved the display to the main council room, building the layout in Lyle's garage and moving it to the township building in November for a Christmas display. After Lyle passed away, the club moved to the former Paradise Elementary School building, but moving the Lionel and American Flyer layouts to the township building wore the club members out. "It was exhausting," said Glenn, who noted that the club sold the layouts and disbanded by 2019.

Around the same time the PVMRR club was winding down, Tel Hai Retirement Community, just a short distance from Glenn's home, was building a three-story apartment building, with an area on the second level designated as a train room. "There's always older men with trains," said Glenn, who was asked by a Tel Hai staff member to help Tom Hess and Bob Stevens with the new layout. "We set up my portable layout, and some residents came to see," recalled Glenn. "It sparked interest." Glenn credits Hess with the idea to fill the room with trains, the layout of which was designed on Glenn's computer. The new Train Club at Tel Hai worked on the room until the COVID-19 lockdown occurred. Glenn said that Bruce McCleary of the Tel Hai Wood Shop helped build the platforms. "(McCleary) built a mountain with a painting on the wall and a scene," said Glenn, who added that the first train room holiday open house was held in 2021, and it attracted about 900 people over the four days it was held. "We had every gauge that anyone has ever had," said Glenn of the StoneCroft Commons facility, which features HO-, S-, and O-gauge cars, with large G-gauge cars running around the perimeter.

In the spring of 2023, Loretta Englerth, an art instructor at Tel Hai, completed a mural that included scenery of the area around Tel Hai. "She painted trails, highways, buggies, horses, geese flying in the sky, and farms," stated Glenn. "The next year more than 1,000 (people) came to see the mural." Glenn put together an article about the layout and the mural for All Aboard train magazine.

This year, Glenn was not available to help get ready for the holiday open house. In early November, when he was not feeling well, he saw his heart doctor in Lancaster. The doctor sent him to the emergency room. "My heart wasn't right," said Glenn, whose health history included stents and a triple bypass. After a number of days in the hospital, he now has a pacemaker and ports for his dialysis. He was not able to attend the Dec. 4 open house, but he is hoping to make future events.

Glenn's continued love for architecture, trains, and the Lord is evident in his social media, where he posts Scripture on a daily basis. He also serves as a member of The Gideons International and The Railroad Evangelistic Association, and he is a member of Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson.