New Blog Updates Coming

Hi,

When my daughter, Shannon, established this blog for my layout back several years ago it seemed like a good idea....  At the time, she entered several posts using photos etc I already had.  Then it was left to me to update, which of course I never did.

I have been working on the layout...  perhaps I haven't gotten as far along as I should have, but I am making progress.

As most of you know, the Narrow Gauge Convention will be in Sacramento in 2019.  The hotel convention site is about 90 minutes from my house.  I'm planning on having my layout on the tour, even though it is still in it's early days.  So in the spirit of getting the layout as far along as I can before the convention comes to town, I decided I should also document the progress so far on this blog.

More about the convention in a future post.

I've got about 30 entries planned for the blog update.  The idea is to work on each of them in the evenings while watching TV and post every week or so over the next few months.

You know when convention organizers provide information on layouts for the tours they always give a few stats on the completion of the layout to help the visitor know what to expect and also decide which layouts to visit...  Well, I think my first new post will be one for "Layout Progress and Information".  It will let you know how far along the layout is and I can always update the posting as progress is made.

Thanks for viewing,
Ron

Blog Introduction

Hi, my name is Ron and I’ve been interested in Maine Two Footers since the early 70’s and the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes railroad in particular.  For me, as with many, I fell in love with the two footers after reading Moody’s book.  I had been modeling Colorado in Hon3, until one day when my local hobby shop had a Custom Brass #6 and a caboose #556 for sale.  Bought the On2 equipment and sold the Hon3 and been doing SR&RL ever since.

In the 80’s while attending a Narrow Gauge Convention in Denver, I got into a conversation with a friend about modeling the Maine two footers.  My friend innocently asked “how many Maine two footers are there?”.  I had no idea, but I decided to place an advertisement in the back of the Gazette for a “survey”.  One thing led to another and I started the Maine Two Foot Modeler magazine in 1985.  I produced just 9 issues over 28 months, before getting bogged down in not having enough time; work etc just kept getting the way.  Fortunately, Gary Kohler, one of the subscribers volunteered to take over so I handed the fledgling magazine over to him.

For many years I never had time or a good space to model the SR&RL like I wanted to, so I just collected brass and kits.  The usual story.  A few years ago I retired and bought a retirement home in Northern California.  We added a wing to the house which included second floor space for a layout room.  It took several years to finish off the layout room with drywall, HVAC, LED aisle lighting and to develop a trackplan.  I went through seven trackplan versions before settling on version 8, the one included in this blog.  Construction on the layout just really started in December 2013.