Re: One loco to last an entire life
| February 12, 2020 07:35PM |
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It's not a model picture, but it is C&S...
Subscribed to the Slim Gauge News (precursor to the Gazette) as a teenager in the early 70s. On the cover of one issue was a photo of Grant Colorado, with a C&S train in town. Nothing special, no dramatic scenery or mesmerizing vistas, just an everyday train in a pedestrian setting. Backyards, small business in a mountain town clinging to any shred of relevance it can. Cold, drizzly, gray...
Had dreams of a layout with scenery to the floor, spindly gravity defying trestles, sway backed rolling stock. That single photo of Grant brought me back to earth and established the way I think about narrow gauge modeling to this day. For every breath-taking vista with a diminutive ribbon of rail snaking thru it, there's 40-50 miles of less than spectacular working railroad that rarely makes the photo albums. THAT'S the railroad I want to model, hard-working, hands-dirty, narrow by circumstance.
That totally unimpressive photo of Grant is probably my favorite narrow gauge image. I have a friend, HO standard gauge, who thinks people model narrow gauge because they think it's cute. That's bull hockey. What does he know anyway, can't imagine this "standard gauge" thing will ever catch on...
Mike McKenzie
Frankfort IL
Subscribed to the Slim Gauge News (precursor to the Gazette) as a teenager in the early 70s. On the cover of one issue was a photo of Grant Colorado, with a C&S train in town. Nothing special, no dramatic scenery or mesmerizing vistas, just an everyday train in a pedestrian setting. Backyards, small business in a mountain town clinging to any shred of relevance it can. Cold, drizzly, gray...
Had dreams of a layout with scenery to the floor, spindly gravity defying trestles, sway backed rolling stock. That single photo of Grant brought me back to earth and established the way I think about narrow gauge modeling to this day. For every breath-taking vista with a diminutive ribbon of rail snaking thru it, there's 40-50 miles of less than spectacular working railroad that rarely makes the photo albums. THAT'S the railroad I want to model, hard-working, hands-dirty, narrow by circumstance.
That totally unimpressive photo of Grant is probably my favorite narrow gauge image. I have a friend, HO standard gauge, who thinks people model narrow gauge because they think it's cute. That's bull hockey. What does he know anyway, can't imagine this "standard gauge" thing will ever catch on...
Mike McKenzie
Frankfort IL
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.