Re: Earl the Modeler?

Before I changed scales to "Fullsize n3", I was very active in HOn3 and a bit of HO SG. Before I moved to another house in Chama I had a small HOn3 layout in my upstairs bedroom which looked out on the Chama Tank. Once I began working full-time-(and-a-half?) I had much less time and ambition to model. A new house, wife, car payments, etc. turned me into an armchair modeler about 10 years ago. I've still got boxes of structures, rock molds, brass locomotives, etc I've been schlepping around for years. My new house in Texas has a great "mother-in-law" house attached to the garage which if I could ever get motivated would make a great layout room.
When I lived in Phoenix my dad and I had one the the first HOn3 layouts in the area. The last one was patterned after the RGS Telluride Branch. We were also involved in building the HO/HOn3 layout at McCormick RR Park in Scottsdale, AZ.
My late father was a longtime HO modeler. In college he and his room mate used to go train watching on Cajon Pass, Colton Tower, & Beaumont Hill. During WWII he worked in Washington DC and got to know Gordon Varney and Bill Bowser. Dad and I made many trips to "God's Country" and created my interest in modeling and railroads in general. Dad was a native San Franciscan and his true love was traction. After he and mom retired and moved to Monterey, CA, he built a nice traction layout.
With his passing I have had the not-so-happy honor of disposing his massive brass traction collection on eBay.
God rest his soul, I still miss him.