Front Range

FRONT RANGE DIVISION

The Front Range Division tries to present a reasonably even distribution of prototype and modeling clinics. 

In May, we watched an interesting clinic by Bill Robie on train photographs he had taken all over the world. Most fascinating was a series of photos he and his girlfriend, later to become his wife, took as he hopped a flatcar in Glenwood Springs and rode it through the Moffat Tunnel to Denver. In addition, the US Army gave Bill a helicopter to fly in Vietnam, and he used it to photograph rare steam power used during the war. He also had some rare photos of the restoring of the Georgetown Loop, including the bridge.

Continuing the prototype theme, in June, FRD member and dedicated Union Pacific fan Dean Dickerhoof, presented a series of Union Pacific steam power photos with well paced and knowledgable narration. He covered almost all steam classes including F-E-F (four-eight-four), 4000 series Big Boys, 3800 series Challengers, 9000 series three cylinder 4-10-2’s, Pacifics, Mountains, Consolidations, including 0-6-0 switchers.

Finally, in July, RMR president emeritus, Gary Myers presented a clinic on Livestock and Meat Packing Operations for model railroads. His clinic featured prototype photos of both narrow gauge and standard livestock movement by train, stockyard operation, as well as meat processing including branch houses. Branch houses processed the meat quarters into individual cuts for restaurants and consumers. 

The FRD has a 'Boomer' request where members help someone who is building a model railroad. We had two requests and photos of the work are below: first, new FRD member Rich Gibson, who is building a layout depicting the Maine Central, needed help with benchwork.

Second, Bill Harrison needed N scale trees for his layout. It is with sad heart that Bill passed not long after.  He loved model railroading and will be missed. The work crew is below and Bill’s wife, Cheryl, is in the background making a super lunch for us.

The Front Range Division meets the third Monday of the month at 7:00pm at the Colorado Railroad Museum in the Delay Junction building. The meeting starts off with the clinic, followed by a “Show and Tell” session and the meeting is concluded with a short business meeting. We do not hold meetings in August and December. In August, we have the FRD picnic, also, at the CRRM and in December we have a Christmas Party off site.

Paul Brennecke