Front Range

FRONT RANGE DIVISION

FRD member Gary Ratay (in black shirt) gave the February clinic. Subject was “Structures from Paper or Plastic”. He explained how to use scanners, inkjet printers and digital cutters to make buildings, roads, busses, escalators and parking lots from artist grade paper or plastic sheet. Also utilized were Photoshop, photo stacking programs and on-line photo sources to obtain realistic building walls, including glass windows. The clinic was unique in what could be achieved with little financial investment.

Gerry Glancy with trusty sidekick Sancho (Gary Myers) gave an interesting clinic on railroad trestle building. Gerry built a trestle right before our eyes and to aid in the visualization utilized a video camera and projector, operated by Gary Myers. Trestle nomenclature, typical wood sizes (real trestle) and assembly techniques and tools were all part of this unique clinic. Gerry brought along several trestles he had built. This was the FRD March clinic.

In April, Rich Gibson showed the division his new layout plans for the Rockland Branch of the Maine Central railroad. Rich had just moved to the area and was adapting a layout he started in another house in Montana. He had interesting photos of the Rockland branch in the state of Maine and how the prototype was going to fit into his model. Operations will be the purpose of the layout with key towns featuring prototype track plans.

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