Front Range

The Front Range Division is currently meeting by Zoom. Schedule and contact information are at the end of this note. Please join us.

Since we are meeting by Zoom it is hard to get photographs illustrating the clinic. I apologize that some notes do not have photos.

The October Zoom meeting was presented by Bill Kepner. Bill is a volunteer at the Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley, CO as well as several other 1-to-1 historic museums, railroads and restoration sites. He talked about the history of the 5.500 sq ft Oregon, California and Eastern railroad from its beginning to the present. Mainline trackage consists of 23 scale miles in a 10,000 sq ft building next to the Union Pacific tracks in downtown Greeley. The layout features mountainous terrain, seaport and industrial areas. Switching is somewhat limited as it is intended to entertain visitors by running trains. The layout can be operated manually with NCE DCC throttles or automatically with computer control. Bill discussed track cleaning and rolling stock maintenance which on a layout this large requires one day a week to accomplish with a dedicated crew. He showed many photographs of the layout to illustrate his talking points. Visitor access is easy thanks to wide isles and elevated viewing locations. They are open now but exercise some restrictions due to the pandemic. This is a don’t miss layout if you are in the northern Colorado area.

The November meeting celebrated the 60th year anniversary of the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. Museum Director Paul Hammond presented a slide show from when Bob Richardson started collecting narrow gauge equipment in Alamosa, CO to discussing where the Museum was going in the future. Paul worked for 20 years at the California State Railroad Museum as well as other museums before becoming the Executive Director of the CRRM. The Museum faced many challenges this year due to the pandemic but after a short closure is now open to visitors with some restrictions. Thomas the Tank Engine and the Polar Express were both operated and provided an economic impact to the Museum. Equipment is always being restored and this can be seen in the roundhouse which has visitor viewing areas. One of the major directions of the Museum is to educate visitors of the importance of railroads to the development and economics of the State. The CRRM features the Richardson Library which is a significant source of information to railroad researchers world wide. They are currently developing a long range plan to better inform the public of the importance of railroads.

Normally, the Front Range Division has an offsite Christmas party in the month of December, but, not this year. Rich Gibson gave us a tour of his Maine Central Railroad - Rockland branch layout. Rich is making great progress toward a finished layout. Many areas have the scenics completed. Rich tied the Maine Central railroad history to what he was depicting with the model. This layout was started in Tulsa, then transported to Billings and finally, now is in Golden. Each time the railroad was moved it got a little larger. The layout is designed to operate with a crew of about 7 members and will use timetable and written train orders.

Rich Gibson and his Maine Central Rockland branch

In normal times 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 meetings start off with a clinic, followed by a “Show and Tell” session and is concluded with a short business meeting. We do not hold meetings in August and December. In August, we have the FRD picnic and in December we have a Christmas Party off site. Both of these have been cancelled this year. However, we do meet by Zoom the third Monday of the month at 7:00pm. Click on https://zoom.us/j/220781378 if you have downloaded Zoom which can be done at https://zoom.us/support/download. Anyone who wishes to join us please feel free to do so.

Paul Brennecke

Superintendent

Front Range Division - NMRA