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. We have members and friends logging in from as far away as Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA.

Our April Zoom meeting featured a clinic by Gerry Clancy on a layout he is building.

There are several aspects Gerry is including in his layout of the San Francisco Bay area, but the Embarcadero and the State Belt Railroad is a highlight. He combined historical photos with layout models in a wonderful presentation. Piers stuck out in to the Bay from a seawall built in the 1879-1916 time period. The piers were numbered from the Ferry Building, with odd numbers running to the northwest and even numbers to the southeast. The Ferry Building was kitbashed from a Walthers Pier Terminal kit.

Four railroads serviced the Embarcadero with three of them utilizing car ferries and the fourth via Sausalito. Needless to say, the track work in this area was intricate and well-modeled. Mission Creek was spanned by a Bascule bridge with an overhead trolley wire and carried railroad equipment as well as automobiles.

Car ferry slips are modeled with the barges or ferries mounted on mobile cassettes which can be rolled to other areas of the layout to unload and load railroad cars. The featured railroad servicing the Embarcadero was the State Belt Railroad which switched over 100 industries located on or near the waterfront on 60 miles of track.

Gerry is scheduled to give this clinic at the Pueblo RMR Convention, and if you attend, don't miss it.

Gerry Clancy photo

John Rimmasch gave us a tour of his N scale Wasatch and Union Pacific Railroad at the May Zoom meeting. The layout was toured via still and video photos.

He and his boys picked out four key locations on the Union Pacific Railroad in Utah and Wyoming and modeled them on the layout. Those locations are Ogden, UT; Green River, WY; Taggert, WY and Laramie, WY. The era they picked was the 1940’s to 1970’s, so both steam and diesel power could be featured.

The layout is built on a welded steel frame since John can weld but not saw and nail. The layout was designed by Pat Lana, MMR and loaded into CAD, so it could be printed full size and placed on the room floor to see how it fit, and tweak the track plan.

John’s mother is an artist and painted the backdrop with wonderful renderings of the areas modeled.

John is also the owner and CEO of Wasatch Contractors which is located in Shoshone, WY. The business repairs and paints railcars, as well as rebuilds steam engines and does railroad exhibits, both indoors and outdoors. The Centennial and Big Boy in Omaha are Wasatch Contractors' work, as well as the Big Boy in the Cheyenne Park. John gave us entertaining stories of these and other projects.

Allen Grasmick photos

At the June Zoom meeting, Gary Ratay gave a fascinating clinic on European passenger train service.

Gary and his wife travel to Europe often and he is very knowledgeable of the passenger service.

This clinic featured railroads in Germany, France and Austria. The European railroads have reached agreement to operate in three or four separate companies and they are Passenger Service, Freight Service and Infrastructure. The Infrastructure companies allows all railroads to operate on anyone's track, which means competition by state railroads and private railroads.

He explained railroad engine numbering which allows quick identification of equipment. The system works for steam, electric, diesel, electric multi-unit, battery multi-unit, diesel multi-unit and rail-bus equipment.

Quality of service ranged from reclining leather seats with wi-fi service, hot meals and beverages to less than but very acceptable.

Train speeds varied with Regional Bahn and Regional Express operating at 80 mph, FLIRT (Fast Light Intercity Regional Train) operating at 99 mph, Arriva Train operating at 124 mph and ICE (Inter City Express) operating at 200 mph.

Gary Ratay's N scale European layout

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