02-26-2011, 11:50 PM
I've gotta guess that between Stan, the guy who built the depot (NMRA MMR #318, who had been a resident of San Bernardino and had all the photos and drawings of the town and as well as Victorville,CA, and several other towns along the route from LA to Victorville, modeled on the upper level of the layout) and several other Santa fe Modelers in the original handful that started the club (now numbering about 40 members - many of them "snowbirds") that Santa Fe was the main choice. Denver, Rio Grande & Western and Burlington are also represented on the Joint Line - from Denver east to Chicago (the modeled portion of the Joint Line goes from Denver to just east of Pueblo, CO before hitting the helix down to staging on the bottom of three levels.)
Initially, I had no interest in the Santa Fe, and being a dyed-in-the-wool Reading Company guy and having always made a conscious effort to stay as far away from anything remotely Santa Fe, feeling it was over-modeled, so I didn't join right away. But, after a while, thinking that the cameraditie of being around other living and breathing model railroaders might be just what the doctor ordered as a cure for loneliness, and that it never hurts to learn new things, I decided to join ... first as an associate member. Withing three months I was having so much fun with the other guys, I joined as a full member and jumped in, volunteering for this project and another involving building a three-track signal bridge (to happen after San Bernardino.)
So that's it ... a total guess, but probably pretty close to the truth. Hope that answers the question.
Initially, I had no interest in the Santa Fe, and being a dyed-in-the-wool Reading Company guy and having always made a conscious effort to stay as far away from anything remotely Santa Fe, feeling it was over-modeled, so I didn't join right away. But, after a while, thinking that the cameraditie of being around other living and breathing model railroaders might be just what the doctor ordered as a cure for loneliness, and that it never hurts to learn new things, I decided to join ... first as an associate member. Withing three months I was having so much fun with the other guys, I joined as a full member and jumped in, volunteering for this project and another involving building a three-track signal bridge (to happen after San Bernardino.)
So that's it ... a total guess, but probably pretty close to the truth. Hope that answers the question.
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln