Amazing Layout Lou! The Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad is one of all time favorites! I hope that model railroader will post the track plan of this layout for non-subscribers to view too, for I am not a subscriber. I just bought magazines in a local book store for 22 up to 110 pesos.
What a delight to find Lou Sassi’s beautifully detailed model layout of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad! My maternal great grandfather, Waldo A. Rich Sr, built the northern-most section of that narrow-guage railroad, i.e. the 28-mile section from Phillips to Rangeley, which operated as the Phillips and Rangeley Railroad (1891-1908) until it was acquired by the Sandy River Railroad. The Philips and Rangeley Railroad is credited with opening-up the Rangeley Lakes region to out-of-state outdoorsmen. Waldo Rich owned the Redington Lumber Company (near Rangeley) and needed a means for transporting his lumber to Portland ME and other urban markets. He was a collaborator with Cornelia “Fly Rod Crosby”, the legendary and colorful Maine outdoorswoman who marketed the wonders of western Maine (and the Phillips and Rangeley RR) at large trade shows for outdoorsmen (and wealthy “swags”) in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in the last decade of the 19th century. As a reward for her pioneering efforts in bringing out-of-state interest to western Maine, Fly Rod Crosby was granted the first Maine Guide license by the Maine state legislature in 1897. Fly Rod Crosby was apparently mentored by my great-great grandfather, Joshua Gross Rich (1820-1897), a pioneering western Maine outdoorsman whose book (“The Life and Work of a Western Maine Pioneer and Wildlife Writer”) is still available via Amazon.com and from the U. of Maine press.
Much of this history is captured in a Wikipedia article about the Phillips and Rangeley Railroad, which pioneered the use of full-size rolling stock on 2-foot narrow-guage track. There are also numerous Web postings about Fly Rod Crosby and Joshua Gross Rich.
Thanks again to Lou Sassi, and best wishes to all sentimental historians of local/regional railroads of yesteryear.
Nat Brown
Moraga, CA
excellent modeling,this shows the advantage of the larger scales
Does anyone remember that cartoon in the back of MR…perhaps a decade ago, about a fellow showing off the “First G-Scale coffee table Layout?” Wrong scale, byt the memory brought me a smile! Lou has taken to On30 like a duck to water! 