The End of a Great Model Railroad Part 2 - The On30 Rio Grande and Pacific

We continue to follow the dismantling of Steve Strebel's "O" scale (On3 - On30) layout, the Rio Grande and Pacific. Fearing for the future of what is one of the worlds best model railroads, he is breaking it up into dioramas. After the sudden death of Al Badham, Steve is having problems keeping up with the work needed on the railroad. Having his own medical issues, Steve is having hip replacement surgery tomorrow. Fearing that the final end of the layout will be that after Steve too is gone, it will be destroyed, broken up and thrown away, gone forever. His plan is to remove everything and build smaller dioramas that he plans to give away to friends and family. This way the "layout" can live on for centuries. This process may take a year or more, but we will cover it here as it goes forward. This week Steve is building a diorama for Nora, his daughter. Built mostly from the "Shoehorn Gulch" area in the Nora Mining district, Shoehorn Gulch was the interchange between the On30 Shoehorn Gulch Railway and the On3 Rio Grande and Pacific, complete with a duel gauge section, On3-On30!!!