Welcome to the web site for the National Narrow Gauge Convention for 2012 that will be held in Bellevue, WA. On this page and other pages you’ll find more information about this convention. We hope you can join us.
Click on our new video to hear from some of our members who are working hard to bring you a fabulous convention. If you have a broadband connection, you can also watch this video in High Definition by clicking on the numbers near the right hand lower corner of the video window (which you’ll see once you start the video). Click on 720p. You can also click on the far right lower corner to make the picture go full screen.
For more inspiration, take a look at our previous video:
Here are some samples of local layouts. You can click on the Seattle Layouts link above to see more information about local layouts that are planned for the layout tours.
Dale Kreutzer has pioneered the use of photography to create backdrops of the actual scenes that graced the Rio Grande Southern. This is the tank at Hesperus in the 1920s on Dale’s Sn3 railroad. There’s no Ophir loop here, Dale is modeling the southern end of the RGS that few have ever attempted.
It’s a lazy day in Dolores as the #42 backs away from a caboose on Bill Busacca’s Rio Grand Southern in Sn3. Dolores is finished, and Bill is on his way to completing the rest of his layout which has its own large special room above the garage.
While you may have seen some of our famous layouts in the past, we have a lot more under construction. This shot from the inside of Glenn Farley‘s 11 stall On3 Gunnison, Colorado roundhouse as the crew prepares its C-21 to hit the road in the pre-dawn hours.
Ken Larson’s father used to cruise timber in West Side country down in California. Now he’s recreated the West Side Lumber Co. down to its finest detail in On3. There are no compromises on Ken’s layout. This includes the layout to ceiling trees. Ken is an expert in tree modeling, and you can learn his techniques at Seattle 2012.
A favorite spot for railfanning is the highline on Janice and Barry Dupler’s HO/HOn3 layout. The 17×25 layout features an independent logging line and narrow gauge service to numerous mines and mills in the surrounding mountains.
Railroad Logging in the great Northwest was king for generations, as depicted on Chuck Ricketts’ On30 layout.
Local members get together monthly for operating sessions at our layouts. This evolved into a series of “operating clinics” at bigger get togethers, where people learn about operating narrow gauge railroads prototypically.
There’s smoke in Diablo Canyon on Paul Scoles’Sn3 Pelican Bay Railway and Navigation Co. That means one thing. Operations. You may have have seen Paul’s recent video on layout operations and chances are, you’ve purchased his two videos on scenery. Paul’s layout is spectacular, and it’s one of the layouts that will be hosting clinics on operations.
This is a rare opportunity to visit Sam Furukawa’s Sn3 layout, the Sam Juan Central. It is based on scenes of the Rio Grande Southern in its final years and features many detailed locomotives and plenty of rolling stock. It’s controlled by three P-B-L sound systems, and features cameras mounted around the layout with runbys shown on several monitors throughout the house.
Talk about being dwarfed by rocks! Russ Segner’s Sn3 layout.
JJ Johnston is building the Puget Sound Iron Goat Railway short line in HO scale. Described as a mythical, wholly owned subsidiary of the Great Northern in the Pacific Northwest, his freelanced 11′ by 14′ walk-in layout features a 7′ mountain, tall timber trestles, truss bridges and exceptionally detailed structures and scenery.
