| A founder member of the Chiltern Model Railway Association |
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Andrew Jones is a member of the '0' Gauge section and he is custodian of this '0n30' gauge 1:48 scale American narrow gauge layout that is currently available for display on the local exhibition circuit.
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| Questa is small
town in New Mexico, situated in the foothills of the Sangre de
Cristo Mountains (Spanish for 'Blood of Christ'), the southernmost
subrange of the Rocky Mountains. The Antonito and Taos Rail Road
(A&TRR) served Questa as a depot on the line to Red River, a mining
town in the 1870s. However the mines at Red River were worked
out by the early 1930s and, when the line was washed out between
Questa and Red River, it was cut back to Questa, where mining for
molybdenum had started. Questa depot, situated on the edge of town, is small with just a couple of tracks serving a warehouse, stock yard and a fuel depot, which also has a Southern Pacific standard gauge spur. There is another spur which serves the wolframite mine and which passes an old gold mine. As Questa was built as a small passing depot, apart from the water tower there were no engine facilities. A small engineering department, based in an old box car, looks after the switcher that is based at Questa to serve the mines, but larger locomotives must go to the wye junction by the molybdenum mine to turn as tender first running is very rare. Engines and stock are from the A&TRR's own roster, but also from the Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) and Rio Grande Southern (RGS), which can access the A&TRR through a junction at Antonito. Due to the importance of the A&TRR during the war, locomotives and stock were transferred from other lines across the US, and more modern equipment, including diesels, were introduced. During the WW2 years, Questa was the source of a rare mineral that was very important to the war effort and was shipped out (under armed guard!) to Espanola and onto Los Alamos. However, now in 1952, the requirement for the special mineral has all but ceased and the molybdenum mine is also nearly worked out, so the future of the A&TRR looks bleak. So much for the story, Questa is a small town in New Mexico but the rest is fiction! The layout was built to offer something a little different from UK layouts, and is built to the American 0 gauge scale of 1/4 inch = 1 foot (1:48) and runs on 16.5mm gauge track. |
Summary
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