Turns out it was the estate of David Haines, a well known local architect and a highly skilled model railroader. I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Haines, but from the types of books in his library I believe I would have had much in common with him.
He modeled the Santa Fe railroad in the 1950's, specifically the area around Raton, New Mexico and the Raton Pass. He modeled in N scale which is 1/160th full size. This scale is a very good scale for allowing lots of scenery in proportion to the actual models and is well suited for capturing the area around Raton.
Mr. Haines had taken down much of his railroad in anticipation of building an improved version, but one section which portrayed the rail yard of Raton survived. It is a beautiful section of railroad - museum quality actually. This layout is very much a work of art and deserved to be preserved.
I don't model the Santa Fe railroad, the 1950's or N scale, but nevertheless ended up purchasing this section of railroad and moving it to our home with the idea of donating it to a museum that would appreciate the incredible accuracy of Mr. Haines modelling.
I'm happy to report the Raton Historical Museum has now accepted our donation of the railroad and will make it a portion of their transportation exhibit.
The following images show a bit of our February 2016 trip to Raton to transport the railroad to the museum. They expect to have it ready for display by November of this year.
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| The sun was such that it illuminated the insulators on a segment of power poles making them appear to be illuminated |
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| Heading into Raton |
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| New home for the layout |
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| These are the new caretakers of the model railroad and will incorporate it into their transportation history display |
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| Getting ready to leave for the trip home |
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| They have 170 wind generators out on the plains - pretty impressive |
Very cool! I'm so happy you found a good home for the layout where it will be appreciated and displayed for others. It's really a beautiful layout. The wind turbines are quite the sight.
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