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History of the Shasta Garden Railway Society
The history of S.G.R.S. begins back in 1996/97. Larry Wilkes. and Dan Markham, lived next door to each other. (You know the
old 5' property line thing) Larry was into LGB he brought back from Germany (military) and Dan was starting with Bachmann
sets around the Christmas Tree, see this already sounds like a cheap paperback novel. Neither Dan or Larry new about the others
interest in G Scale.
Enter neighbor Rick from across the street who clued Dan and Larry in. Then Duane Wainwright, who is into horseless carriages
met Larry who had a classic Ford pick-up. But it gets more complicated. Duane had just moved to Redding from Reno and he brought
with him his outdoor layout and was setting it up.
Mel Nethery, found Dan's name in letters to the editor section of Outdoor Railroad Magazine (now Finescale Railroader) where
Dan had sent in some photos of his creations. Mel contacted Dan and told him about his indoor layout in Millville, Ca. See
it just keeps getting better.
New friendships kept growing. Larry heard about a swap meet and train show at the North Valley Train Show in Anderson, Ca.
and we were invited to set up a " G" Scale display. We set up a practice layout on Dan's patio (it was about the size of the
stage at the Catholic Church were the meet was to be held) We wanted to be sure that what we had would fit on the stage and
we would have enough stuff to make a good showing . It did and people came out of the wood work to get together and soon S.G.R.S.
was born.
The club was organized Feb. 1998. Our first meeting was March 27,1998 at Angelo's Pizza. From then we met once a month to
share ideas, projects and of course eat. Now most of our meetings take place at individual members homes. There are lots of
great layouts both indoors and outdoors and it just keeps growing.
When we have a work day on our 15' x 18' module, the ladies auxiliary goes out to lunch, and they have a good time. The whole
group has a great time together. Many of the members are master modelers; this is a group of very talented people. It keeps
everyone challenged to try new projects and or just appreciate what is being done.
Information courtesy of Dan Markham
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