February Clinic – February 17, 2025
Civil War Railroads
Wally Weart Biography
Wally grew up in Chicago and after college, spent his career in various aspects of Supply Chain Management. Starting in 1992, he moved to Denver and various career moves took them to Virginia and Canada. He returned to Denver in 2007 and during 2009, he became involved saving the .04, the last interurban streetcar to operate in Denver, which will be the subject of a later clinic when the car is released by Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Wally Weart will present his clinic on Civil War Railroads. From the beginning of the Civil War at the battle of Bull Run in 1861 through to the surrender of Lee’s army at Appomattox, railroads were a prominent factor throughout. Early reinforcements at Bull Run allowed the Confederates a victory while the destruction of a supply train at Appomattox Station causes Lee to rethink his strategy. Railroads were central to the War efforts. We’ll not only look at the role of railroads in the War but also the technology of the day.
March Clinic – March 17, 2025
Deep in the Freight Yard
Scott Ogle Biography
Scott was born in Seattle, Washington, where his love of trains began riding the Great Northern’s Empire Builder & the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited to visit grandparents living in Spokane.
The son of a corporate nomad, Scott lived in Seattle, Phoenix AZ, Bellevue WA, & Marin County CA before graduating from high school in Honolulu.
Several HO railroads were started but left behind in those years. Faced with the choice of Vietnam or college, Scott did his research carefully. He noted that his favorite activity, skiing was not available in either the ‘Nam or Hawaii, but the University of Colorado offered white powder, red tile roofs, and a reputation as a party school. Guessing they probably had classes too, Scott moved to Boulder in 1967 to attend CU, majoring in Broadcasting.
After (miraculously) being graduated from college, Scott worked his way around various Colorado TV stations, shooting commercials, documentaries, and local news for KKTV, KMGH, KUSA, and KCNC, eventually becoming the Boulder correspondent for NewsCenter4. After a few years, Scott quit local TV to become a freelancer, traveling the world working for pretty much every broadcast & cable network that identifies itself with 3 or 4 capital letters. Although Scott covered many major news events, he specialized in sports; producing, directing, and shooting everything from World Cup Skiing, through the Olympic Games, Ironman World Championships, Le Tour de France, and 10 years of being the embedded NFL Network crew covering the Denver Broncos including their 2015 & 2016 Super Bowl seasons.
Angela, Scott’s wife of 33 years passed away in 2008. After five years, Scott decided their home in Boulder had too many ghosts to remain living there and moved to a 55+ community in Broomfield in 2013. The new home came with a huge walkout basement that Scott decided was too nice to just store stuff and really needed a model railroad to reach its full potential. So, after Scott retired in 2017, he started building “The Snoqualmie Branch”, inspired by a real-life Northern Pacific branch line that went near Scott’s childhood home in Washington State.
For the March clinic, Scott Ogle will do a deep dive on freight yards. Not all yards are created equal, and Scott has spent way too much time figuring out what kind of yard would fit best into his Snoqualmie Branch HO Railroad. He studied prototype theory and practice in his constant attempt to maintain historical accuracy. He dealt with the compromises necessary when building a 1/87th size railroad in the confines of a basement. At the time of this writing, he is finishing his take on Seattle’s Interbay yard and looks forward to sharing it with you.
Clinic On Hold – Waiting on Date
History of the Denver Tramway Streetcar .04
Wally Weart will present the above-mentioned Clinic. This was the last streetcar to operate in revenue in Denver, and it had several narrow escapes during its life. One of its escapes was the conversion from standard gauge to a narrow-gauge electric streetcar. Wally will add some history of the Denver Tramway network along with some additional pictures he has accumulated. Wally is a long-time member of the Front Range Division and the NMRA.
