The Beginning
As long as I can remember I liked trains and as child it was always a highlight for me when we took the train instead of the car. And I think my love for Narrow Gauge in the mountains goes back to my early days too: in the holidays we were each year in the Engadin (very wellknown area in the Swiss mountains) where I felt in love in the RhB (Rhaetic Railway, a Swiss NG railroad), a love that is still alive till today (next to Sn3 I model too the RhB in n gauge). The cause of my fascination for the US railroads are I think the Karl May and Western movies/books I saw/readed as teenager, and cause I always was interested in history I developped a deep interest in the "Wild West" and how it really was.
My start into model railroading was like usual at that time with a H0 starting set under the christmas tree. And fastly it became my favorite hobby, more locomotives (Swiss and German) and cars were on the top of the christmas wishlist in the following years and when a little older I invested my pocket money for more tracks and other similar things.
I always dreamed of a layout but didn't have the space so in the later teen-age years I sold all my H0 stuff and invested the proceeds in Märklin Z scale. Unfortunately cause of graduation at school and the following military service and studying I had no more time for my model railroad and so put it aside for the next 15 years without ever starting a layout.
Back to the hobby
I finally came back to model railroading after getting married and becoming father. At the place we lived then I had a room in the cellar and cause I wasn't really happy with z scale I changed back to H0. And cause I did this time several steam excursions I decided to focus on Swiss steam. But cause we moved one year later I just had a temporary layout there. And at the house we moved to I had no more space inside.
Going outside
The new house had a garden and so the idea was growing on me to go with my model railroad outside. And to fullfill this time my dream of a US layout.
After convincing my wife I bought a Bachmann Denver & Rio Grande starting set, and later a Aristocraft Santa Fe Mikado and a LGB Denver & Rio Grande Mogul. A really wild mix between narrow and standard gauge, but at this beginning my knowlegde of US railways was small and I just bought what I liked.
After some planning I started 2007 building in the garden with a loop around a small pond and a little station. Unfortunately an accident stopped me. And the next years the project was on hold cause I was then very engaged in music with organising a festival and concerts and next to family so few time remained for other things. Besides I wasn't really happy with my plans and changed them several times and remarked more and more that I couldn't build in the garden what I really intended to do. Next I relized that although I like gardening I'm more the indoor model railroader.
Discovering Colorado NG
During this time I readed a lot of garden railway magazines and books and so I got a growing interest in Denver & Rio Grande NG and logging and I became more and more aware that I wanted to continue in this direction (when started my garden railroad I was thinking more about a Santa Fe standard gauge layout). And then Bachmann released the K-27, an engine I felt I love with. Unfortunately I hadn't the budget to buy one then, but at least then it was clear that I want to model the D&RGW.
Going indoors again
During the whole time I still had plans for doing something inside with my H0 stuff. Later when we rented an external storage room I had the idea to use this room too for a small layout. So I had different plans of a Swiss Ho or a combined Ho and Hom layout. And later when I got more and more into NG just a Hom layout of the rhaetic railroad.
In 2013/2014 I decided two important things: to end after ten years my voluntary engagement in the music industry to have more time for other hobbies. And to stop and sell my garden railroad and definitively go back indoors. So I just had to decide which way to go: US or Swiss NG, D&RGW or RhB.
Well, cause of my growing interest in Colorado NG and cause the real RhB is near enough to visit regularely I decided to primarely focus on the first, and later build a small RhB layout (or just a diorama) for my office. So there was the decision which scale to use, for the D&RGW the first idea was H0n3, for the second I choosed n scale cause space is limited in my office. But that's another story.
Changing to the dark side
The following time I studied the D&RGW to see what I want to build. And started checking alternatives to H0n3 cause I prefered it a little bigger with more details. First I took a closer look at On30/On3, but then discovered somewhere Sn3. And thought, wow, that's the perfect scale, bigger than H0, but not as big as O. And against the reason and advices from other modelers ("It's stupid to go that way, too expensive, nothing available here and very little other who model that in Europe") I was more and more fascinated by the idea to use this scale. And after I got to know some other Sn3 railroader here in Europa that were very helpful in asking all my questions I decided to go this way. So welcome to the dark side, how Sn3 people tend to say.
From the first drafts to the Rio Grande Southern
Well, soon after that decision for Sn3 I started planning and had the first drafts ready some time later, a fictional D&RGW layout loosly based on Durango and Silverton (although I named the stations Deadwood and Silverado) with an additional logging part. I then presented these drafts at the Sn3 mailing list with different feedback, from "great start" till "you can't do it that way" for several reason. Well, most of the feedback was very helpful. And then one member asked me: "if you want to combine logging and Colorado NG, why not take a look at Dolores and the Rio Grande Southern?".
Knowing nearly nothing about the RGS I started a research about it and soon fell in love with it. So I restarted planing. And had in the autumn of 2016 a layout plan I was happy with, although without Dolores cause of the lack of space but with Durango, Vance Junction, Stoner, Ophir and a not prototypical logging extension. Unfortunately soon later I had to leave the first room (cause the landlord sold the house) and this plan become history before started.
RGS and McPhee V1
Fortunately I found a new room, a lot bigger which meant a lot of new possibilities. So I restarted planning and had in the end a nice layout draft where I could include a lot of my favourite places on the RGS: Durango, Dolores with the McPhee extension, Highline, Ophir, Butterfly and Vance Junction. So at the end of 2017 I finally started with the benchwork for Dolores and later for the whole line till Ames including the highline and Ophir.
Unfortunately I hadn't a lot of time the months to follow and when I wanted to start laying the first tracks in Dolores in autumn 2018 I got the cancellation of the rental contract of my room cause of the change of the operator of the retirement home where my room was.
RGS and McPhee V2
So the search for a new room started again and I finally found the one: unfortunately smaller and more expensive, but finding an affordable and suitable room in Switzerland isn't easy. Cause I didn't find a track plan that included all places I wanted to have, I decided to build a double deck layout now. Next I decided to build this time modular, so that if I can take all with me if I have to move again and don't have to start from the beginning.
Well, after moving everything and building the first part of the benchwork, I started in spring 2019 with the first four modules for the highline between Matterhorn and Ophir. After I stopped more or less working on the layout, mainly cause summer is gardening season, but too cause I began to doubt if the double deck layout was really the right decision. The main reason was that the available height for the two decks were too little for my taste (especially for a mountain railroad like the RGS), besides everything is more complicate with two decks (especially on an peninsula). So I started to try dozens of new ideas for a single deck version, but none of them was satisfactory, and at the end I decided to go on with the two decks. But then I got an offer for a new room, a lot bigger and cheaper than the current room. And although I hated to move again I decided to take this opportunity and move on to this new room.
RGS and McPhee V3
At the end of November 2019 I signed the contract and started to develop the new track plan, tacking over big parts of the old one (especially the highline and Ophir). Although I always wanted to have Durango on my layout (cause of the engine yard and to be able to run the big K's) and already have all important structures as kits or already built-up, I took at the end the (for me) hard decision to leave it away for having more space for Dolores and McPhee. So the current layout plan see the light of day. At so the begin of 2020, next to moving the start of the construction of the benchwork in the new room begun.