by Bob Brown/photos as noted
Early Days
The first issue of The Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette was published in March 1975. But the story of the GAZETTE goes back some 15 years before that.
In the late 1950s I was part of a group of narrow gaugers who met every fourth Friday at Cliff Grandt’s home in Oakland, Calif. The late Lee Klaus was part of the group, and we became friends. Lee ran a small company called Valley Car Works and sold parts, plans, and kits. I remember a neat little On2 Gilpin Tram caboose kit I converted to On3 and am still running on my layout. Lee was trying to build the perfect On3 Southern Pacific narrow gauge boxcar and had cut scale wood, cast cerro bend hardware, and made four brass Thielson truck side frames. But when he tried to add the On3 wheels they would not fit. They were too oversize. So, Lee being Lee, turned eight scale wheels and added them to his boxcar.
Lee and Cliff were members of the East Bay Society of Model Engineers in Oakland, and had been part of a group who had built a large On3 layout there. We all thought Lee’s fine scale wheels would not stay on the track, but they did, so Lee and Cliff worked up a set of standards and Al Henning in Elgin, Ill., began making wheels to be sold by Valley Car Works. But the fine scale wheels fell into the flangeways of the dual gauge O gauge track, so Lee and Cliff had Al make standard gauge fine scale wheels and gauged them to correct ¼-inch scale, 4-feet, 8½-inches. They called their new wheels ¼AAR fine scale. I believe these standards are now called Proto48.
ABOVE: This is what caused it all. The ¼AAR fine scale wheels are in the left hand truck while the right hand truck has the O scale wheels. My desire was to encourage more modelers to try the fine scale wheels so I could get more parts, prompted me to start Finelines.
That’s when I got involved. I had been reading Richard Wagner’s Trolley Talk and thought a similar little magazine about ¼AAR fine scale would bring more modelers into fine scale and more manufacturers would make more parts that I could use in my modeling.
I was teaching at an elementary school at the time and typed a four-page newsletter I titled Finelines onto ditto masters and ran off 90 copies on the school ditto machine. If you are the right age, you will remember the purple ditto (mimeograph) worksheets you had in school that smelled so sweet. Irene and I stapled them together and mailed them out in April 1964 using Lee’s customer list with the promise of three more issues if everyone sent in a dollar.
The dollars came in and I had to ditto 100 more copies of the first issue. Irene and I had moved so the first printing has a Ramona Rd. address and the second a Campbell Ave. address. I just rubber stamped the second issue.
The second, or September 1964 issue, was loose leaf and printed by Lee as promotion for Valley Car Works. It had a photo on the cover of Bill Coffey’s engine house. May 1966 was also printed loose leaf.
ABOVE: The last issue of Finelines and the Slim Gauge News with the first issue of the GAZETTE.
Changes
The September 1965 issue (you can see we were not six times a year yet) changed everything. The Kemtron Corp. asked if they could have Al Armitage do an all Shay issue to be given away as a promotion for their new On3 Shay kit and to promote Finelines at the 1965 NMRA Convention in Vancouver, B.C. I said yes, and Al produced a really professional looking magazine. My following January 1966 issue had the same amateur look of the previous issues, and several readers asked me if Al could take over. I said no, and Al being the gentleman he was gave me his layout boards for the cover. I used them until Finelines merged into the GAZETTE. His cover design really gave Finelines a professional look. I used Al’s boards on the May 1966 issue and Finelines took off with issues every two months with special topic issues, and plans and how-to-do-it articles. I even had an index at the end of each volume.
In 1972, I was approached by a local railfan and printer named Charles Givens. He thought he could improve the magazine, and he really did with better paper and printing. He even produced our first color cover. He continued printing Finelines until the merger.
Around 1970 the Slim Gauge News appeared on the market. This excellent magazine was firm competition to Finelines, and I was impressed. It was put together by a large group under the editorship of Jerry Hoffer. A complementary copy was sent out in November 1970, followed by one year of bi-monthly issues and then three years (I think) of quarterly issues until their last issue in Winter of 1972. That would be 18 issues, not counting the complimentary debut issue.
ABOVE: Here are the founders of the GAZETTE at our first outing at the NMRA National Convention in Dayton, Ohio, in 1975. Right to left are Gordon Cannon, Art Director; Bob Brown, Editor; Jerry Hoffer, Rocky Mountain Editor; and Charles Givens, Publisher.
As an all-volunteer effort it had become too difficult to put out the magazine, so they decided to stop. Charles began talking about buying Slim Gauge News and I wanted it to go away. So, I suggested we merge the two magazines into a new publication. Charles and his wife, Nancy, and I flew to Denver to talk to the SGN folks. I suggested the title “Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette.” We decided that Jerry Hoffer would be the Rocky Mountain editor, I would be overall editor, and Charles would be the publisher. We hired Gordon Cannon (see November/December 2024 GAZETTE) as art director. However, Gordy was not the most patient of men and could be abrupt, so Jerry left. A little while later, Gordy left because we could not pay him enough. So, I was editor, Charles was publisher and art director and we had hired Suzanne Olson as our office manager. When we were organizing, Charlie Getz came by to see my layout and I asked him to do a column and he said yes. He missed the second issue, but has been in all the remaining issues with the “Narrow Gauge Scene.” Charles Givens also wrote a popular column called “Straight Talk About Bent Pipes.”
More Changes
It soon became obvious that the GAZETTE was having trouble financially, so I asked Charlie Getz, who was a lawyer, to negotiate Irene and I taking over the magazine including all debts. Irene and I sat down and reorganized by downsizing the offi ce and raising the price to a whopping $2.25. I wrote an editorial titled, “Biting the Bullet” and promised a 72-page magazine six times a year and readers, advertisers and authors stayed with us. We hired Tech Media in Palo Alto to produce the magazine. Their designer was a young Sharon Olsen. The firm closed down and Sharon set up her own business called Just SO Graphic Design and took over the design and layout of the magazine. She is still at it making the GAZETTE beautiful over 40 years later.
The first issue under our management was January/February 1978, and included Dick Andrews, Paul Scoles, Al Armitage, Gordon North, Dick Christ, Gene Deimling, George Konrad, Charles Givens, Harry Brunk, Charlie Getz, and Tim Hoermann. For years, Gene Deimling edited the Gallery until we had trouble getting photos.
ABOVE: Here is an exuberant (as always) GAZETTE Art Director, Sharon Olsen, back in the days when she used a T-square to paste down strips of text over a light table to make GAZETTE’s camera-ready art.
Then our office manager, Suzanne, left to get married, and Irene sat in for her as office manager. Irene had received her PhD from Stanford and had been teaching biology there, but wanted a change from the academic world. Right after we were married in 1955, Irene got a job with the University of California’s Lawrence Radiation Laboratory directing a lab studying the Van Allen radiation belt that encompasses the earth outside its atmosphere. Seems NASA did not want astronauts shot through an unknown radiation belt. While at the lab, Irene programed early computers. She quickly saw that the GAZETTE could be run on a computer, so we went shopping. We finally bought a computer the size of an executive desk with a storage disc the size of a garbage can lid. It was called Adam and cost more than our house had. Irene programed Adam and used him to manage the magazine until we sold the GAZETTE in 2016, about 38 years later. I could not have done it without her since I was still teaching, and she ran everything.
Benchmark Publications
We added an office with layout room above to our home in 1980-81 and Irene’s commute was cut to about 12 feet, and I got a great layout room. Then we incorporated as Benchmark Publications with the GAZETTE and our books. I retired from teaching in 1996 to devote full time to the magazine.
During the 1990s and 2000s we published eight hard cover books and an index. Bob Hayden of Hayden Consulting worked up the John Allen book. He had edited it for Kalmbach, and they gave us the rights to produce a hard bound copy with additional pages. He also supervised the reissue of Malcom Furlow’s “HO Narrow Gauge Railroad You Can Build” from Kalmbach featuring additional pages. He also organized a selection of Dick Andrews GAZETTE columns into a book titled “Extra Narrow Gauge Junction,” arranged Volume 2 of “More Up Clear Creek” and did all the work on the CD and USB Flash Drive indexes of the first 50-year collection of Finelines, Slim Gauge News, and the GAZETTE. He still sells our remaining books and indexes. My thanks to him! Oh, and he also wrote several valuable articles for the GAZETTE, and one way back in the May 1969 Finelines.
ABOVE: Here is my late wife Irene and I posing on my garden railway. Irene had made a beautiful butterfly garden down our side yard, and I added a railway. Irene always maintained lots of host plants to attract butterflies. My friends and I tried to maintain the plants after her passing, but the butterflies would not come. Wonder who told them she was gone?
A Wonderful Heritage
I have been fortunate to have some of the best modelers and historians in the hobby write for the GAZETTE. Let me mention some authors that are no longer with us. Dick Andrews wrote a column for Railroad Model Craftsman for years titled “The Narrow Gauge Junction.” His article on Wiscasset inspired me to build my On2 model of that scene. When he came to the GAZETTE, he changed his title to “The Extra Narrow Gauge Junction” and was on his way.
Al Armitage wrote over a hundred articles with plans in his “Model Makers Notebook” series. His articles and plans on vintage trucks are still valuable as are his Barnhart Loader plans. Gordon North wrote about his On30 Denver & Western layout way before On30 was popular. Paul Scoles started with a series on coniferous trees and added many scenery and layout articles about his marvelous Sn3 layout. He also had more covers than anyone else.
Harry Brunk was part of the SGN group and started in the GAZETTE with plans for the “No Name Mine” and went onto his series “Up Clear Creek on the Narrow Gauge” chronicling his HOn3 Union Central & Northern layout depicting the Colorado & Southern’s line up Clear Creek from Golden to Silver Plume. His series took two volumes to reprint in book form. Harry’s layout has been preserved and is on display at the Depot Museum in Cheyenne, Wyo.
My good friend, Jim Vail, wrote hundreds of articles about his HO/HOn3 layout. I asked him to tell readers how he got it to run so well, and he did. The lore and wisdom in his long running series would make a great how-to-do-it book. He started with a coupler height gauge and told us how to solder lengths of flex track together so it would flow better when laid down, and much more. His “how to paint a brass locomotive” series ran well over a year. Hope it didn’t scare anyone off.
Mallory Hope Ferrell wrote many, many prototype and model articles for the GAZETTE. He never built a layout, but did some very nice models. When Bachmann came out with their line of On30 models, I asked Mal to do a series on U.S. 30-inch gauge railroads. Twenty-one articles later he ran out of railroads. Don’t tell me we didn’t have 30-inch gauge railroads in the U.S.!
Boone Morrison informed readers with some 80+ articles titled “Route to the Redwoods.” His first articles were about his HOn3 layout, but he soon changed to On3 and started all over again. His O scale model of Occidental, Calif., is on display at the NMRA “Magic of Scale Model Railroad Exhibit” at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, Calif.
As to those authors still with us, long-time readers will remember Lane Stewart’s wonderfully quirky small layouts and his hand powered carousel and abandoned church with peeling linoleum. Mic Greenberg and Gary Nash wrote many articles on weathering, graining, and splitting wood. We called them “Rusty” and “Dusty” and their techniques are still being used.
And yes, we are read overseas. French modelers Alexander Zelkin, Gilbert Gribi, and Bernard Junk have sent several articles and look at Shoji Sakamoto’s beautiful On3 layout in the November/December 2024 issue. Pioneer British modeler P.D. Hancock even wrote for the GAZETTE. And remember the two series by Australian modelers describing building the Red Stag Lumber Co., and Smuggler’s Cove. Smugglers Cove is also at the Magic of Scale Models Railroad Exhibit in Sacramento. More recently British modeler William Longley Cook has been describing his On30 garden railway. What a neat idea.
One of the great benefits of the GAZETTE is its plans. Gary Caviglia came on board in the November/December 1978 issue with his mostly western rail-road plans. David Fletcher has provided his beautiful locomotive drawings for years, Herman Darr opened his collection several years ago and Robert Stears has been filling our center spreads. We lost Neil Pfafman in August 2024, but will always have his detailed plans of the buildings in Bodie, Calif.
I can’t mention all of the authors, or shall I say craftsmen, who have shared their ideas in the pages of the GAZETTE. But I am thankful the material just keeps coming in. Without this input there would be no GAZETTE. Here are a few that are with us today: Craig Symington, MMR, is showing how he is building his HOn3 Rio Grande Southern layout, and Steve Harris who is doing his HOn3 version of that popular railroad. Gregg Condon, MMR, continues to show how to make modeling easier. Johnny Greybeal made sure we knew all about the locomotives of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, and Rob Bell has done the same with his 19 articles on White Pass & Yukon Route motive power. Sam Swanson has been writing for us for years and did an amazing 13 articles on his HOn30 Windes module. Where does the time go? And of course, Charlie Getz has been sharing his thoughts on narrow gauge modeling and reviewing models since the beginning.
However, there were, are, so many I know I have left someone out, but you know what you have contributed. Here are some more names to remember, some still with us, some not. Irv Schultz with his series on Billboard Cars, John Olson, Malcolm Furlow, John Maxwell, Bill Clouser, Dan Windolph, Bob Sloan, Dave Adams, Mike Blazek, Wayne Wesolowski, Tom Yorke, Mary and Bill Miller, Ed Bond and so many more; time to stop.
When Irene and I entered our 80s we realized that if something happened to one of us, the other might not want to or be able to carry on the magazine. So, when Kevin and Nadean EuDaly of White River Productions offered to buy the GAZETTE we took notice, and when they offered to keep Sharon and I on as a paid Art Director and Editor we jumped at the chance. The sale got Irene out from under the work of running the business so she could enjoy her butterflies. She is considered to have been a significant butterfly scientist at Stanford University and an Irene Brown Fund has been established to help young women PhD candidates obtain their degrees. So, in 2016 WRP took over. It was a wise move, and we are pleased with how things are going. The magazine is ensured of a future, and I hope to see it grow.
I am proud of the GAZETTE. It is a wonderful compilation of plans, articles, and inspiration; and connects the narrow gauge world into a fellowship of fine modelers. With all your help I am pleased to have been a part of it.
