Why Did I Choose to Model the Northwestern Pacific Railroad?

I attended college at Sonoma State University from August of 1993 to May of 1997. I enjoyed the years I spent living in Sonoma County and at times, I wish I lived there still. The scenery was beautiful with rolling hills, open fields of grass, and grape vineyards as far as one could see.



Occasionally while driving around Rohnert Park and Cotati, I would be stopped by a NWP freight train lead by one or two locomotives painted in a modified SP "Black Widow" paint scheme. When I went to Santa Rosa to go to the mall or eat at Chevy's, I would park a few blocks from the old Santa Rosa passenger station. Of course, I would sometimes see NWP freight trains pass by the station when I was in the area. When I worked in Petaluma, I had to drive over the NWP tracks to get to and from work. I also saw a NWP locomotive parked near the historic Petaluma station numerous times. I spent a lot of time my Senior year of college chasing NWP freight trains to watch them go by and to take photographs of them from time to time too.

The idea to actually build an HO layout depicting the NWP came when I purchased a set of Microscale NWP locomotive decals from a small hobby shop located in Petaluma. Within about six months, I bought a customized Athearn GP-9, boxcar and caboose all decaled and lettered for the NWP when my father and I attended a weekend train show that was located in Pleasanton, California. A few years later, I purchased a special run 2-Pack of Athearn locomotives painted for the NWP.

All of these items have been in boxes along with other model railroad items I have purchased over the years for when I finally got around to building my own HO layout.

Well, it looks as if my procrastination is over and the challenge is just beginning. Perhaps, I will do the NWP some justice and maybe my layout will be featured in the pages of Model Railroader magazine someday.