Trains.com Video is undergoing maintenance. During this time, you may be unable to access some videos while we work to update your user experience. However, you will still be able to access all the other great content you love on Trains.com!
| Last updated on December 2, 2020
We truly apologize for the absence of this video while the site is under construction. Please email videorequests@firecrown.com to relay a specific video you would like us to prioritize or push the notify button for the video on this page below.
Members enjoy 15% off any purchase in our store. Join Today!
Model Railroader 2025 Calendar
Be inspired all year long with Model Railroader’s all-new 2025 calendar!
Excellent Job!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great scenery and rolling stock, but limited operational track plan.
The scenery, foliage and buildings are among the best I have seen. The slow speed of operation is very realistic and a pleasure to watch. Excellent!
Just terrific modeling. I also am working on a small On30 layout and only hope I can capture similar scenes and overall quality!
Does anyone remember that cartoon in the back of MR…perhaps a decade ago, about a fellow showing off the "First G-Scale coffee table Layout?" Wrong scale, byt the memory brought me a smile! Lou has taken to On30 like a duck to water! 😀
excellent modeling,this shows the advantage of the larger scales
What a delight to find Lou Sassi's beautifully detailed model layout of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad! My maternal great grandfather, Waldo A. Rich Sr, built the northern-most section of that narrow-guage railroad, i.e. the 28-mile section from Phillips to Rangeley, which operated as the Phillips and Rangeley Railroad (1891-1908) until it was acquired by the Sandy River Railroad. The Philips and Rangeley Railroad is credited with opening-up the Rangeley Lakes region to out-of-state outdoorsmen. Waldo Rich owned the Redington Lumber Company (near Rangeley) and needed a means for transporting his lumber to Portland ME and other urban markets. He was a collaborator with Cornelia "Fly Rod Crosby", the legendary and colorful Maine outdoorswoman who marketed the wonders of western Maine (and the Phillips and Rangeley RR) at large trade shows for outdoorsmen (and wealthy "swags") in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in the last decade of the 19th century. As a reward for her pioneering efforts in bringing out-of-state interest to western Maine, Fly Rod Crosby was granted the first Maine Guide license by the Maine state legislature in 1897. Fly Rod Crosby was apparently mentored by my great-great grandfather, Joshua Gross Rich (1820-1897), a pioneering western Maine outdoorsman whose book ("The Life and Work of a Western Maine Pioneer and Wildlife Writer") is still available via Amazon.com and from the U. of Maine press.
Much of this history is captured in a Wikipedia article about the Phillips and Rangeley Railroad, which pioneered the use of full-size rolling stock on 2-foot narrow-guage track. There are also numerous Web postings about Fly Rod Crosby and Joshua Gross Rich.
Thanks again to Lou Sassi, and best wishes to all sentimental historians of local/regional railroads of yesteryear.
Nat Brown
Moraga, CA
Amazing Layout Lou! The Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad is one of all time favorites! I hope that model railroader will post the track plan of this layout for non-subscribers to view too, for I am not a subscriber. I just bought magazines in a local book store for 22 up to 110 pesos.
Very nice On30 layout.
I think it is a work of art! Well done
Excellant layout Lou, very well detailed. I am O scale and very impressed.
The layout was excellent, but the fact that the locomotive chuffs were not synchronized with the driver quartering was very distracting for me. There were about three chuffs for every rotation of the drivers when there should have been four.
Narrow gauge RRs, real and model, have always been one of my top interests. Lou has a truly fantastic layout.
Beautiful layout and the details are so impressive. My hat's off to you for such stellar work — and I'm sure it took a lot of work to make it look as good as it does. Thanks for sharing the video with us.
I loved riding the rails on this layout video. Especially enjoyed the slow change in seasons, picking up on the subtle patches of ice on the ground. Loved detail given to model-T era vehicles at trackside, too.
Beautiful modeling shown off with a well-staged & shot video. The only thing missing is "MOAR !"…Thanks, Lou !
I was a little sad to learn that you tore down your amazing ho layout, but life goes on. Glad to see you came roaring back with a different scale. Good for you! And thank you for sharing your modeling efforts. This is simply an amazing layout. Enjoy your retirement.
Bill here in very cold north jersey
Ian Maynard, Toronto, Ontario.
Excellent video! EVERYTHING looks excellent! Love the scenery! Congratulations on a really SUPERB operating layout! Don't know how you guys continually succeed in creating such superb layouts, this one is perhaps the best!
Thankyou.
Ian
Lou Sassi did an excellent job, very realistic. Thans for sharing!
This a great layout and a terrific video. Not too short, not too long. It leaves you wanting to see even more. I for one never noticed the heights of the couplers. My own On2 1/2 trains couple just fine with their existing couplers, so I would not be tempted to change. Those Bachman trains are super real. Their superb sound fidelity always leaves me with a craving to see smoke blasting out of those locomotive stacks. Actually, the sound is so good that I can almost imagine smoke pouring out of the stacks.
Lest you consider me not a "rivet counter", I do have one suggestion which is that the Texaco sign along the right of way should read "…Trust your car to the man WHO wears the star,"not, "…THAT wears a star." By the way, that slogan was coined in 1962 – Texaco introduced the “You Can Trust Your Car To The Man Who Wears The Star” campaign. Both Fire Chief and Sky Chief gasolines were promoted as “Climate Controlled” since various blends of both gasolines were distributed to Texaco stations in various parts of the country.
Please keep on trackin', Lou, and thank you for the video. –Tom
Incredible. The time-era seems about ruight and the structures are superb. As an S scale modeler, the charm of the size is very tempting…
I expected it to be a good layout based on Lou's reputation and the photos I'd seen…but I wasn't prepared for it to be that good! Lou's SR&RL really, really looks like Maine scenically. Can't wait to see the feature in MRP 2015.
Absolutly fantastic layout-as an On30 guy modeling the WW&F RY in his basement, you have me wanting to rip out the whole works and start over again. I'm so glad Model Railroader is starting to include stories about my much beloved end of this hobby. I love the fact that while I'll never have the room to build a representation of a 50+ coal car drag on the Reading Railroad or a 50+ boxcar consist on the Pennsylvania Railroad, I can surely run a realistic 5 freight cars and a combine pulled by a wonderful little Forney just like they did on the Maine 2-Footers. Lou is an inspiration to all of us in this "little" world, and the reason I ordered my copy of the new 2015 planning issue last weeek. John J. Tumolo, III Pricetown, PA
Irony is that "proper" coupler height for Maine two foot On2 is lower than HO KD height commonly used in RTR On30. KD type HO couplers are almost dead on size wise for 1/48 scale Maine couplers.
Lou's layout is a good one that checks off a lot of model railroading boxes. He has used his available space well. Unlike may On30 modelers he used larger radius curves that make the O scale equipment look good.
Bill Uffelman
Ocean View DE
Beautiful, amazing scenery, love that the train was running slow, not "full speed ahead". But, as amazing as the layout is, that was one boring video.