Primary Focus: Our notorious leader, the driving force behind the layouts and museum, the man with the vision. Master at scenery , trees….lots and lots of trees, buildings…most scratch built, rocks that turn into mountains, did we mention trees?

Steve Palmer is a Colorado native growing up in the northern part of the state. As a child he would watch the Great Western Railway (GWR) EMD SW engines work the strings of sugar beet cars, tank cars, air slide hoppers, and coal cars, for the sugar factories of the parent company, Great Western Sugar Co. Going to work with his dad at the factories, Steve would watch those little switchers and the steam powered dinky engines work the yards of beet cars. When Steve's dad got transferred to Chicago they lived across the street from the CB&Q mainline going into downtown.

Steve has been associated with the Denver, Greeley and Tahoe Railway for over a decade and is a major contributor to the model railroad programs for both layouts. Dave Trussell has been know to give Steve "special assignments" like painting over 200 HO scale seagulls-Good Times! Steve is on the Board of Directors for the Museum.

Steve would like to say that he feels honored and privileged to be working on this great project, with some of the best model railroaders to make Dave's dream come true, this will be one of the best model railroads in the country.

Don was a native of Maryland when his father took him on outings to watch the end of steam and passenger service on the Western Maryland Railway, starting a lifelong interest in railroading.

At 16 years of age a trip to Colorado on the Union Pacific and sightseeing the Royal Gorge started a desire to move to this wonderful state.

A long career as an engineer on high horsepower steam powered merchant ships ended in 1998 and Don was able to spend more time model railroading. He began volunteering on the Layout Advisors Committee after the September 2004 Northern Colorado Model Railroad Club meeting at the museum.

His major projects were track bus wiring and installing the steam humidifier to control the climate in the museum.

Don also helps with the Denver, Greeley & Tahoe layout when possible and operates on several model railroads in the area.

Darrel is a native of Greeley, Colorado. Darrel grew up in Ault, Eaton, Greeley, and Evans. Darrel's family often explored Colorado on short summer trips and a family trip to Durango ignited an interest in steam era trains.

Darrel's first train was Lionel set on a table in the basement. The purchase of a book on the Colorado Midland Railroad hooked him on the Colorado Midland. The CM is the railroad that he models.

An attempt to build a transistor throttle circuit following a model magazine article led to an interest electronics for Darrel. The throttle did not work so he enrolled in a Basic Electronics class in college to try to find out what went wrong. That started an electronics career that included Army radar technician, electronics technician and Test Engineer. He never did fix that transistor throttle - he found a better way. Due to this interest in what makes thing go, Darrel will more likely be found under the layout rather than running it.

Although Darrel models in HO scale, he loves to go way beyond rivet counting. For finely detailed modeling, Proto48 is his preferred scale. Proto48 is ¼" to 1' scale (same as O scale) but built to fine scale standards including scale wheels and a track gage of 4' 8½" instead of the typical O scale track gage of 5' 0".

Darrel has worked on much of the wiring and electronics on the OC&E including the design of several circuits that are used. He has also drawn up a scale plan of the OC&E using 3rd PlanIt CAD software.

Rick's interest in railroads started with ghost town trips when he was growing up in Colorado. He and his brother Jim, helped Dad in building a ride-on gravity railroad at the family cabins near Estes Park. Rick has built many HO scale layouts over the years and continues to work on his 1908 era Colorado Midland/Denver & Rio Grande empire that completely fills his basement.

While working for the National Park Service he has developed a keen eye for natural landscapes and pristine rivers. He brings with him many skills and abilities that contribute to the GFSM and its world class model railroad. Plus, sleeping in the bunk of C&S 10583 certainly adds to his qualifications.

Started volunteering on the DGT HO Module Layout 1997.

Some of the shows attended include:

• Great American Train Show (GATS) in Denver, CO (Feb 2000, Feb 2001, Feb 2003, Jan 2004)
• 1998 July NMRA Nationals in Kansas City
• 1999 Sept GATS in North Platte, NE
• 2000 July NMRA Nationals in San Jose, CA
• 2004 July NMRA Nationals in Seattle, WA
• 2004 Feb World's Greatest Hobby in Denver, CO

Primary Focus: wiring, problem solving, general maintenance, some scenery