The visit to Marty McGuirk’s by a large number of guests was both a happy occasion and also a sad one. Sad because we learned that this was the last time we would be seeing the beautiful Central Vermont Railway Roxbury Subdivision for operations and visitation of this superbly done model railroad. Marty and wife Chris will be moving soon to a close by location (fortunately for us modelers in the area) where he will be building yet another geographical area recreation of the Central Vermont (CV) Railway in New England.

It was a happy occasion because the visitors could take one final trip through the Vermont countryside, thanks to the magic of model railroading, on this 16’ x 45’ model railroad. The scenes on this fine model railroad leave no doubt that you are viewing the pastoral settings of New England in the mid-late October 1954 timeframe during the most beautiful time of the year. The foliage colors created by Marty (see the November 2015 issue of the Model Railroader) make a very realistic atmosphere for the surrounding rural countryside and the numerous trackside businesses along the CV line. All of the structures on this layout are replicas in scale of typical New England buildings, most of which were in the actual locations modeled by Marty. The rivers and bridges needed to cross them through steep hill country are superbly done and replicate their prototypes accurately. The locomotives and CV owned rolling stock closely replicated in HO Scale, represent the prototype very closely, adding to the realism modeled by Marty.   One can readily tell Marty did a huge amount of research to capture the essence of New England and the Central Vermont Railway in the golden days of steam. The photos attest to his success in meeting his established objectives in creating this model railroad.

As we bid farewell to the Roxbury Subdivision of the Central Vermont Railway, we thank Marty for his hospitality, his sharing of modeling experiences, and we wish him and Chris the very best as they set out on a new adventure. We look forward seeing his next chapter in CV modeling.