Chuck Ricketts - Sherwood, Shelton and Sarazen Railway

The Sherwood, Shelton and Sarazen Railway is wholly owned by the Sherwood Lumber company, chartered as a narrow gauge common carrier in the State of Washington in 1890. In its second decade of operation, the S, S & S does a large lumber business. New settlers in the area have opened businesses and depend on the railroad for goods and services as roads are few. The railroad now has barge interchange with the Columbia and Puget Sound in South Seattle. In addition, there is transfer service with the standard gauge Northern Pacific in Shelton. In 1899, the Sherwood Lumber Company rebuilt the mill using much of the old machinery for mill number two. A new bandsaw mill was built north of Sarazen at Northend (off layout).

The Sherwood Lumber Company uses mules for woods logging. Mules needing shoeing are shipped to the farrier at Ricketts' Livery in Oyster Bay. The company buys feed from the local feed warehouse in South Shelton, milk and butter from the creamery in Oyster Bay and seafood from Captain Nemo's. The opening of the quarry and the lime kiln provided a source of ballast and lime for the foundry in Oyster Bay. Between the foundry and the blacksmith in Shelton, equipment is maintained is excellent condition. Rigging equipment is available in Oyster Bay. Freight and passengers can travel westward from Oyster Bay to the coast via Wells Fargo stagecoach.

The railroad scale is O and gauge is On30. The layout room preparation was begun in late 2007 and work on the layout in early 2008. All locos are sound equipped with Tsunami decoders. The layout has operating water tanks and operating log dump and limestone for the kilns.

Published sources:
Carstens 2013 On30 Annual, "Road Trip"; Trackside Model Railroading, Nov 2013, online photos & video; Japanese - TMS, February 2013; German - Argeschmalspur-INFO, April 2012

Basic information:
A. Scale: On30
B. DC or DCC: Digitrax DCC Radio plus one area with NCE Power Cab
C. Dispatching/control method: TT&TO with telephones and train order semaphores; no writing for crews only the dispatcher
D. Car control: CC & WB
E. Mainline: 100' with 5 sidings
F. Room size: 3 rooms 20' x 11.5', 13.5' x 13.5', and 12' of staging in crew lounge
G. Percent sceniced: 99%
H. Handicap accessibility: none
I. Maximum number of guest operators: 12
J. Minimum number of guest operators: 6