With great sadness, I relate the passing of another great friend, train lover, and forum member, Alan Ramsey. Although Alan (Y6b Alan) didn't post very often, he was a regular reader for more than 10 years, and many of you have met him and his wife, Kaye, at York or at our house.
Alan and I became very close friends and it was through this forum that we met. Sometime in the summer of 2006, I received an email from Alan in which he said that he liked to build layouts and that his layout was limited by available space in his condo. He knew from my forum posts that I was about to start building and asked if I would I like some help. I'll never forget the p.s. he attached to that email "After I retired I worked in a cabinet shop for a few years so I have some skill." There has never been a bigger understatement made by anyone.
I later learned that Alan was an extremely talented and creative woodworker, having made much of the furniture in his home, a self taught and very good painter, a national award winning decoy carver, etc., etc., etc. Our layout would not be nearly as nice were it not for Alan's work. He came to my house one afternoon each week for more than 8 years generously sharing his time, talent and skill. He painted our backdrop (when the layout was partially built, making access difficult), taught me how to build and color scenery, most of which he did anyway, designed and built Ramsey Falls (see the January 2011 OGR for his article on this ). You get the picture.
An incredible human being, Alan will be greatly missed but never forgotten.
