Standard gauge, for a lifetime Narrow gauge modeler? Well yes, but hear me out first. Proto48 has always interested me, really it’s the ability in O scale to detail handlaid track. One can do it in other scales, but modeling in O scale already and liking the size of both S and O scale, my choice was Proto48.
So why standard gauge? Believe it or not, I do like some standard gauge railroads such as the Ma&Pa, and NYO&W, each of which were unique in many ways. In the region where I live there are many examples of small short lines one can model. Strasburg Railroad and Stewartstown Railroad still exist, with Strasburg being not only a tourist railroad but a common carrier as well. The Stewartstown still runs a limited tourist schedule out of its namesake town. However, it was never abandoned, just embargoed due to Penn Central’s decision to stop using their Northern Central Line from York, Pennsylvania to Baltimore, Maryland. You can still see most of its trackage in its little over 9 mile run from New Freedom to Stewartstown. At one time, the New Park and Fawn Grove Railroad connected to the Stewartstown in the town of Stewartstown. The New Park and Fawn Grove ran a little over 9 miles ( not a typographical error, the NP&FG along with the Strasburg and Stewartstown all are around the 9 mile mark in mainline length) through many stops and villages such as Wiley to its terminus in Fawn Grove. Amazingly, the Fawn Grove station and engine house survive today, one as a home, and the other as part of several businesses.
However, it is the Wiley Station stop that I have decided to build first. I have no idea what the entire station looked like or if there was even a siding. However, there is a picture, and that will do just fine. The picture says a lot, the boy and his dog were the subject. The barn and other buildings almost obscure the station. A perfect scene, the barn still exists and both it and the other buildings will make a nice view block for the entry of the train on to the “stage”. A perfect beginning, no switches to build, not yet at least. However an opportunity to lay some track, brush up on scenery skills and scratchbuilding. A twenty inch deep by forty-eight inch long test module has already been made that I can use for my first P48 module.
A Standard Gauge Adventure in Proto 48: New Park and Fawn Grove Railroad. June 2023 by H. Mathews
Model Railroad Imagineerings 
