After he retired from the Navy as a captain, he spent eight years running a junior ROTC program in Santa Ana. Later in his career, he traveled between Navy bases inspecting ships. During the Vietnam War, he was an aviator, flying Grumman S-2 Tracker anti-submarine warfare planes, which involved risky takeoffs and landings from the decks of aircraft carriers. Over the years, that grew in size to fill a Ping-Pong table, then moved to a floor layout and finally to an elevated platform that measured 16 by 16 feet.īut for a big portion of his life, Ludwig’s preferred mode of transportation had wings. Ludwig grew up in Long Island, N.Y., where he remembers his first train was an O scale table-top set. “I’m impressed with all the time it took to do it. “This is absolutely fabulous,” Rommel said, admiring the new holiday train. La Costa Glen resident Nancy Rommel said Ludwig has treated the responsibility of building the clubhouse train with such seriousness over the past year that he would head to his workshop every morning as if it were a full-time job.

“Ron is a character and a wonderful person to work with,” Chafee said. Michele Chaffee, activities director at La Costa Glen, said she asked Ludwig to build the set for the clubhouse this year because everyone in the community is so impressed with his talent and detail work.

Pechanga casino floor plan