Roger was born in Manhattan Beach, the son of an avid ship modeler. He watched his father spend hours meticulously designing and building American ships including the American Cup, along with trains of various shapes and sizes. In 1932 the Ramsdells moved to Rockville Centre, where Roger could spend hours watching the Long Island Rail Road freight and passenger cars go by. By age 15 Roger's father assessed his son's eagerness to build his own train model, a task Roger took on eagerly. Roger's first trains were "high rails" of boxcars and other freight trains, the same trains he spent hours watching at the Rockville Centre station's "sidings," small train yards that were next to the main tracks. The sidings were eliminated in 1952 when the train tracks were elevated. Roger's models are made of balsa wood, and are hand painted with decorative decals that identified each car.

Roger was also an avid train traveler. After his graduation from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, Roger began his engineering career with Con Edison. He frequently traveled to Chicago by train, on either the NY Central or Pennsylvania Rail Road, and to model railroad conventions. Roger's models reflect these experiences. Like other train modelers, Roger creates extraordinary landscapes that include rivers, mountains, swinging bridges and main streets. Roger won awards from the National Model Railroad Association, and its affiliates. He died at home in 1999.