DENNIS SIRRINE LAYOUT - PROGRAM 614

The initial portion of this trip was a visit to a layout being built by Dennis Sirrine, in Mesa.  He was a contractor in the San Diego area for 10-18,000 square foot homes, and one of his signature touches was an interior garden railroad.  He got out of the construction business and decided to pursue one of his life's passions.  I master chef, started a really great restaurant named Rancho de Tia Rosa.  The food is delicious and the ambience outstanding.  Dennis is building a 300x120 foot layout in has backyard.  He has an extensive train collection, and the layout should be spectacular.  It is under construction, with concrete block base raised to about 3 feet for easy viewing and operation.  We did a short standup, and then shot some under construction footage.  In addition to the layout, he is building a large control house which will contain staging yards and an O gauge layout.  It should be complete within a couple of years, so you'll see periodic updates on this project.

DAN MARKOFF (THE EUREKA) - PROGRAM 601

Today we headed for Las Vegas.  We stopped to shoot a little high desert, and saw some antelope.  They were pretty tame, and came down close to where we were shooting.  We drove across the top of Hoover Dam.  It is still a very impressive engineering feat.  Lake Mead is very low.  In fact, it is as low as any time since the dam was built.  We rolled into heavy traffic in Las Vegas.  There are more people here, more traffic and more houses than ever.  We spent a little time on the strip, but somehow, it just was too crowded and tiresome.  And none of the casinos are paying out in cash any more.  It is all paper strips.  I really missed the musical sound of coins hitting the trays.  Somehow, it was just too sterile.  Off to dinner and bed.  Tomorrow we shoot Dan Markoff, and the restored 4-4-0 steam locomotive, The Eureka.

As promised, we hooked up with Dan Markoff early today.  Originally we though that it would be a very difficult shoot, as there was a barking dog next door, and we were directly under the flight path of a feeder airport.  But all went well.  The dog stopped, and since we were under the approach path, the planes were pretty quiet.  And by the time the heavies came in, we were finished.  Dan and his wife Ditty have done a remarkable restoration job.  

The Eureka was originally purchased and used by the Eureka and Palisades Railroad here in Nevada.  It was eventually sold to a lumber company and wound up in the scrap yards in San Francisco in the 1930’s.  A historian who also happened to be a sound man for Warner Brothers Studios saw the engine and convinced Warner to buy it for film use.  The thing stayed with the studio and eventually ended up in a theme park called Old Las Vegas.  In 1986 there was a fire at the park, and engine and its shelter were burned. 

Dan was a history major, and knew about the history of the locomotive.  He purchased it, and dragged it home, where he built a shelter for it, and set about restoration.  This occurred one year after he married his wife.  She was quite understanding, because for the next six years, Dan worked at fabricating new parts, cleaning, painting and polishing to get the engine into pristine condition.  It has been featured in quite a few film and television roles, and now runs on the Durango and Silverton and the Cumbres and Toltec railroad each year.  It is a beautiful piece of machinery, and evokes a lot of interest where ever it goes.  We’ll finish the segment in Colorado in August. 

GRAND CANYON HOTELS - PROGRAM 607

The freeway was a parking lot this morning.  I don’t what it was, but we all left Las Vegas feeling a little out of sorts.  The town has changed, or gotten to large, or something.  We were glad to leave.  And we did, driving through the northern part of Arizona to Williams, and the Grand Canyon Railroad.  We have been here before, with a focus on the railroad.  This time, we are looking at the Harvey Girls and the Harvey House Hotels, of which the Fray Marcos in Williams is one. 

The Fray Marcos is the largest poured concrete structure in Arizona that is still standing.  The railroad was originally going to rehab it and turn it back into a hotel, but with everything buried in the concrete, the cost was just too high.  So they restored a portion of it, and built a new hotel to the north of the station. 

The railroad handles around two hundred thousand passengers a year and most are on a ride-stay package.  We talked with Al Richmond, the historian of the operation, and got a couple of shots of the hotel exterior, as well as a passing shot of the train.  It was an A-B-B FA consist, hauling 14 cars, or about a thousand people.  Tomorrow we’ll get more footage, as we scouted out some spots today with the help of marketing manager Charlie Zuercher.  Tomorrow we will continue.  It promises to be a busy day.

The altitude here in Williams is around 6500 feet.  This causes us to be somewhat tired and have low grade headaches.  But we got past all that on another initially cloudless day.  We started by heading for the shops, where the two steam locos were awaiting their FRA inspections.  One of the machinists asked about Tracks Ahead.  It seems he was in one of the first segments we did for the series, which was a segment on the Sandley Locomotive Works at the Wisconsin Dells. 

The Grand Canyon Railroad has added onto the shops, and they are well equipped.  From there we moved back to the station, where we taped the people milling about on the platform, as well as the Wild West show, which was quite a hit with everyone.  Most of the actors are retired law enforcement people, and are just doing this show for fun.  As Charlie said, “They get to play cowboy.”  We managed to get the train pulling out but got stuck behind a water tanker and missed the passing shot we had planned.  Of interest, is that most people haul in their own water.  If you want to drill a well, you have to go down two to three thousand feet, and then the water is very corrosive.  It is so bad, that the City of Williams just replaced several of its pumps with stainless steel units, and the water is even eating at those.  Property values are also inflated, as people from California and Phoenix are buying houses as summer homes to escape the heat of the desert summer.  One neat little scam is the resale of a lot of land parcels.  The ranchers have carved up land parcels of say 40 or 50 acres, which anyone can buy for X dollars per month.  But the rancher holds the paper on the land.  People buy the land, figuring that they will vacation on it.  But they never do.  So after paying monthly on the land for a couple of years, most people just walk away from it.  And the rancher resells it.  But I digress. 

It really is beautiful here.  The air is crisp, and you can see for hundreds of miles.  The sky and clouds seem so close you can almost touch them.  We headed on up the road to the Grand Canyon, and the El Tovar Hotel.  It was built between 1902 and 1905, and has had many a famous resident.  Among them was Teddy Roosevelt, and most lately, Paul McCartney.  He was playing the piano while he was a guest, and someone complained about the noise.  The building is very dark, and was built of wood from Oregon.  This is odd, as the structure stands in the middle of a large forest of Ponderosa Pine.  We interviewed Henry Karpinski, the local, although unofficial, historian.  He started out working his way across the country about 30 years ago, and intended to end his trip California.  He took a job at the Canyon, and has been there ever since. 

The hotel was really quite elegant for the era.  All the rooms had telephones, and some even had bathrooms.  The hotel also had electricity, which was quite a novelty at the time.  It has since been remodeled, with individual suites, baths, and all the amenities of a modern hotel.  Some areas that have gone by the wayside are the women’s sitting area (now the mezzanine), the dairy, the greenhouse, and gentlemen’s parlor. 

The day clouded up, which as it turned out, was really in our favor, as the sun and cloud patterns really added depth to the Canyon.  We finished shooting, and headed down the road to a place way off the highway, where we could see the train pass.  It was a magnificent area, with vast vistas.  Needless to say, I like it here. 

Today dawned bright and sunny.  The cars all had frost on them, but the day warmed pretty quickly.  We started the day with some scenic shots of Williams, Arizona.  Once we made the town as pretty as possible, we headed up the line and got the passing shots we missed yesterday.  There was such a large passenger load today, that they added a second train, so we had a bonus with two trains passing.  Then it was back to the depot to shoot the flat art in the museum.  I really find it rather humbling to be walking on bricks that thousands of feet have trod, and to be in spaces that are a hundred years old.  Europeans, with their long history, will laugh, but I find it interesting. 

Then we headed back up to the Grand Canyon, and shot one train leaving the station below El Tovar, and risked our filming permit to get a couple more shots of the canyon.  We added a few shots of the exterior of the El Tovar in better light, and got some ponderosa pines on the way back.  That pretty much completes it for this portion of the segment.  Tomorrow we are off to the La Posada Hotel, another restored Harvey House and ex-Santa Fe station. 

Everyone at the Grand Canyon Railway has been extremely helpful and very accommodating.  I know that they get some pretty high powered film crews through here, but either we are really nice, or it is a testament to the Railways western hospitality.  We offer many, many thanks to a really great operation.  And did I mention that we are close to the BNSF mainline, with a great number of trains each day, as well as close to the BNSF Phoenix cutoff.  So I get to hear train horns and see trains quite often.  We wandered into downtown Williams tonight.  The city is trying to tap into the tourist business as much as it can.  There were horse drawn carriage rides, as well as a great deal of homage paid to Route 66.  There were a couple of jewelry shops that were also very nice. 

What a day.  As I write this, I am sitting in what appears to be the main gathering room of a Spanish hacienda.  Classical guitars are playing, there is a fire in the large fireplace, and I’m surrounded by wooden tables and chairs.  Overhead, a decoratively painted beamed ceiling reflects the light from wall scones and floor lamps.  And outside, up to 100 trains a day pass within fifty yards.  I have finished an excellent dinner, served in a refurbished historical relic.  The presentation was superb, and the taste was divine.  Once I finish, I will go up to my room, which has a second story patio.  And I can take my pick of various books in the bookcase.  Or just go outside and watch the stars or the trains.  Could it get any better?  And where am I?  I am at the La Posada Resort, In Winslow, Arizona.  Why rail fans have not discovered this is beyond me.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  We are still working on the Harvey Girls and Harvey Hotels segment.  We left Williams this morning for the short drive over to Winslow.  Of course, we had to have out pictures taken, “standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.” 

We pulled into the La Posada, which was the last of the grand Harvey Hotels.  Designed by Mary Jane Colter in the late 1920’s, the hotel was opened in 1930, and served as a restaurant and way stop for the Santa Fe until 1957.  It cost about two million dollars to built and furnish.  Mary Colter was well known in the circles of southwestern architects.  First of all, she was in charge of all the Santa Fe structure and facilities designs, which was quite unusual for the time.  And she was very in tune with the designs of the southwest, and mirrored this in her buildings.  The La Posada, for example used passive solar heat, a cooling tower, and long low airy spaces to blend with the landscape.  The place was used by the Harvey House operation until 1957, when it was closed and turned unto railroad offices.  The railroad wanted cubicles.  As a result, most of the arched doorways were boarded over, and a drop ceiling was added.  The hotel was acquired in 1996 by three young Californians, who basically purchased the land.  The hotel, being poured concrete, was too expensive to tear down.  So it went with the land.  These three people obtained some matching money and some grants, and started to renovate the place.  Back were the arched doorways, the wooden floors, and the beamed ceilings.  The dining room and kitchen were brought up to modern standards, and the place is again a tribute to the grand hotel design of the 1930’s.  Add the fact that up to a hundred trains pass by each day, and you have both a rail lover’s and history buffs delight, and a real return to the past. 

We sprayed the interior and exterior, and then talked with Marie LaMar, whose parents where Harvey employees.  Marie started the Winslow Harvey Girls, and who give tours at the La Posada and generally fill in the history gaps on what and who was a Harvey Girl.  We talked with two of the original Harvey Girls, and had two of the current groups members model both the traditional and the La Posada version of the Harvey Girl costumes. 

Just as a note, in the span that I have been writing this, five freights of the BNSF (one headed by 11 engines!) and the Amtrak train have gone past.  This really is a delightful place and one I would highly recommend.  Sitting on the patio, under the stars, and watching the trains, was really an unforgettable experience.

We had a pleasant night at the La Posada, and headed down the road to Taos, New Mexico.  Along the way, we stopped to catch a few distant shots of the BNSF framed against the red cliffs of Northern New Mexico.  There were trains every ten – fifteen minutes, so it really wasn’t much of a wait to get some shots.  We arrived in Taos through road construction.  The last 75 miles were the worst of the trip.  Tomorrow we visit with Malcolm Furlow, rancher, artist, and train layout designer.  But tonight – we do laundry!

MALCOLM FURLOW - PROGRAM 613

We met Malcolm Furlow this morning and followed him out to his ranch, which is about thirty miles outside of town.  Malcolm is an interesting guy.  He is a rancher running an operating cattle ranch.  He is an artist whose paintings command five figure prices.  He is a motorcycle rider and designer.  And he is a model railroader with a long and colorful history in the hobby.  Some of you may recognize his name from scenery books, or from the design company that he had up until a few years ago.  One of his favorite large commercial layouts was the one for the Dallas Children’s Hospital, which was featured on Tracks Ahead several seasons past.  And that is sort of where our story picks up.  He just got tired of, as he puts it, “The Suits.”  He wanted a simpler life, and one in which he was in control, rather than letting external forces control him.  One of his homes was some property outside of Taos, New Mexico.  So he sold everything, moved to the high country, and started painting, rebuilding the ranch, and generally living the unstructured and unfettered life that so many people crave.  That’s not to say he isn’t busy.  He still paints, and he still works on his bikes.  He models artistically designed railroads that he can see in his mind’s eye.  His joy is building the internal vision, and bringing it to life.  His contention is, “So what if it isn’t real.  This is an artistic endeavor.”  And he does a wonderful job of using foam, castings, and general material to create a fantasy reality. 

 Running the ranch is no small job either, as there are cattle to tend, horses to care for, and living to be done, away from the city.  His electricity is provided by solar, and batteries, and his heat with either propane of wood.  He said that last winter there were two or three weeks when the temperature never got above 25 below zero (Fahrenheit).  It is awesome, looking out at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the San Juans, watching hawks, and hearing only the sounds of a horse, or just the wind.  It is solitude at its best, with a vast and changing landscape at your doorstep.  Because the area is a bit of a bowl, weather develops here, and he said that there have been impressive storms, and even the Aurora Borealis.  One of the reasons he chose this life, is because he said that all the old ranchers he had ever met were tough and healthy guys.  And he figured hard work kept them that way.  Frankly, he is living a life day in and day out that people pay to experience for a few short weeks.  The day was fun, and we’ll finish off tomorrow.  Taos has become the refuge for the rich and famous, although why is an unknown.  But it has the toney shops and the traffic that is associated with a trendy place.  But at the same time, the area is filled with loners, and refugees from society.  Think of it – in some ways – as the Alaska of the Lower 48.  It is a place for the rugged individualist.

It is hard to believe that it is the last day of March.  We met Malcolm again this morning and headed downtown to the Terri Bennet Gallery.  They handle some of his paintings.  We shot some footage there, and then went to Dave’s Custom Cycles, where we did a little walk and talk about Malcolm and his love of motorcycles.  He said that the older style Harley Davidson’s are perfect platforms for his artistic designs.  And that was about it.  We headed on down the road, and will spend the night just outside of Albuquerque.  We are almost done with this trip.  Two more segments to go.  And it looks like we many have our hands full in Tucson, as they are predicting rain.  I expected rain and snow in Taos – not Tucson.  Bummer

DOUBLE K B&B - PROGRAM 606

We hopped in the car and headed down the road to Tucson, arriving about 3:30.  The sky was blue, but rapidly turned to gray, as a Pacific front moved into the area.  I never thought that I would have to worry about rain in southern Arizona.  But rain it did, with lots of lightening and thunder.  Actually, desert storms are rather neat, because they only occur at spots in this vast expanse of area.  We went right to the Double K Ranch, which is our shoot for tomorrow.  We have a handle on it, so we’ll hope the rain will hold off for tomorrow.  The ranch is pretty neat.  Ken and Mary Karrels have developed a railroaded themed bed and breakfast on the east side of Tucson.  The have one internal guest room, with a couple of layouts, a caboose as another guest room, and a garden railroad.

For one brief shining instant, it looked as if the sun would shine today.  Au contraire!  We headed out to Ken and Mary Karrels' Double K Ranch.  This is a bed and breakfast, with a railroad theme.  Ken and Mary welcome people from all over the world.  They have indoor and garden layouts, as well as a caboose as one of the guest rooms.  Unfortunately, it continued to rain and rain and rain.  We started the shoot in a reverse order.  We started shooting the interiors, in the hope that the skies would clear a bit, and we could then move to the interviews and the outdoor railroad.  We had a few moments of sun, then generally, the heavens opened, and the rain poured down on us.  I’m not certain how we will complete this.  I had wanted to extend to Monday night, but due to personal commitments, we have to go back Sunday night.  We managed to get a few things completed, but the weather just did not cooperate.  I made a command decision and decided to finish things when we return in November.  There is just no other way to do this.  It looks as if the weather will be poor through Sunday evening, and it is projected to clear by mid day Monday.  So we would have to stay at least through Tuesday.  Tomorrow we are pulling out and going up to Phoenix. 

As a plus today, we did a short interview with Jake Jacobson, the COO of the Copper Basin Railroad.  Jake is an old acquaintance, and it was really good to see him.  He has been quite a driving force in short line railroading, and has even had a safety award named in his honor.  A screenwriter is planning to make a film about Jake’s exploits and life as a railroader.  Jake said that the script portrays his life as much more exciting than it really has been.  He hasn’t changed a bit, as a far as I remember him, even though it has been 15 years since we last saw each other.  It was great to catch up, and I’m honored that he was able to take the time to meet with us.  Perhaps it will turn into a segment.  We shall see.

Today did not look promising.  We started with a gray overcast sky.  Undaunted, we headed back to the Double K Ranch once again.  We were fortunate, in that we had some periods of sun.  The tracks were dry, and the rains ran, so we shot the remainder of the Bed and Breakfast segment.  The railroad is really a nice touch to this place.  Ken and Mary are gracious hosts, and this is a fun destination.  Both have had a lot of fun building and expanding the garden railroad, and they really like to share the operation with their guests.  Sitting in the pool on a hot day, and watching the trains run around is really pretty nifty.  Mary did say that she cheated a bit with the foliage.  The frost was so hard this winter that all the palm trees were brown.  So she painted them!  We managed to finish, working around the small patches of sunlight that emerged.  We shall have to see what colorization the editors can do with the overcast sky, once we start post production.  So we said goodbye to the desert, which was absolutely gorgeous due to the rain

KLEIN LAYOUT - PROGRAM 610

We headed up to Phoenix to shoot the southwestern themed layout of Elliott Klein.  Elliott is into radio stations, and had a basement layout in the Scottsdale area.  Imagine.  A basement in Arizona!  It was actually under his garage, which housed one of his other passions, a vintage V16 Cadillac.  The car was restored, and took third place at the Pebble Beach show a number of years ago.  Elliott also has a radio station in his house.  He is an amateur radio fan, and had a couple of old Collins radio transmitters built into his ham shack wall.  He had converted them to the amateur bands.  He had a nice representation of old Collins boards, and paraphernalia.  But on to his railroad. He is running O gauge, and has modeled the three areas of Arizona – the high desert, the mining areas around Flagstaff, and the Sonoran Desert.  He ran really long trains, and it was quite impressive.  He had an E series A-B-B-A War Bonnet Santa Fe with the new K-Line streamlined coaches, and it was really great to see this long train pull through the desert.  The scenery was minimal, as you would expect for the desert.  But he closer you looked, the more you saw little vignettes.  The old adobe dwellings were represented, as were the usual ocotillo, saguaro and barrel cactus.  The palm trees were exquisite, and every element really made it look like the desert.  Elliott also applied some different engineering to the layout, and didn’t run any track power through the control panel.  Instead, he used DC relays to control the blocks, and was able to cut the buss wiring in half.