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YOUNG GUNS OF STEAM - NATASHA BETTIS - SEASON 7
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| September 11-12, 2007 |
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Not much to report today, other than a very
early wake=up, and a CRJ ride from Milwaukee to Salt Lake. From there,
it was just a hop down to Ely, Nevada, and the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. 
 We
started our day at the Nevada Northern Railroad Museum. This 50+ acre
site was originally built to service the mining industry and is now partially
owned by a Trust and the State of Nevada. It is a well equipped step
back in time and definitely worth a stop. The problem, is that it is in
the middle of no-where. It's a beautiful no-where, no-where none the
less. The saving grace of the operations is that it is in the
 middle
of no-where. So it is a well preserved look into the past. We had
done the museum and rides in season 5, so we were here to see Natasha Bettis,
who is the Building and Grounds Manager. We first ran into Natasha when
she worked at the Texas State
Railroad. She
is a part of our Young Guns of Steam segment. Although she no longer
fires, she is young, has a wealth of knowledge about steam, and had some
cogent things to say about the value of steam preservation. The museum
has a great collection of engines, rolling stock, and infrastructure.
Think of it as the western East Broad Top. It's as if people just walked
away one day and locked it up. So the foundry, the machine shop, the
washrooms are all still in place. And it is supposed to be haunted.
After our work was completed, we headed up to Heber City, for another
interview
 with
a young steam preservationist. The land is really wonderful, and you can
see miles and miles of just nothing but open land, mountains, and sky.
Along the way, we stopped at Sundance Resort, just to hit the gift shop.
It's up off Provo Canyon Road and set in a beautiful canyon. |
YOUNG GUNS OF STEAM - MICHAEL MANWILLER - SEASON 7
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Today was quite an interesting day.
First we arrived at the Heber Valley Railroad, in Heber City, Utah. You
may remember this line from the 5th season, and from the rather extensive
coverage that the Today show gave it around the Winter Olympics. We
talked with Michael Manwiller, their Chief Mechanical Officer for our Young
Guns of Steam segment. Mike had a Consolidated all fired up, and we ran
out into the countryside for a nice chat and beautiful scenery. He
worked the locomotive and did some welding and riveting on the #75 boiler,
which is undergoing a rebuild back in their well equipped shops. Mike is
young, but has been around steam pretty much his entire life. He's a
fourth generation steam railroader, and
 has
done service on the Ohio Central, the Western Maryland, and the Youngstown and
Southern, just to name a few. Our time with him was very interesting and
informative. The day did get long though, as there was a locomotive
movement going on today that was something not often seen. The Heber
Valley Railroad had acquired a NW-2 switch engine from Provo. The rail
line had no interchange with anything in that direction, so the move was
made by truck. The fellows at Intermountain Rigging and Heavy Haul
brought the loco from Provo to Heber City. They have a large frame
trailer, that runs on multiple, steerable bogies. The engine is
suspended within the frame, and the whole rig - headed by a thousand
horsepower Peterbilt, and pushed by multiple tractors, made it's way from one
piece of rail to another. It was quite a sight to see. The route
is over a two lane road, and required the
 Utah
State Patrol to alternately open and close the road for traffic.
Needless to say, plenty of pilot cars and permits were required. But
they moved the whole thing in a day. The mechanics are that the frame is
placed over the loco by a crane. The support bars are out under the
trucks, the engine is chained to the bars, and the frame is hydraulically
lifted to pick up the engine. And the process is reversed on the other
end. The rig can handle items up to 150 feet in length. I don't know on
the weight, but this loco weighed 125 tons. The crew had moved a
Challenger type steam loco, and that is much heavier. It was
interesting, and was something you don't get to see every day. |
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 Today we spent an enjoyable day looking at the Cajon Pass
layout of Ted York. Ted's HO gauge layout occupies his basement and is
large enough to have realistic length trains, complete with helper engines.
Ted said that he started this because he had engines in both Union Pacific and
Santa Fe paint schemes, and needed some realistic area that handled both
railroads. The layout has two levels, and while tight for
shooting, was fun to operate. It ran smoothly, with just a few of the
gremlins that we bring to operations. Ted had assembled a team of
operators, as the purpose of the railroad is to run trains. And we all
ran trains. From Summit to Cajon Pass to the Fifth Street tower, there
 were
ample passenger trains and freights. The scenery looked a bit sparse to
me at first, but this is the wide open look of the area. The era modeled
is the late 940's through the 1950's, so there is a mixture of steam and
diesel. There are a lot of passenger cars, as the railroads ran a great
deal of passenger traffic over the area during that time period. We had
a wonderful time working and talking with all the people involved. It's
a nice layout, and a great bunch of people helping Ted to run it. |
THE GOLDEN SPIKE CEREMONY- SEASON 7
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 Today
we ventured north of Brigham City, Utah, into a wide, lonely valley in the
middle of no where. This was the site where, on May 10, 1869, the Union
Pacific in the east, and the Central Pacific in the west, drove the final
spike to link the coasts of the United States with a railroad. Contrary
to what has been written by some historians, this is a actual site, deeded to
the National Parks Service as a historic site. This link was in use
until around 1904, when the Lucian Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake shortened
the route and presented a diminished grade. In 1916, the Southern
Pacific erected a monument close to the original site in commemoration of the
event. Things
pretty much moldered away until the National Parks picked up the place, built
a visitor's center, and made the place a destination, complete with two
accurate reproduction steam engines, and a cast of dignitaries to recreate the
event. There actually were four precious metal spikes - two gold (one
with inscriptions called the Durand Spike), both from California; a silver one
from Nevada, and a gold/silver/iron spike from Arizona. All are still
around but for one, whose disappearance remains a mystery. The two
original engines were scrapped long ago, and these two are accurate
reproductions. The plans were drawn from photos, and the units are
complete and accurate in detail, finish, and scale.
 And
they are lovingly attended to by a staff that literally takes them apart in
the winter months and polishes, paints and makes them look like new. The
ceremony was really rather neat,
with the actors playing their parts, the spikes being presented, and the
final, normal steel spike driven. The audience participates by clapping,
yelling, and generally making themselves part of the date. We had a
wonderful time, and our thanks to all the people at the historic site that
made our job so much easier. And yes, we did stop in Mim's for an
excellent burger. Today is special - laundry. |
 We
spent and enjoyable day with railroad artist Gil Bennett. Gil was always
interested in drawing and trains. And when it came time to go to
college, he decided to turn his artistic talent towards architecture. To
do so, he needed Fine Arts Major, so continued working in oil and watercolors,
and painted as class projects. He sold his homework, much to the dismay
of one professor
and the delight of another. His big break came when he did a show in
Arizona. A man came by and wanted thirty paintings for his board
members. And the rest is history. Gil was a close associate of the
renowned artist Howard Fogg, and has the honor of completing Howard's last
picture. Gil does a lot of commissioned art, as well as book
covers, calendars, and his own Christmas card line. Check it out at
www.gilbennett.com. And as this is the
digital age, Gil had a lot of his work all ready for us on disk. So we
shot some of him painting in his studio, working on
 his
website, and then headed back home. We stopped at Temple Square in Salt
Lake, as Gail and John had never been there. The grounds are as gorgeous
as ever. So it was a relatively light day, and we had a great time with
Gil and his family. |
CAMAS PRAIRIE RR - SEASON 7
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 This
was a long day, as we drove some 600 miles from Salt Lake to Orofino, Idaho.
The last half of the trip was through gorgeous mountains and river canyons,
along the Clearview and Salmon Rivers. But it was twisty two lane road,
and I'm glad we had multiple drivers. Tomorrow we start the former Camas
Prairie Railroad, now the BG&CM.
 The
Camas Prairie Railroad is an interesting story. But it's a long story,
and to make it short, here it is. The Camas Prairie Railroad was built
in 1909 and was operated by both the Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific.
It was primarily and lumber, log, and grain operation. The line
was
noted for it's breathtaking beauty and large number of
trestles, which gained it the nickname, "The Railroad on Stilts." After
the dust settled from mergers in the late 20th century, the line changed hands
from the Burlington Northern to Railnet to Watco. Eventually it ended up
in the hands of Railroad Materials Salvage, Inc., who has
 recognized
the mystique of the line and is trying to again make it a profit center.
Subdivision 1 runs along the Clearview
River from Orofino, ID to Kooskie, Idaho, and services primarily grain and
lumber needs along the Clearview River Valley. Our host, Karl Nelson,
said that this was the ugly subdivision, but it looked pretty spectacular to
me. The river was clear and apparently when the salmon are spawning, it
is quite a sight to behold. This portion is now the Bountiful Grain &
Craig Mountain Railroad (BG&CM) and has a practically new
 GP30
for motive power. And the views through the canyon were breathtaking. Of
note is a spindly bridge, over 100 years old, built as a swing bridge.
It hardly seems able to hold up the train. One advantage, is that the
railroad goes right past the front door of our hotel!
Today we high railed the second
subdivision of the railroad. This is the one that all the rail-fans
love. It climbs out of Lapwai Canyon in a 52 mile run up to the prairie
above. Of that 52 miles,
 there
are 6 tunnels and two and a half miles of bridge. Most of the bridges
are timber bent trestles, all built in the early days of the railroad.
One steel bridge was built in 1908, and has been faithfully carry heavy loads
ever since. The line does need maintenance, and to do so, a crew has
been
working on replacing some of the bridge caps. They use a small bridge
crane to pull the bolts (these things are all bolted together), jack up the
stringers and roadbed, pull the cap, and reverse the process for replacement.
It is not as impressive on a small bridge, as it
 is
on the high Half Moon trestle up in the canyon. The scenery was
beautiful, but the minute we exited from an upper tunnel, the trees feel away
and we were on the wheat prairie. It was quite a dramatic change.
Our host today was Stan Patterson, who is quite familiar with the line and
kept us enthralled with historical facts and figures. As the line is
under repair, the only things allowed are the highrailers. It was a fun
day, and an impressive piece of historical railroad.
We drove over to Lewiston to have
breakfast with Stan Patterson this morning and then say our good-byes.
Stan was supposed to run on this railroad today, but both his motors were
down, so there was nothing running. We drove down to Boise through the
Payette River Canyon and some spectacular scenery. And that is about it
for today. Our plan is to drive down to Salt Lake, and fly to Denver on
Saturday. I should plug our vehicle this time around. It was a
Ford Freestar van, which was a nice car. Plus it had a Magellan
Never-Lost in it. Compared to Tilly, which is a Garman, the Magellan had
some good points and some bad points. On the plus side, it gave you lots
of warning and didn't squawk when you got off for fuel. On the down
side, it was slow to re calculate when you missed a turn. And data entry
was more cumbersome than the Garman. But it functioned well. And
the car was a nice van. |
YOUNG GUNS OF STEAM - JOHN RIMMASCH - SEASON 7
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We headed out for the Salt Lake
airport this morning and checked in. I had as senior moment. When
in security, I noticed that my notebook, with the schedule, today's script and
some other material was not where it was supposed to be. I checked back
at the check-in counter, all over, but it appeared to be gone. I got
through security, and the TSA guys were so nice. The offered to go look
again. However, I had stashed it in my bag in a compartment I don't
normally use. The point is that the TSA folks in Salt Lake were
extremely courteous and helpful. Unlike the Milwaukee crew. So we
got into Denver on time, and drove to North Platte, NE. I'm going to
have trouble when I get back to Wisconsin. These higher speed limits are
great. Traffic
 routinely
moves at 85. But I digress. We met our subject, John Rimmasch of
Wasatach Railroad Contractors in the early evening, and shot until it was t o
dark to do anything. He is working with the Union Pacific 844, a 4-8-4
northern from the UP's steam heritage fleet. It's an impressive sight.
The engine was overnighting at Bailey Yard, where we found one of the heritage
fleet painted up in Southern Pacific colors. And we saw an impressive
number of long stack and coal trains on the UP triple track main. |
DAKOTA SOUTHERN RR - SEASON 7
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We pulled out of North Platte this
morning and headed north to Chamberlain, SD. Doing so, we passed through
Valentine, NE, one of my first trips out west over 40 years ago. As
there isn't much there, I was surprised to be back again. The country is
pretty desolate. It's just miles and miles of hills and rolling
 prairie.
It is interesting that is as empty as Utah, but different in look. And
it is very, very windy and hot. We got stopped at one point by a herd of
cattle crossing the highway. We scouted a bit, and will start tomorrow.
We are all hoping the anticipated cold front comes through tonight, and not
tomorrow.
 We
went into Chamberlain today for the office of the Dakota Southern Railroad.
The line is former Milwaukee Road line, and is the second oldest short line in
the state. The owner, Alex Huff, has resurrected the small load grain
hauls, that were abandoned by the Class 1 railroad in favor of centralized
unit trains. He is making a lot of people happy and making money at the
same time. Plus there is an ethanol plant going in on the line. At
the moment, he services a packaging plant, that makes food grade packaging,
with a steady four cars per day. This is unique, in that the boxcars
have to turned on
one of the two surviving turntables in South Dakota, so that the cars can be
loaded and unloaded from the same side. Alex tends to collect a lot of
things that many would consider scrap, but which still have useful life.
A case in point are the Placer track machines. Virtually all owners
couldn't make them run. He bought one on a lark, figured out how to run
the sophisticated computer systems, and now owns virtually all of the machines
imported into the US, and has become somewhat of an expert on them. Plus
he has a lot of spare parts. One of the issues with doing things on this
 railroad
is that there is a lot of wide open space between points. The box plant
was 65 miles away, the other end was 35 miles away. It doesn't seem like
much, but when you have to shoot, it takes a lot of travel time. And
while it was a warm, rainy gray day, the front passed through and it turned
quite cool. Such is autumn on the upper plains.
 One of the thing that the railroad has is one of the last
surviving DDA40X diesel engines. Built by the Union Pacific, it is the
largest diesel ever built and is basically two units in one. At 98 feet
long, it is a large engine. While this one is a restoration project, a
single running unit does still exist in the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet at
Cheyenne. While we had rain yesterday, the weather today was cool, crisp
and clear. We
started with a high-rail trip across the old Milwaukee Road bridge, as the
railroad can't run a loco on it at the present time. Built in 1953, it
was the longest bridge on the Milwaukee Road system. From there, we shot
some scenic material of Chamberlain, and then headed out towards Kenebec to
see the
 grain
train slowly inch it's way toward an elevator about tens miles to the west at
Presho. It was slow going, as the track had not been run on for 7 years.
We all had to do some roadbed work, and at one point, the rails became so
slippery with grass that it was
impossible for the engine to pull it's cars up a slight grade. It was
pretty seeing the blue of the grain cars against the vast openness of the
prairie. So we carried on, and got the material we needed. Alex
and his small crew were very helpful, and they work very hard at making this a
nice short line story. I hope they enjoy the final segment.
We left our excellent accommodations at the AmericInn at
Chamberlain, and got on the road mid morning. There was no sense in
getting up at the crack of tomorrow, as we only have to get to Omaha. We
had only a slight detour, as we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.
World renown, it was smaller than I had imagined. We made the 320 miles in
about 4 hours - you have to love those higher speed limits! I
tried for a flight today, but everything was full. But we will still get
home a day early. This has seemed to be a long trip, probably because it
followed so closely on the heels of the lengthy last one. We are settled in
our favorite family of hotels - Hilton, and getting all out stuff packed for
the flight. Tomorrow we are home, and preparation begins for the next
one. |
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