We left Milwaukee under unseasonably warm
temperatures and headed for southwestern Missouri. We expect rain early
in the week, but we shall see.
I
must say that I have never seen a 15" gauge railroad quite like the one we
started shooting today. The Arborway T.T. & Northwestern Railroad is a
private operation located on 2500 acres of Ozark Mountain land in central
Missouri. Owned by John Woods, on his private hunting preserve, it presently has about 5 or 6 miles of track, some on
composite ties, some in concrete, and some on oak and hickory ties. The
operation is fully signaled, has two tunnels, one of which is 800 feet long,
and numerous grades, fills, cuts, underpasses, and bridges. The project
started back in 2001, when John's mother had a brush with mortality.
She had always been a bit of a rail fan, and this convinced him to put his
desire to make a riding miniature railroad into action. So after moving
about 500 cubic yards of dirt, blasting bedrock, using highway construction
crews to grade, fill and dig the right-of-way, the railroad took shape.
The main tunnel was built by digging a 60 foot deep trench through existing
terrain, dropping in 2,300 pound concrete sections, and then backfilling over
the whole thing. Signals were added, a roundhouse, engine shop, and
car
storage sheds helped add to the operation. Equipment was either built by
our old friends at Merrick Light Railways in Marshall, Wisconsin, or was
acquired by purchasing existing railroad stock. There are rock cuts, and
tons of wildlife. In fact, I saw an albino deer, not once but several
times. There are regular whitetail deer, turkeys and grouse easily seen
along the track We had some weather problems, as a front moved through,
bringing thunderstorms and grey skies for the latter part of the day. But
we did obtain some running footage, and some point of view while the sun was
out. Tomorrow, we'll do passing shots.
The
bad weather cleared out overnight, and today was clear, sunny and lower
humidity. We started with the #801 a 4-8-4 Northern class built by
Darrell Klompmaker (an amazing guy!) of Merrick Light Railways. This
engine really wants to run! It had great sound and it loved to go fast,
which is a relative term, but 25mph in a 15 inch gauge engine seems pretty
fast. We did a number of run-bys with both steam and diesel. The
steam was by far the most
impressive, with a whistle and working sound that would excite just about made
any rail-fan. We did several open fields, tunnel and grade crossing
shots, and then tried our hand at multiple trains crossing on separate tracks,
and running on the same portion of the railroad. It is all signaled, so
the engineer only has to watch the lights, just like a real operation.
Owner John Woods had an
excellent
staff, and we even met some people who were working in the Ely, NV shops when
we were there last month. We had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to
see the place when phase 2 is complete. Many, many thanks to John and
his staff. Tomorrow we head up to Iowa.
IOWA NARROW GAUGE - SEASON 7
October 10-13, 2007
Our GPS performed masterfully today,
getting us around St. Louis and
pointed north to Iowa. Our first stop
was the Midwest Central Railroad, where we did a short interview with the
president, Matt Crull. He talked about their #55 narrow gauge caboose,
which was originally built for the Belleview and Cascade Western Railroad in
1880. Used as a storage shed for many years, it was restored as a
private guest room, and is currently in the railroad collection. From
there, we headed up to Dubuque, my home town. Tomorrow we will find out
more about the little narrow gauge railroad that started life as the Chicago,
Belleview, Cascade and Western.
Today we met with John Tigges
and Jim Shaffer of Dubuque. Both are long time residents of the area.
John is an author and historian concerning the Belleview & Cascade, sometimes
known as "Iowa's Slim Princess." Jim is a photographer, who has a
massive collection of area photos and used to
be the chief photographer for the local newspaper. Both had a number of
old photos of the railroad, and we spent an enjoyable morning talking with
them, and scanning images. Around Noon, we headed south to the little
towns of Zwingle and LaMotte, Iowa. There are still a few remnants of
the railroad around, even 100 years after it was founded. We talked
with
Rick Clasen, who purchased the original LaMotte depot and is restoring it as a
museum dedicated to the railroad. Rick has amassed quite a few
artifacts, and has done a masterful job of getting the place back in shape,
and filling it with railroad artifacts. And we wandered into the woods
to walk some of the roadbed, cut from the bluffs some 100 years ago.
Tomorrow we can head back to Milwaukee.
We took a brief side trip today to go west, to Dyersville,
and see The Field of Dreams. The Kevin Costner film was made here and
the baseball field preserved. There has been a local group called
"The
Ghost Players" who for the last 20 years would do the walk out from the
cornfield. They have decided that this was to be there last summer of
performances. The field is still there, as is the white house that is
home to the farmer that owns the property. Hundreds of thousands of people
visit this each year, and we didn't want to be left out. Once that was
done, we headed back to Milwaukee. And so ends trip number nine.
I
must say that I have never seen a 15" gauge railroad quite like the one we
started shooting today. The Arborway T.T. & Northwestern Railroad is a
private operation located on 2500 acres of Ozark Mountain land in central
Missouri. Owned by John Woods, on his private hunting preserve, it presently has about 5 or 6 miles of track, some on
composite ties, some in concrete, and some on oak and hickory ties. The
operation is fully signaled, has two tunnels, one of which is 800 feet long,
and numerous grades, fills, cuts, underpasses, and bridges. The project
started back in 2001, when John's mother had a brush with mortality.
She had always been a bit of a rail fan, and this convinced him to put his
desire to make a riding miniature railroad into action. So after moving
about 500 cubic yards of dirt, blasting bedrock, using highway construction
crews to grade, fill and dig the right-of-way, the railroad took shape.
The main tunnel was built by digging a 60 foot deep trench through existing
terrain, dropping in 2,300 pound concrete sections, and then backfilling over
the whole thing. Signals were added, a roundhouse, engine shop, and
car
storage sheds helped add to the operation. Equipment was either built by
our old friends at Merrick Light Railways in Marshall, Wisconsin, or was
acquired by purchasing existing railroad stock. There are rock cuts, and
tons of wildlife. In fact, I saw an albino deer, not once but several
times. There are regular whitetail deer, turkeys and grouse easily seen
along the track We had some weather problems, as a front moved through,
bringing thunderstorms and grey skies for the latter part of the day. But
we did obtain some running footage, and some point of view while the sun was
out. Tomorrow, we'll do passing shots.
The
bad weather cleared out overnight, and today was clear, sunny and lower
humidity. We started with the #801 a 4-8-4 Northern class built by
Darrell Klompmaker (an amazing guy!) of Merrick Light Railways. This
engine really wants to run! It had great sound and it loved to go fast,
which is a relative term, but 25mph in a 15 inch gauge engine seems pretty
fast. We did a number of run-bys with both steam and diesel. The
steam was by far the most
impressive, with a whistle and working sound that would excite just about made
any rail-fan. We did several open fields, tunnel and grade crossing
shots, and then tried our hand at multiple trains crossing on separate tracks,
and running on the same portion of the railroad. It is all signaled, so
the engineer only has to watch the lights, just like a real operation.
Owner John Woods had an
excellent
staff, and we even met some people who were working in the Ely, NV shops when
we were there last month. We had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to
see the place when phase 2 is complete. Many, many thanks to John and
his staff. Tomorrow we head up to Iowa.
pointed north to Iowa. Our first stop
was the Midwest Central Railroad, where we did a short interview with the
president, Matt Crull. He talked about their #55 narrow gauge caboose,
which was originally built for the Belleview and Cascade Western Railroad in
1880. Used as a storage shed for many years, it was restored as a
private guest room, and is currently in the railroad collection. From
there, we headed up to Dubuque, my home town. Tomorrow we will find out
more about the little narrow gauge railroad that started life as the Chicago,
Belleview, Cascade and Western.
Today we met with John Tigges
and Jim Shaffer of Dubuque. Both are long time residents of the area.
John is an author and historian concerning the Belleview & Cascade, sometimes
known as "Iowa's Slim Princess." Jim is a photographer, who has a
massive collection of area photos and used to
be the chief photographer for the local newspaper. Both had a number of
old photos of the railroad, and we spent an enjoyable morning talking with
them, and scanning images. Around Noon, we headed south to the little
towns of Zwingle and LaMotte, Iowa. There are still a few remnants of
the railroad around, even 100 years after it was founded. We talked
with
Rick Clasen, who purchased the original LaMotte depot and is restoring it as a
museum dedicated to the railroad. Rick has amassed quite a few
artifacts, and has done a masterful job of getting the place back in shape,
and filling it with railroad artifacts. And we wandered into the woods
to walk some of the roadbed, cut from the bluffs some 100 years ago.
Tomorrow we can head back to Milwaukee.
"The
Ghost Players" who for the last 20 years would do the walk out from the
cornfield. They have decided that this was to be there last summer of
performances. The field is still there, as is the white house that is
home to the farmer that owns the property. Hundreds of thousands of people
visit this each year, and we didn't want to be left out. Once that was
done, we headed back to Milwaukee. And so ends trip number nine.
