The day started with two interviews, and then John and Chris rode the train up through the Bitterroot Range to Banks, which is only about 16 miles up the Payette River Valley. 

There was a lot of activity in the valley, with kayakers, rafters and tubers on the river.  The railroad skirts the river, and shooting it was rather easy, except for all the road noise. 

The tourist line is running old Long Island Railroad coaches, as well as some open air flat cars, and a really great business car from the Canadian Pacific. 

This was a lovely car, with nice linen, silver service and about four roomettes.  We chased the train down the valley, and then hung around to capture a private dinner later in the evening.  We could very well have the wrapped up today, but will shoot a few more passes tomorrow.

We headed back up the canyon today for several passing shots.  We did manage to get off the road for a ways and hopefully garner some decent audio.  Traffic was unbelievably heavy, though, so who knows how much road noise actually made it into the sound capture.  We drove the line from Banks up to Smiths Ferry.  The Payette River is a tumbling mass of white water virtually the entire 16 miles.  And the line, hugging the river, is spectacular.  The narrow canyon, the railroad ledges, and the pines make for extremely picturesque railroading.  And there is a really great bridge to boot!  Steam on this line would be fantastic.  However, there currently is some minor tunnel damage, and a rather large rock slide blocking the line.  The rock slide has boulders as large as the rail cars, so it will take some doing to get the track open.  Traffic was bumper to bumper, with it taking about 90 minutes to make the 30 mile journey.  Tomorrow we are off to the next assignment.

Train Mountain is a semi-private club, settled on roughly 2200 acres of pine mountain forest in southern Oregon.  There are approximately 30 miles of 7 ½ inch gauge tack spread out over the site, along with camping facilities and home sites.  So if a member is really into this, you can build a house with a track lead.  Its one big family operation, and quite a sight to behold. 

 There is rail everywhere.  The members say it takes about a year to figure the whole thing out, and then running at night adds another dimension.  We rode around a portion of the operation to obtain running shots, and then started in on train passes. 

Additionally, the group is building a large G gauge layout at one end of the property.  There are plenty of hand built buildings along the way, and lots and lots of trains.  The group has even gone so far as to fabricate snow plows, brush cutter, and track maintenance of way equipment.

This place is simply amazing.  Every time we turn around, we are struck by the vast network of track, all the trains, and all the land available to support this railroad.  And of course, there is the “one big family” aspect of the group.  When we arrived, we found a small Welch type slate mine steam locomotive.  Built from a kit, the little engine could easily haul large consists around the property. 

 

 

The manager, Ron Perrin, took us up to Caboose Ridge for an overview of the property.  You could see the tracks down below us, as we explored the string of cabooses on the ridge.  They are slated to become condos for enthusiasts.  I think I would be interested in purchasing one! 

 

 

 

 

We started the day with an interview with Tom Gray, owner and manager of the line.  Tom’s father Robert, whom we shall meet later, rode the last train in 1937, was interested in the railroad, and started to acquire it with the goal of reopening.  That day occurred in 1976, and they now have two steam engines to run the grade.  While it is only 16 miles to Carson City, the train takes about an hour and a half to struggle up the steep grades.  The sound in the deserted shooting locations was great, except for the Noon fire whistle that sounded.  The cars are all steel sided clerestory roofed cars from the D&L Railroad, except for Robert Gray’s personal car, which is a wooden private car.  Originally built for the BAR in 1911, the car served as a owners car, then as an MOW car, before being acquired by Robert for his wife.  The interior needed to be stripped, but the original inlaid woodwork was all intact.  So the interior was great.  We had a long day, and while we have most of the material, we’ll chase around again tomorrow to get some additional material.

We had our chance to speak with the principle owner of the railroad today, Mr. Robert Gray.  Quite spritely at 89, Robert did a good sound bite for us while seated in his wife’s private car.  We chased and got a long prairie shot at Carson City, and then finished with the train at Gold Hill.  While there, we were able to catch both the 44 ton center cab that is used as the local, and the steam engine.  On a final note, the line was completely scrapped during WW2.  The Grays have rebuilt the route, with new rail, ties, and of course, rolling stock.  This is quite a feat in historic rail preservation.  Tomorrow we go down out of the mountains.  The crew wants to go via Carson City, rather than ride down Geiger Grade again.

We pretty much covered the museum today.  The Feather River Rail Society is the operator of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.  The WP was absorbed by the Union Pacific in 1983, and a lot of the ex WP employees decided to preserve as much as they could.  So there is a nice collection of road and yard diesel switchers, a representative collection of unusual freight cars, cabooses, and maintenance equipment.  The group also has an operating rotary snow plow, which was a delight to see in action.  This monster has steam heat for the windows, cutting vanes, auger, and crew.  The whole thing is now powered by traction motors, although there is the steam generator on board for the clearing functions.  So you need a unit behind to provide power and motion, as the unit itself is unpowered.   The group has a nice collection of F units, one of which will be helping pull the Feather River Canyon Zephyr Excursion this weekend.

The day started with a stand up with Donna Mills, the Chair for the Railroad Days Festival, which starts on Friday.  Then it was back to the museum to catch the 10 AM portion of the Rent A Diesel program, in which people can rent and receive instruction on the operation of a diesel locomotive.  Our subjects turned out to be a woman from New York, and a man from Germany, who flew over just for this opportunity.  And then we did our usual Tracks Ahead seeking of overview material.  To accomplish that, we drove to the top of Smith Peak on a fire road.  I hoped that the transmission in the soccer mom van would hold out, and it did, although it did struggle and strain a lot of the time.  The final altitude was 7,688 feet, with a breathtaking view.  It was especially breathtaking it you wandered to close to the edge.  We spent some time chatting with the fire ranger, who is on duty for five month, and then headed back down the mountain to the hotel, our day complete

Railroad Days was a real slice of Americana.  There were a lot more people there than I though would show up.  The parade lasted about a half hour, and that produced a lot of people at the museum.  So shooting was pretty easy with folks admiring the rotary plow, taking caboose rides, and just climbing on and looking at equipment.  We took a brief side trip to see some of the other things planned for the charter train passengers – and area people as well.  One was the Nakoma (Dragon) House, a golf community with a 1923 Frank Lloyd Wright design clubhouse.  It was spectacular. 

While we were on time in the cool mountain air, the train was not.  So we ended up getting our race and chase delayed by about an hour.  It was a mad scramble down the canyon, as the rail fans all tried to get to the next location ahead of the train.  I was glad we had scouted this out so we knew exactly where to stop.  And we managed one great location, undiscovered by any rail fans, that yielded great audio and nice pictures.  The canyon really was beautiful, and the train, proudly headed by the Western Pacific Museum GP20 #2001 (the first GP20 turbo locomotive bought by the WP), made for quite a sight.  I was quite excited to see the famous Keddie Wye, as I have read about this for years, but never actually seen it until today.