(whistle blowing) (theme music) Announcer: Support for Tracks Ahead is provided in part by Kalmbach Publishing Company and its on-line video magazine, Model Railroader Video Plus.

And by Walthers.

(theme music) Spencer Christian: Hi, I'm Spencer Christian.

On this episode of Tracks Ahead, we'll visit Colorado to check out an O gauge military themed layout and ride the unique Galloping Goose- one of the more interesting jaunts you'll ever take!--- and an Ohio rail club shows off its' trains and over 3000 feet of track.

But first, we check out a German themed LGB layout that clearly shouts 'Gemutlichkeit'!

Time to get started.

(Natural Sound) NARRATOR: A Raetian Albula Railway express train briskly departs the Surava station, pulled by one of the modern G-E four-four electric locomotives.

And while the station announcement was quite authentic, complete with Swiss dialect, we are actually not in the Swiss Alps at all--- but in the South Lower Saxony area of Mittelgebirge with the LGB Fans of Ith.

They have created their Raetian Railway paradise here in exact scale in an area that takes up about 10,000 square feet.

While the garden railroaders of Ith are a small group, no more than 14 members presently, some of them have been dedicated themselves for decades as LGB hobbyists.

Michael: I believe every model railroader dreams of someday being able to build a large layout somewhere.

This is my 30th year as a garden railroader.

I began, like most people, setting up a simple layout in the landscape near my home.

Well, actually, the VERY first was in my playroom of course, and later in the space available in the attic.

About 10 years ago my parents bought this very piece of property.

It then became possible to realize my childhood dream right here.

(music and natural sounds) Michael: I was fascinated with garden railroading even as a small child.

The size of the layouts and of course the possibilities for a child to just play with the trains!

With this gauge train, you could actually load and unload the cars, open the doors, and so forth... A smaller scale railroad usually doesn't have that to offer.

NARRATOR: The fun of outdoor model railroading soon attracted other LGB fans to Michaels' rail landscape.

Michael: Before I knew it, a large group of LGB enthusiasts eagerly hopped on board and helped the layout along toward completion.

Narrator: As a result of the efforts of the newly formed group, there's quite a bit to see in this layout.

The Ith garden railroaders have been very successful in realizing the flair of the Raetian Railway.

Particularly worth seeing: the prototypical railroad buildings that make the Railway so unique.

Detailed figures that feature both locals and tourists are tucked in throughout the layout.

10 years of hard work have certainly paid off, with several hundred tons of material moved and re-formed to create the sub-bed for the Raetian Railway in miniature.

(natural sounds of train: "Look out please, the train is leaving"- whistle) NARRATOR: Since, there's not nearly as much digging and building going on; the focus now is on running the trains.

Klaus: I worked in H0 scale for about 45 years and as I aged, it all became a little too small and delicate for me.

I had seen LGB from time to time and I simply fell in love with it.

So, I decided to sell the H0 and bought LGB equipment with the money I received.

I have a cute little layout of my own in the living room, about 70 square feet- Saxon narrow gauge, because I come from Saxony.

I enjoy it very much.

Then I'm a member here in the Escherschausen Club and have a lot of fun and good times as part of the club.

NARRATOR: Dispatching the trains is a big part of Klaus's work with the railway.

(natural sounds: "Do you have the 205?

Yes, I've got it.

Can you take it?

Yes!)

Klaus: We have our radio systems and I get the train number from another user.

I take the train and run it through my station and then hand it off to the next station.

Or, perhaps, a number comes from the station way on the other side.

I'll take the train, run it through the tracks here and, again, hand it off to the next station.

(music) NARRATOR: Running these LGB trains is almost like running on the real life Raetian Railway; not by following a rail schedule by the book, but by emulating the different types of trains and various motive power found on the actual rail line.

The trains run on about 2300 feet of track joined mechanically with bolted rail joiners.

Th operational reliability of these digitally operated locomotives is impressively high as a result.

And to top it off, the Ith LGB club member have succeeded in emulating a true alpine atmosphere in their layout.

Approximately 60 tons of rock skillfully placed on this large layout ensures that the trains have to struggle against the man-made mountains, just as the real railway does in the altitude of the Alps.

Michael: It's one of the things that's so impressive on this layout, because here we have a difference in height of almost 15 feet which the trains must actually overcome.

We have grades set at 4.5 percent, or almost 5 inches per 100 inches.

You can guess that the locomotives have to work very hard to master that grade!

(music) NARRATOR: The grade to the connecting route for the Furka Olberalp Railway is especially steep.

A rack has been installed there - just like the real life rail line.

Michael: We have over 600 trees on the layout.

In addition to conifers we also have boxwood, hazel nut, and many other deciduous trees on the layout.

All of this takes a lot of care.

The deciduous trees alone have to be trimmed regularly every 14 days.

The conifers only have to be trimmed twice a year so they're not nearly as maintenance intensive.

NARRATOR: The Ith garden railroaders always have work to do, whether on this garden layout or any other that their group takes on.

And the pride taken in their work is evident in the results time and again throughout Lower Saxony.

The Raetian Railway- it's detail, scenery, trains and operation- is an excellent example of what a group of rail friends with a love for LGB can achieve together and share with all.

(music) Spencer: Coming up, generations of railroading and a plethora of gauges define what the cinder sniffers- a Cincinnati area train club- is all about.

Next, one of the more interesting garden themed railroads you'll come across- this O gauge military layout near Denver features quite a unique motif.

Narrator: Gordon Calahan has always been interested in World War 2.

And he has always been interested in railroading.

Gordon Calahan: World War 2 has always been an interest to me.

And I think it's probably one of the most interesting periods of time, because there was so much change in technology, and the basic thinking of how life should be and how wars should be fought.

Narrator: Gordon thought that it might be fun to approach the whole garden railroading project from a different perspective.

Gordon: I came up with the idea that it would be fun along with having the railroad to try and teach history.

And so the way I did that was to implement what it would be like to be in a German city in 1945 right at the end of the war.

And then to put in some of the German military equipment and also use it as a learning experience.

Narrator: Gordon started with LGB, but eventually settled on a slightly smaller scale.

Gordon: LGB is a larger scale, and I wanted to go to a smaller scale 1 to 32, which is what the railroad is.

So the search in America proved that there wasn't much interest.

So I had to go to Germany.

So I began to buy the Marklin trains, the Marklin buildings which are again, all 1 to 32.

The biggest source today that makes this all possible is eBay.

And the people in Germany will put buildings, trains, all of the things you need to build a railroad.

Narrator: In addition to the everyday freight and passenger service, Gordon also gave attention to the military use of the railroad.

Gordon: The long gun was stored in a tunnel.

And the Germans would pull it out, fire the gun, and then they would quickly pull it back in the tunnel.

And that way they could hide it from location or air attacks.

The camouflage car was similar to a tank.

It had two tank turrets.

It had a crew of men inside.

And they could get up in the turret.

And if they saw anybody or anything that was threatening the train, they could fire guns just the same as a tank.

The little white unit is an antiaircraft gun.

And the two tanks are the very large Tiger tank that the Germans were famous for.

Narrator: Gordon has also built several dioramas for occasional placement in the railroad.

Gordon: The oil refinery was a dream of mine years ago.

I'm a person who likes to say, if that refinery were real, it would work.

Well finding out how refinery's work is kind of a secret.

Most people won't tell you much.

So I had to find oil people who would actually sit down with me and say 'This pipe goes here, this pipe goes there.

And this pipe goes over to the loading facility. '

Narrator: Landscaping is all scaled down to the smaller size.

Gordon handles the trains, but the landscaping is left to others.

Gordon: Landscaping is two things.

We have our perennials.

We have a lot of early perennials that are very colorful.

But generally what we'll do is we'll add annuals.

And we have to search Denver to find small annuals.

Things like pansies.

They do make pansies that only grow 4 or 5 inches.

And petunias, you can find them that are dwarfed.

And so we will buy, we'll probably put in 2-300 little plants.

It's hard to see them.

But when you have a little plant, it takes a lot of them to fill a space.

So we will put probably close to 1,000 plants in the railroad every year.

And that way we can pull out ones we don't want, and trim them.

And trimming is the secret to the railroad.

You can trim practically every plant if you're careful.

Narrator: Gordon wanted track work that would last over long periods of time.

.

Gordon: When I first started the railroad, and of course being in the construction industry, I thought, you know we put everything on concrete.

So we began to look at this and said if we put a piece of concrete down, a ribbon, inch and a half thick and three or four inches wide, with a piece of rebar, the track would float.

So we, at the time I had construction people when I brought them in and they poured the concrete and then we attached the track to the concrete with screws.

This year, after a hard winter, we ran the train and had no corrections.

Narrator: The time in Germany was difficult, and Gordon has tried to capture much of that chaos.

Gordon: We built some dioramas that we representations of a bombed out city and yet still had some of the people in the city.

We bought probably a 100 different trucks and tanks, we had about 300 soldiers.

And it really is a good representation about how things really did look.

Narrator: Two interests, combined, have created a unique garden railroad.

(music) (train whistle/train going by) Narrator: A short drive west from Cincinnati leads one to Lawrenceburg, Indiana-home of the Cinder Sniffers.

(steam/train whistle) Narrator: Founded in 1955, the Cinder Sniffers is a model live steam club that accommodates a wide variety of different engines.

Chuck Balmer: It's a club of like-minded people who like to build and operate steam and diesel locomotives of the ride-able size, not a basement layout type.

And we run these things on a regular basis throughout the summer.

Jim Balmer: A lot of enjoyment for me actually comes from running the engines themselves.

(train whistle) Jim: It's kind of one of those things you don't see mechanics like this very much anymore, especially people of my generation.

I count myself lucky.

I've actually seen a couple of real-live steam engines that were actually running, not just on static display somewhere.

So for me this is kind of, you know, kind of recreating history.

(train passing by) Narrator: What began as a small group of six looking to advance their hobby of live steam has now grown over the years into an active, vibrant club occupying more than three acres and standing at fifty members strong.

Jon Payne: I've been a member of the Cincinnati Cinder Sniffers for forty years.

It's in my blood.

The smell of coal, smoke and valve oil run through my veins and it's a passion.

I could not imagine my life without it.

(train running) Narrator: The Cinder Sniffers layout boasts an eclectic terrain.

The original track is kidney-shaped and features a working turntable.

Additional track was added fifteen years ago that created a secondary loop that crosses a trestle and leads to a covered bridge.

Chuck: There was an original track in Cincinnati-that's when the members began to get together and start running and decided at some point to form a larger organization.

And then they bought this property and began building the kidney-shaped track that's the original layout.

Jon: The club has evolved over the years.

The buildings and grounds are continually evolving adding more track and sidings and buildings-that type of thing.

When I come out to the track, the woodsy atmosphere is one of my favorite attributes of the railroad.

(high-pitched train whistle, train running) Jon: While you're going out over the bridge that's thirty feet high, you're at the treetops and if they are no other trains around, you feel like you're out in the middle of the woods.

Narrator: One of the more unique aspects of the Cinder Sniffers layout is its ability to accommodate multiple gauges.

Jon: The railroad started out as a 7 ½ inch gauge railroad for the 1 ½" and 2 ½" scale and quickly evolved to a third track for 3" scale.

Since then, 1" scale has evolved and become very popular also so we added a fourth rail.

So we use four rails with stump switches and allow all four gauges to run on the same set of track.

Chuck: Well, one of the nice things about it for us, we can bring more than one engine at a time.

(laughs) We brought three of 'em today.

Most guys with the inch and half scale can't bring more than one at a time.

(steam/train moving) Narrator: One quick look around, and one can't help but sense the family- friendly atmosphere Cinder Sniffers provides.

People grow up on the track here, and multiple generations often come together to share in the fun.

Jim: It, it really is kind of something special.

I really count myself lucky that I can do this with my dad.

It's definitely a great thing.

It's one thing to have a hobby you can enjoy by yourself, it's always better when you can enjoy it with other people and it's even better when it's something that you can enjoy as a family.

It just, it gives you something to bring you closer together, gives you something to do all together and enjoy.

(Matt Fadely giving riding instructions: "Everyone pl ease keep your hands and feet inside the train..." Matt Fadely: I joined the club when I was about ten-years-old.

There's so much here that a lot of the older members pass down information, they'll teach anyone who wants to listen what they've learned about steam engines or the diesel engines.

And just all sorts of little tricks with keeping your trains running right.

Jon: The Cinder Sniffers is a very family-oriented organization.

Friends and family are always welcome, there's not a charge.

All we ask is that you have a good time.

I have four generations of family that have been out here and come out here.

It's something that we share, it's a passion and a hobby that brings our family together.

It's beneficial because the children don't get to see steam locomotives in many cases in today's society unless it's a scenic railroad.

And many kids that come out to the Cinder Sniffers, this is their first exposure to seeing a steam locomotive.

(water hose cleaning train) Narrator: As yet another Run Day at Cinder Sniffers comes to a close, the tracks fall silent and families return home--until the next time an engine revs up and begins belching steam, bringing life and family-friendly fun to this institution on the Indiana-Ohio border for generations to come.

(train bells, train moves away) Spencer: The Colorado Railroad Museum is home to a interesting line of nearly forgotten rail cars.

The Galloping goose is a hybrid of sorts- running on rail with the body and guts of a bus.

They had their day, and now only a few survive.

(music) Narrator: The Rio Grande-Southern railroad built 7 of them in the 1930s and they became known as "Galloping Geese".

Wit their gasoline powered motors, they offered the railroad a cost-effective way to carry mail, some freight and later, passenger traffic.

Three of the remaining 6 geese are now at the Colorado railroad museum in Golden, Colorado.

Al Blount: We have 3 of them.

We have number 2, 6 and 7.

(whistle/horn) Al: Number 7 was built in 1936 out of a '26 Pierce-Arrow passenger limousine.

In '31, the railroad was almost in bankruptcy- the only thing that kept them going was the mail contract.

To keep the mail contract, they had to run a train everyday, almost.

So, they didn't have enough freight or passenger traffic to afford to run a steam locomotive every day.

So they had to something.

So in Ridgeway, that's where the Rio Grande and Southern headquarters were, they took a first one, they took a '24 buick, chopped the back out of it, put some steel wheels on it and put it on the tracks.

Engineer: The Galloping Geese ran from Delores, Colorado, up to Ridgeway, and also from Delores around to Durango, Colorado.

So they serviced the mail of all those mining towns; in there, Rico, Stoner and Telluride and again back into Ridgeway.

So they would turn it around and come back the other way and pick up a sack of mail, a few passengers and a little bit of freight.

Narrator: The geese allowed the failing railroad to stay in business during the depression in the 1930s.

Al: Well it worked pretty well, except the post office didn't like 'em carrying the mail in the back in the open, and if they had more than one passenger they had to sit in the mail.

They didn't like that.

So they turned around and built number 2 which is right behind us up on the hill.

It had a bigger box in the back and they could actually put 3 or 4 passengers in that.

That worked fantastically, and also in '31 they built goose number 3 which originally looked just like number 7 does, and that was fantastic, it paid for itself in a couple of weeks.

So they ended up building 4 big geese, and in '33 they scrapped number 1, they used parts of it to build number 6 which we do have on the property.

There is a reproduction of number 1 in Ridgeway, Colorado at the museum there in Ridgeway.

It actually saved the railroad, it kept the railroad running and in the black for 21 years.

Donald Tallman: And called it a Galloping Goose because the Rio Grande-Southern Railroad tracks weren't very even.

And it waddled down the tracks and when they blew the horn, it sounded kinda like a goose.

So originally it was sort of a derisive title, then it became a turn of endearment later.

Al: In '49 they lost the mail contract, that's when they put the windows in the back of the 4 big geese, and in that time in 1949 and '50, Denver was getting rid of the trollies, so they bought a whole bunch of trolley seats, put those in the back of the geese when they started doing the excursions, they tried that for 2 years in '50, '51 and that wasn't enough to make a go of it.

So '51, '52, they sold everything off, tore the tracks up and abandoned the railway.

Narrator: The geese were powered by automobile and truck engines, and ran on gasoline.

Al: It's very expensive to run a steam locomotive and very labor intensive.

With gasoline, you get in, turn the key and you're ready.

(horn) Narrator: Goose number 7 is driven like a car with a manual transmission, with no steering wheel of course and air brakes.

Al: They have no steering wheel and no brake pedal.

Number 7 was the first one that they built and they made air brakes on it.

It was a 10 year old car when they bought it.

We don't know if the Pierce-Arrow engine was shot, but they put a '36 Ford V-8 flathead in it.

They ran that until 1946 and that's when they bought 4 war surplus GMC truck engines.

And they were oddball engines, we don't know what they were used in as far as the military goes.

They put that in the 4 big geese and if you look at the goose you'll see that the larger geese have a little chinaman's hat over the hood, that was because the air filters in the GMC engines stuck up too high.

Donald: On the goose ride we'll take you for a tour of the grounds.

You'll be transported back in time because the loop of track that we have is so prototypical of what it was like to travel in the mountains of Colorado.

Al: I happened to fishing with my uncle back in the late '40's and watched one of the geese go up the tracks- never got to ride it then, but now I get to drive it.

(music) Spencer: 6 of the 7 original 'geese' exist- and the Colorado Rail Museum houses half of those.

Well, that's all for this episode.

Please join us next time for more, Tracks Ahead.

(theme music) Announcer: Tracks Ahead.

Brought to you by: Kalmbach Publishing Co. and its on-line video magazine, Model Railroader Video Plus.

Walthers.

Manufacturer and supplier of model railroading products, serving the hobby since 1932.