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Music.

Tracks Ahead.

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Kalmbach Publishing Company producers of an online source for rail-related information, where you can discover model trains, toy trains, garden trains and even real trains.

(Horn) Kato Manufacturer of precision railroad models and the UniTrack System Music Hi, I'm Spencer Christian.

On this episode of Tracks Ahead we'll visit a model railroad with an European theme, visit a literary critic and avid train rider and journey into the woods of east Texas where steam is still king.

But first every year major attractions like the Grand Canyon and Mt.

Rushmore draw huge crowds.

A lot of folks think those pale in comparison to a spectacular train layout in New Jersey.

Ancr: Sometimes all you hear from the layout are train noises.

Well, not here.

This New Jersey attraction is different, this, all of this, and this, and this, is Northlandz.

Bruce: In the heart of Northlandz on the tour people will pass through it four different times.

times.

We have our theatre pipe organ, it's a five manual partially Wurlitzer hybrid, these were the organs that played in the 1920's to support the silent film.

It's more than an attraction than we thought it would be; we have different professionals playing throughout the week, I'm also a professional musician, I play a couple days.

It's a pretty neat part of the place, people like it.

Ancr: A layout this huge doesn't just happen overnight, it's more like a kind of evolution.

Bruce: The history behind Northlandz: back in 1972, we bought a few of acres of land nearby, built a house.

The basement was for trains and over the next 18 years we added five basements into the side of the basement all the way out.

It use to take 80 minutes around the old railroad, we opened it two weekends a year to the public; proceeds went local charities.

From all of that we learned how to do Northlandz we got experience from that.

In 1990 we decided to tear it down and bought this land on highway 202 here, designed and built the building and started all over again.

Ancr: Before this new version was built all the plans were drawn up.

Bruce says the key was having a solid plan which included some major league raw numbers.

Bruce: About 40,000 feet of track, there's a couple hundred thousand pounds of plaster to make all the mountains and rockwork.

There's enough lumber inside the building to support everything, to build about 42 large houses.

Currently we run about 115 trains at one time, that'll eventually grow to about 130, we only run about 12, 1300 cars.

The amount of trees in Northlandz, there's about a couple thousand; they're not counting specifically; that's a rough guess.

It's like the representation in mountains, other trees are scratch built, lot of them are Woodlands Scenic trees.

It's 52,000 square foot building; the layout for Northlandz, every square inch was designed out completely before we started.

We had a stack of papers about four feet high with all the design plans.

There's a lifetime of work even though it looks finished, and basically is finished, but there's a lifetime of work on major projects to be done in here.

If the finances are there we hope to triple the building in the next year or two and have about three different shows and we'll go much higher, to do the Swiss Alps and the Himalayans and things like that.

The amount of people that we get here in a given year at Northlandz somewhere between 125,000 - 150,000, some years we've had more.

We run 115 trains from the control center, we have TV monitors on most of the system, plus meters to tell us what's going on with the train, and we have spotters walking around all the time.

Ancr: Unlike a lot of layouts, the action here doesn't stop at the door.

Bruce: Outside we have a terrific outdoor train ride with a 3 size train that's for big people as well as little, a three foot gauge, leaves our station goes through our tunnel, along the river back through the woods over the big bridge back to the station.

It's a pretty neat little ride.

Ancr: There are many reasons to come and, according to Bruce, to spend some time just soaking it all in.

Bruce: The breathtaking scenery is probably what catches most people, the three and half Story Mountains, big canyons.

We have a lot of funny things that some of the purists may not like.

We have a toothpick farm, the world's only toothpick farm.

We have a mile high miniature golf course and we have grandma's pit where they had to dig around her house to make this quarry because she wouldn't sell.

Tremendous amount of industrial buildings all scratched built; lot of people are fascinated by the bridges, some are 30-40 feet long in HO scale.

Just remember as large as Northlandz is Bruce wants to make it larger.

Being a model railroader means that you can create any locale that you want for your empire.

Most people recreate old vanished railroads but some prefer the compactness of scenery of Europe.

Marcel Trautwein has recreated scenes from his youth.

Marcel: The Wildwood Scenic lines still exist and it's now part of a grand deluge on the mainline passengers service into the mountainous region.

Ancr: Marcel Trautwein has always been interested in trains; this layout has been a work in progress since 1978.

Marcel: When I first bought the house, I saw this empty basement and I already had it in the back of mind that I wanted to build a model railroad.

I built other layouts before but they were a lot smaller than this, this one is actually permanent built into the house.

If I ever move, I can't take this with me because it has a cycloramic backdrop, floor to ceiling scenery, cycloramic means that it's curved both ways, it's curved from the ceiling down to the wall, to the floor then it curves also in the corners.

It's like a concave effect as your looking into the corners there's no lines.

I wanted to give it the illusion of depth.

Ancr: He was born in Switzerland.

He said that inspired this wonderful layout.

Marcel: They had something about narrow gauge and small mining trains and there's a lot of that over in Europe.

So that reflects in my layout.

As you can see there's unusual things on the layout, small-scale trains, mining operations, it kind of brings back my childhood days.

Ancr: This, all of this, is from his imagination.

But when you hear him tell the story you almost feel like you know the people who live here in Little Switzerland and Bridgeport.

Marcel: This is the highest point a tourist can go and the view is absolutely breathtaking.

Ancr: In the mountains weather is always a worry, same thing in his layout.

Marcel: The lights start dimming down then all of sudden the lightening starts to flash, thunder in the background, you hear the rain, basically have a thunderstorm in the mountains.

Ancr: For Marcel a lot of the fun building a layout comes from experimentation, trial and error and ultimately success.

He says people just getting started should try to do the best on their own, if they just can't figure it out or if they just plain don't have time, he can help.

All of this started with the help of Marcel.

Stan Olander has had three layouts but for this one he wanted to go a step further.

Stan: I visited his layout; I was quite impressed.

I really met quite a craftsman here.

We started discussing layouts; he discussed the importance of building the benchwork right from the start.

That was the secret of successful operation.

I decided he was the guy to do it and looking at his layout you can tell he's quite a craftsman.

Ancr: He says that the key is the benchwork; the actual construction that supports his wonderful layout and that he built with Marcel.

Stan: We built very good benchwork with one by four lumber, 5/8's inch exterior plywood, ½ inch of homasote and then cork roadbed goes on top of that, a very quiet operation but the bench work is very strong, it's very stable no warp in the track.

We soldered every rail joint and filed it down that makes for a smoother operation.

Ancr: Attention to detail brings this layout to life; Stan has spent nine months building trees.

Stan: A tree is very simple, use economical ground green foam, you can blend your colors, but you put the foam in a bucket or container, it's a powdery foam.

Then take a poly fiber; I like black because you don't want color at all, if you don't cover the entire mass, black of the interior, and the tree looks black.

You make a ball like that, irregular in shape like a tree would be.

Then you spray it with economical hairspray as an adhesive, then you drop it in the ground foam and bounce it around, coat it completely.

There's a finished tree.

It's that simple.

Ancr: Stan figures it'll take another couple of years to complete his dream layout.

He says it would not come true without the special help he got from Marcel Trautwein.

Stan: I cut the time in half maybe by a year, less time to get the benchwork going that's the hard part, the carpenter part of it.

Now that the stage is in, we got everything done, it's the fun part, the scenery, populating, laying filled with buildings and people, trees.

Marcel: It's a feeling of accomplishment; it's a good feeling.

I'm fulfilling a need for somebody, basicay people don't have the time or the equipment to build a layout, or don't have the knowledge because their specialty is something else.

This is where I fulfill a niche.

As the years have past many unfortunate miners and loggers lost their lives along with horses and mules in avalanches or fell off the sides of the mountain, usually loaded down with logs and ore because of the slippery trails in the winter months.

Ancr: For Marcel one of the nice things about building a dream layout is that it's a dream that never really ends.

There's always something new to create, to dream up, something new for the people who live in and around the world he made.

Marcel: I take my hat off to all those men and women that endured the bitter winters and the damp dreary darkness of the mines when life was simpler but hard and grueling.

The California Zephyr travels from Chicago all the way to the San Francisco bay area.

It's the kind of trip that makes for wonderful stories and in some cases an entire book.

Climb aboard with Henry Kisor for he's helped immortalized this train in print.

We wouldn't want to neglect the great state of Texas in our look at railroading.

After all there was a whole class of locomotives named after the state.

You'll still find steam in operation in Palestine about halfway between Houston and Dallas.

Ancr: This blustery east Texas landscape is the perfect setting for a ride on a steam locomotive tucked warm and dry inside a world of nostalgia and history.

Hop aboard and experience a bit Texas history, ride 25 miles between Rusk and Palestine.

While aboard think about the fact that this historic ride is built on a line built by prisoners' way back in the 1800's.

Blair: It started in 1894 by the Texas prison system; they had an iron smelter in the prison in Rusk and they built five miles out from the prison to get iron ore and wood to make the charcoal for their process.

A few years later it was extended another five miles to Mayville, later on it was extended to Palestine but that was about 1909.

Ancr: Prisoners are part of recent history too.

In 1996 and 1997, prison crews were put to work clearing brush from the tracks and restoring passenger coaches.

This railroad isn't for iron anymore; it's just for the fun of it.

Blair: It winds through the east Texas piney woods; it's hilly and beautiful.

We cross so many creeks we've got almost a mile in trestles, 24 bridges and the longest one is a little over 1100 feet.

It's a beautiful ride.

Ancr: The operation is run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

They have steam locomotives that pull some impressive coaches.

Blair: We have four operating locomotives, number 201 is the oldest built in 1901 for the Texas and Pacific, got the 300 an army engine built in 1917 for the army and after World War II it was sold to the Tremont and Gulf railroad who also had this engine 400 built in 1917 and they ran on the same railroad before they came here.

Then number 500 was built in 1911 it was a passenger engine for the Santa Fe; it's the largest locomotive that we run.

We have this engine behind me the 610 built in 1927 for the Texas and Pacific, it's the largest and heaviest but we don't operate it but it's in pretty good shape.

Ancr: Located just 150 miles from Houston and 120 miles from Dallas it's a great get-away for rail fans in the area.

These are the kind of classic trains that make you nostalgic for the golden age of train travel.

In fact, if you just sit back, relax and use your imagination, it's all here.

Ancr: It's the sort of thing that captures your attention and sense of wonder.

Talk to people like Natasha Bettis, a mechanical engineer by trade.

She volunteers to keep it all rolling.

You quickly find out that it's not just the passengers who are captivated.

Natasha: There's something magical about steam.

You take some fuel, water, and under the right conditions you get massive amounts of power.

And it's amazing to me that a hundred years ago they designed something like this with a piece of paper, a sliderule, and a pencil.

And this right up here.

In doing the work that I do as an engineer, I see all the stuff that we do as technical people, and we do with computers.

And to me, a hundred years ago, this was rocket science.

It's amazing that a century later they're still running.

And running well.

I don't know that things we would build today would still be operational a hundred years from now.

Ancr: It should be a comfort to know that no matter where you are, steam from a locomotive still fills the East Texas skies, and the lonesome whistle always calls you back to the past.

Music Ancr: The Zephyr is a train of legend.

You climb aboard Chicago's historic Union Station and ride all the way to Oakland, California.

It runs through some of the most gorgeous scenery that America could dish up.

From Americas Great Plains of the heartland to the Rocky Mountain West.

The train is the subject of a book by Henry Kisor, called "Zephyr, Tracking a Dream Across America."

Henry's the book critic for Chicago Sun Times.

He and his wife Debbie have come to know this train intimately and hop aboard whenever they can get away.

This trip is just a quick run up to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, in fact a great way to spend a long weekend.

Reading Henry's book you too come to know the, train, scenery, crew and the passengers.

You'll learn a lot about the people aboard because they reveal themselves to Henry and tell wonderful stories.

Many writers say that the best thing you can be is a good listener, in Henry Kisor's case that means reading lips.

Henry is deaf; he says that helped when talking with crewmembers.

Ancr: In his book there are funny and touching stories that relate to his lack of hearing.

But it's not a book about a deaf person riding a train.

The pages reveal the people, scenery and the experiences that make this ride so special.

Debbie: .that's what appeals to me most about a long train journey, despite the railroad's history of diminishing time in increasing speed.

Time on today's long distance train no longer means haste, at least for me, exactly the reverse in fact.

Train time means large blocks of leisure to rest, to read a book from cover to cover, to write a few thousand words on my laptop computer in the warm privacy of a sleeper compartment.

Or simply, to wool gather letting my imagination carry me where it will.

Ancr: Debbie Kisor often does the reading at appearances in bookstores, she also helps Henry talk with other people when they have trouble understanding him or when he has trouble reading their lips.

He doesn't know sign language, never learned it because it came along after he was already reading lips.

Debbie: I don't think of myself as an interpreter, although I know I am one, but you ask how we communicate, we've been married for 33 years, basically he just reads my mind.

Ancr: Just by buying a ticket and taking a train you're signing up for more than just a ride from place to place.

In his book Kisor unveils what most rail fans already know.

Ancr: The Zephyr cuts a picturesque swath through the country.

Any spot aboard is pretty amazing; but the best seat in the house is usually off limits, riding in the cab is an extremely rare treat.

Jerry: The territory that you run over is different than probably any territory that you've ever seen, unless your up in Montana or some parts of Idaho, you might see similar territory but it's unique in that way.

You're up a steep grades with canyons and tunnels are making cuts for you, it's quite unique.

You follow the Colorado River for a 156 miles, it's quite a unique route.

Ancr: When all that scenery makes you hungry, head to the dining car.

Unlike the airlines, the food here is fresh and prepared by on-board chefs who use their own recipes.

Amtrak tries hard to use regional ingredients whenever possible.

Since the fish is fresh from the streams in Colorado, fish it is.

As a passenger you have some accommodation options, you can curl up in one of the coach seats, which can get a little cramped when you're trying to sleep, then again these folks don't seem to be having any trouble.

You can also book a sleeper compartment, which although compact, offers almost the comforts of home in a pint size space.

When you awake, there are always more amazing things to see out the window, places only a train can take you.

For Henry Kisor there's no such thing as riding the Zephyr too many times, there's always something new out the window or inside the train.

Debbie: What is next for us?

Debbie: Henry wants to retire and write and I won't let him.

Ancr: Like a lot of us, trains inspire him and like a lot of us they always seem to be calling him to climb aboard.

If you want to read more about the Zephyr, pick up Henry's book, "Zephyr, Tracking A Dream Across America".

Thanks for being with us and please join us next time for more Tracks Ahead.

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