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

And by Walthers.

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

On this episode of Tracks Ahead, we'll take a stroll down a Virginia 'railwalk'-- we check out an 'n' scale layout in northern Indiana--- and visit a Philadelphia area garden railroad.

But first, let's see how steam trains made their way back into the Iowa landscape at the same time preserving Chinese rail history--- Time to get started.

(steam and train sounds) Narrator: Fire... and water.... have powered trains, moved people and built cities since the early 1800s.

Over the last decade, the Iowa Interstate Railroad has brought the sight and sounds of steam back to the Midwest.

(train whitstle) Robert Franzen, who owns Steam Services of America, manages and maintains these types of locomotives all over the country.

The two engines that have made their home in Newton, Iowa are Chinese immigrants.

Robert Franzen: We have two QJs, the 6988 and 7081and they were built in 1985 and 1986.

And they were basically a Russian design that was developed... from early steam engines from the teens and 20 and 30... .. and the American design was designed for big power to pull a lot of tonnage and that's what the QJs are, they are 2-10-2 a large locomotive for pulling heavy freight trains.

So, the Chinese went to the Russians and asked to help them design a locomotive and they came up with the QJs.

... And there was 4700 of those built in China over a period of the early 60s all the way up til 1998.

Narrator: In 2006, Henry Posner the third purchased the QJs hoping they'd resell to the American tourist railroads.

Since there wasn't a market for steam, the QJs became part of Iowa Interstate's corporate identity.

Henry: In China there's not a lot of respect for something that is 30 years old.

Because in China, anything less than 1000 years old is modern.

So they do not have the sense of rail history that we have.

... And it became pretty clear that nobody was interested in preserving QJ locomotives....

So we bought these locomotives and started running them ourselves.

Every year we do something with the locomotive.

We do a lot of benefits trips for fire depts.. and of course today we have the NRHS chartering one of the QJs for the Cedar Rapids Convention.

Narrator: The National Railway Historical society ran two back-to- back trips for its members during summer of 2012.

Watching the Chinese steam in action, as it ran between Newton to Rock Island.

(music) Robert: The thing that's unique about the steam locomotive is that it gets it power from coal or oil ...you ignite the coal and basically heat the boiler up and the boiler has water in it it's like a tea kettle... so that firebox heats up that water, and it turns into steam and steam goes down into a series of valves and pistons ...and basically powers the wheels.

And that's where you get the power to pull the trains, but the problem is the steam engine is not very efficient and it takes a lot of maintenance.

Narrator: To be ready for the NRHS train trip, steam operations needed a crew of twenty people.

The majority are volunteers, who are experienced in running and servicing steam engines.

Preparations start 4-5 weeks ahead of time, to make sure the locomotive is able to run a few full days, and stay tuned-up over night.

Jim Conner: I'm the coordinator of the night watch crew, so it gives it continuity, somebody tries to be here every night and we've been out for 6 nights now.

And they take a lot of service.

Some more modern locomotives wouldn't take as much physical labor to do the actual servicing with the different lubricants.

Right now it's 24 hrs a day, we put in 14, the road crew puts in 10.

On average, sometimes it's more than 14.

Narrator: Along with maintaining the locomotives for seasonal events, Franzen's crew spends many hours making sure the QJs pass federal inspections.

Robert: When we bought the steam locomotives from China ... these engines had been operating for about 20 years.

So we oversaw the rebuild and did a lot of the upgrade work in China to meet our federal standards over here.

Once we got the locomotives over here to our shop ... we made the modifications to make them operable here in the United States.

Adding radios, telemetry devices, speedometers, glazing, we had to work on some of the air brakes and those types of things to get them up to snuff here.

Henry: What's unique about those loco is that pretty soon they will be the only QJs running in the world.

The locomotive hauling the train today, 6988, hauled the world's last, regularly scheduled mainline steam freight.

The 7081, which is the other loco that we have, pulled the last main line steam passenger train.

So we didn't pick the locomotives based on their history, but we certainly hit the jackpot when it came to world railway history.

(music) Robert: It's the 2nd generation of steam, where we've brought it back in historic reservation and we rebuild it and operate it today.

And the reason that we do it is because we want our children and our grandchildren see what built this country.

Jim: A steam locomotive is an external machine, you see everything that's going on... you get to hear the chuffing of the exhaust going up the stack ...and clickety clack going down the rail and blowing whistle.

It's an exciting machine for children to know that it was out there and it's still out there, there's people putting big money into having something like this.

(music) Spencer: Coming up, a Philadelphia area arboretum that takes great care in its landscapes... as well as its garden railroad.

But first, a train enthusiast who runs his own freight system from a spare room in his home.

(music) Narrator: Green hills... Coal mines... And storefronts come together to make a lifelike recreation of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

The old railway closed in 1987 but Jeff Ashby keeps the line going with the n- scale trains he's been a fan of since childhood.

Jeffrey Ashby: I got started modeling trains when I was about 7-years-old.

My father took off for Vietnam and he got me a postage stamp train set.

It was an n-gauge layout and it was made out of Styrofoam and had track nailed to it.

You could put trees and scenery, dirt and bugs, whatever you wanted on it.

I just played with that for hours and hours.

Narrator: 30 years ago, a friend reintroduced Jeff to n-gauge trains and he's been modeling ever since.

The railway runs from Virginia to Indiana and Michigan.

And there are plenty of mountain and industrial features to wind through so Jeff describes his layout as rugged and gritty.

Jeff: If you've ever been to West Virginia, the Appalachians, the coal mines in that area...

It's a hard life.

A lot of people and the work that they do is hard there.

Narrator: Jeff constructs most of his layout himself so he's able to get pretty creative.

And even though his layout covers a large area, Jeff still manages to fit a lot into his 9 foot by 15 foot spare bedroom.

Jeff: I make all my own track...

I build all my own turnouts.

I can make whatever configuration I want... whatever size I need and I can make it fit whatever track plan I need it to fit.

That makes the layout unique because I can pack a lot into this tiny, little room.

I'm not locked into a manufacturer's...their standard.

I have my own.

Originally, with all my coal mines, they would operate live loads of coal.

But it's something that I don't do in operations anymore because coal is dirty and as the coal dust floats through the air and goes onto the tracks and... That has to be clean and if you don't it doesn't run very smooth.

The key to n-gauge is always keep the track clean.

Narrator: A few years ago Jeff decided to redesign his layout.

He wanted his trains to operate more like the real thing.

So Jeff asked a friend with 40 years of railroading experience for his operational expertise.

Jeff: My friend Larry Hickman introduced me to some operations that the railroad used.

He showed me ways the real railroad worked.

Larry Hickman: We have a little thing we call kicking it up against the wall.

What it amounts to is basically, he comes up with an idea, he calls me about it, and we kick it back and forth.

He just comes up with an idea and says, 'What do you think.'

I put my two cents in and he finally makes the final decision on what he wants to do.

Jeff: Larry helped me with understanding the operations.

I didn't have a good understanding of operations early on and I'm still learning.

With that, we were able to change work and make it work better.

Narrator: And its Jeff's attention to detail that keeps other operators coming back to his layout.

Larry: What really surprised me the first time I saw this how well everything runs.

Jeff takes his engines apart even when they're new and rebuilds them from the ground up.

So they run flawlessly.

When you get behind the throttle and turn it on, that engine just purrs.

Narrator: Still, Jeff's reasons for putting so much work into his layout have just as much to do with friendship.

Jeff: When I think about it, if I have this layout and I don't have it to share with anybody, what's it worth?

That's the part I enjoy, is getting together with people and sharing with them.

And they come over and give me their input, their ideas and when we... we talk, we have a camaraderie that you just develop.

And it's opened up the door for so many new friendships.

It's like anything in life.

If you don't have it to share with somebody, life would be boring, I think.

Narrator: Some of Jeff's models may be smaller than a pencil but don't be fooled.

Between modeling new track, operating with friends, and dreaming up designs for his layout, Jeff has his hands full.

But he wouldn't have it any other way- and neither would we.

(music) Iana Turner: As they enter the garden, it is a rolling exhibit.

You are walking among hills and the trains run up on either side of you.

Narrator: This is the Garden Railway one of many gardens located in the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania.

Located in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia this Arboretum consists of 92 acres of plants, trees, flowers and trains!

(music) Narrator: Horticulturist, Iana Turner said so many of the garden railways that are done now are very flat but this exhibit is interesting because of the way it is laid out.

Iana: Part of the magic of this exhibit as the trains appear and disappear around curves in the track, it's much more mysterious in the exhibit.

Narrator: This railway garden was originally a Heath and Heather garden.

The railway started with three tracks, three train loops and a trolley line.

There are now sixteen trains running at all times.

(kids chatting and train whistle and sounds) Iana: 10 of them are loops, large loops and then we have some that are on reverse lines, which we call our trolley lines- we have 10 of those, so there are 16 trains all together.

Bruce Morrell: The garden has over about 200 feet more than a quarter mile.

About 1400 feet in track.

And it is a challenge to keep them clean.

Narrator: Bruce Morrell, train master at the arboretum fell in love with trains when he was a boy.

Bruce: We have a variety of trains.

Diesel, steam, and toy trains that are representative of Thomas-type toy trains.

Narrator: He displays and runs a variety of trains throughout the day and from week to week and that keeps the exhibit interesting.

Bruce: We have a lot of Aristocraft locomotives, because they seem to give me the best longevity for the dollar, and they're easy to repair.

We have LGB as well, some of the older variety and some of the newer, more recent manufacturers.

And the problem with LGB is it's hard to get parts for them, to keep them going is difficult.

That's why we like Aristocraft, because the parts are usually available and they're easy to repair.

Iana: We use a lot of companies that started here in the states.

I use Bachmann, big manufacturers here.

But one of the interesting things is we're G scale, which means that we can run outdoors.

You see a lot of other scales, but this is a lot more fun.

And they're much easier to work on because they're much larger.

(train whistle) Iana: They make them with the electronics and everything protected against the weather so it's much easier to bring outside.

You have little flaws every once in a while, but in general we can run them snow or rain... ice, we run them.

Narrator: The garden railway exhibit is forever evolving with the theme changing yearly along with the layouts.

Iana: We bring in around 14 different buildings - this year it's story-tale rail, Humpty Dumpty and Rapunzel's house, the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.

What makes these buildings so magical is the fact that they're made of all-natural materials - bark, different pieces of pine cone, twisted limbs off trees, and it just makes it that much more magical because there's imagination in the buildings, too.

Narrator: There are some structures on the layout that are a constant, and don't change- they're just moved around.

Iana: We had a lot of the inner-city Philadelphia buildings, our Independence Mall, a lot of the other things that are very important here.

I move them around all the time.

It makes it a lot more fun, because sometimes people wouldn't have noticed it the previous year and it looks like a brand new home.

We have set up a children's area, particularly where we run Thomas trains primarily.

No matter how much you feel about Thomas, there isn't a 2 year old and up that doesn't know Thomas and all the engines.

(child: Thomas!)

Bruce: I just enjoy their love of the trains.

How they get so excited.

I mean some of them do jigs, some of them run around here, hither and yon, chasing one.

(music) Iana: The first year that the trains opened, we were a sleepy, quiet little garden, and we've grown with other exhibits.

But this was one of the first exhibits that really started to put us on the map.

And the first year we had 800 new memberships.

So trains in the garden have become a very popular thing in the country as a whole and we were one of the first gardens to bring them outside.

(music) Spencer: Another outdoor experience worth visiting is located in the rail town of Roanoke, Virginia... and I mean 'the' rail town.

Local history and generosity combine to create a one of a kind 'rail walk'.

(music) Narrator: Since the late 1800's, railroading has not only defined Roanoke, Virginia as a 'rail town', but according to area historians and folks with steam in their blood, THE rail town.

Beverly Fitzpatrick: Rail here is pretty fascinating.

It came west and was basically passing through in order to go to the coalfields.

And the coalfields were where all the product was and all that went back to Norfolk to be put on ships.

So Roanoke was kind of in the middle of that.

Wayne McKinney: Everything that the city became was because of the railroad.

Ron Davis: Rail first came to this area before the Civil War with a line built by the Virginia and Tennessee railroad.

But Roanoke really became a city when the Shenandoah Valley railroad came down the Shenandoah Valley and decided to build a junction here with the Virginia a Tennessee railroad and they formed what because the Norfolk and Western railroad.

(music) Narrator: Rail lines naturally became the transportation of choice for delivering coal to power-hungry cities.

One of those lines, the Virginian, not only delivered coal and other natural resource products, it was a pioneer in track engineering, corporate efficiency and rail technology.

Jeff Sanders: The Virginian railway was built rather late as compared to most railroads.

It was built at the beginning of the 20th century, it was built with the highest technology used to have the lowest grades.

They basically hauled coal from West Virginia to the eastern seaboard.

And so they did that more efficiently than any other railroad in the country.

Jim Cosby: Not many people know about the Virginian railway because it was merged into the Norfolk and Western in 1959.

But us old-timers do and we want to ensure that others know its story as well.

Narrator: It is quite clear that railroading built Roanoke.

The evidence is nearly everywhere one looks in this mid-Atlantic city of over 300,000 residents.

Hotels such as the Hotel Roanoke, the restoration project to reclaim the majesty of the Virginian Railway passenger station, the Virginia Museum of Transportation and the O Winston Link Museum are but a few well-known landmarks that remind visitors and residents alike that Roanoke was instrumental in the development of rail travel and transportation in the US.

Ron: I think preserving rail history is important because a lot of the world we live in today came about because of the railroad, and the things that we take for granted today didn't exist before the construction of the railroad.

Peg McGuire: The city decided they needed to honor Virginia's rail heritage- this was a great way to do so.

(music) Narrator: The David R and Susan S Goode Railwalk tells the story, points to the historic structures of Roanoke and let's kids of all ages enjoy the sights and sounds of the railroad in the city where railroading was perfected.

(mom and child discovering what they can see on the sign) Peg: Mr. Goode grew up in Vinton, Virginia, which is just on the other side of Roanoke.

And he became the chairman of the Norfolk Southern railway.

And he actually had a large impact on the growth of Roanoke at that time.

And so the Railwalk was named after him.

Beverly: The Railwalk goes between here and the Art Museum, and it literally tells in a chronological way in some ways the history of rail in Roanoke.

(kids discovering train controls) Beverly: It has interactive displays and literally helps them understand the heritage of the Roanoke Valley and Western Virginia.

Child: This is amazing!

Narrator: The roughly one third of a mile stretch connects the Virginia Museum of Transportation with the O Winston Link Museum- Railroad artifacts, interactive 'exhibits' and educational markers along the way entertain and inform visitors as they make the easy trek through a historic railroad corridor.

Peg: The walk is a lot of fun, they can see panels that actually describe and educate about the history of the railroad in Roanoke.

But there's also a lot of interactive exhibits- they can ring bells and sound whistles and put down crossing gates and just learn about the railroad.

And it's a lot of fun.

They get to see a flatcar up close.

When they're on the Railwalk, real trains are coming by, because it's the main line for the Norfolk Southern railway.

Narrator: With over 50,000 visitors a year from 59 countries, ranging in age from 3 to 93, the RailWalk offers sites ranging from an O gauge layout in the transportation museum to a rail gallery and a rail collection along the way.

And of course, like any great, interactive museum, buttons to push galore!

Peg: The museum offers something for everyone, we connect generations in ways.

And they are coming to see what Norfolk and Western actually did.

Ron: The Railwalk ties together a number of historical aspects of the rail history of Roanoke.

You have the old passenger station, which now houses the O Winston Link Museum, you have the Hotel Roanoke which was built and operated by the railroad in the past.

And also you have the old freight station which now houses the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

And these are all tied together by the Roanoke Railwalk.

Wayne: So the railroad was the catalyst behind this city as it is today.

Beverly: I think a lot of visitors think of present day, they don't realize how important the railroad was in the past.

We were pretty much far out in the country until the railroad came, and there really wasn't a large city anywhere in Western Virginia, so it changed everything- not only about our past, but it changed so that our future's good.

(train blowing through- whistle and bells) Narrator: The Goode RailWalk in Roanoke, Virginia- a calming stroll through a historic slice of railroading... with an appreciation for what this rail town- THE rail town has become.

Peg: We want them to come away understanding that the rail heritage here in Roanoke is still vibrant and alive today.

We also want them to know what railroads and transportation in general did for the economic growth of our country.

Spencer: The corridor connects two well-know rail themed museums and makes for a fine stroll through rail history.

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 Company and its on-line video magazine, Model Railroader Video Plus.

Walthers.

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

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