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

On this episode of Tracks Ahead, we meet a Ohio collector who specializes in repurposing industrial rail parts- we'll also enjoy the rarified air of the Rockies on a visit to the Colorado rail museum- plus a trip to Philly to examine a layout honoring one of the longest rail lines in the U.S.- But first, we'll head up the Pennsy turnpike to check out an eastern Pennsylvania tourist line with a history that is unmistakably tied to it's equally historic surroundings.... Let's get started.

(whistle blowing) Narrator: For more than fifty years, the Wanamaker Kempton and Southern Railroad in Pennsylvania has run its trains the old fashioned way.

Jim Krause: if the electricity were to go out we'd still operate just like the railroad did This is essentially when you park your car and walk in here, you've stepped back into 1920..... Narrator: Jim Krause is the general manager of operations at the W K and S. He first started riding the train as a kid growing up in the area.

But today, he leads a group of volunteers and hobbyists that keep the trains running so riders can enjoy the railway's rich history.

Jim Krause: We own approximately 6 miles.

We now utilize approximately 4 miles up and back.

But through that 4 miles, you go through farmland through a national historic site which is the Town of Trexlor; unchanged from the 1770s.

Narrator: Trains first came to the area in the late 1800s with hopes of shipping Pennsylvania coal to Delaware.

And as the routes grew in popularity, small communities began to develop around the train stops.

Jim Krause: the railroad built this area.

The railroad came through here in 1871.

None of these towns existed.

The town of Wannamaker, where we stop, the Wannamaker station is original to this line in 1871.

It wasn't until, I believe, 1876, that the general store was built in Wannamaker.

Narrator: That same general store is still running today.

And it's one of Wanamaker's most historical icons.

David Bond owned the store for almost thirty years before retiring.

So he had plenty of time to learn all about the store's history along the way.

David Bond: The name Wanamaker comes from the original settler Daniel Wanamaker.

Most of the settlers arrived in this area in the early 1700s, uh, an agricultural community.

The village of Wanamaker sprung from the original acreage of that farm.

The relationship between the train and the store I would say is that the store actually came into existence because of the train.

Narrator: Arian Hungaski and her husband bought the general store from David in 2007.

Though the purchase was a little risky, it was important to them to keep the connection between the trains and the community alive.

Arian Hungaski: I grew up on the Kempton end of the WK&S and I could see and hear the train from my house.

And we would beg rides off of the conductors and I think that they recognized a lot of the local kids.

And they would let you hop on often for free.

Narrator: As towns continued to develop around the stations, crops and slate found a place on the railroad along with coal.

The trains quickly became an important part of community members' everyday lives.

Wally Ely is a member of the board of directors for the Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern.

Having grown up in the area, he was so fascinated by the railroad's history, that he even wrote a book about it.

Wally Ely: The railroad was part of the community by being a school bus, by running the kids to Slatington to school and also to Reading to school.

So that really makes it an integral part.

Then this was a big potato farming country, shipments of potatoes, tomatoes, and then there were slate quarries.

There were 16 slate quarries just north of here.

Narrator: But by the 1960s the railway had fallen into disrepair and trains were being used less and less.

So in 1962, a group of investors decided to buy some of the track and form the Wanamaker Kempton and Southern Railroad, or the W K and S for short.

Wally Ely: The Reading Railroad decided to abandon this stretch, which was at this time it was 15 miles from Kempton to Germansville, was the area that was made available by the Reading Railroad.

And some business men in Burks County in Reading, Pennsylvania, decided that this would be the right place to try to build a startup little tourist railroad.

Jim Krause: In 1963, the original investors started it as an amusement park essentially.

An entertainment facility.

They actually sold stock and you can still buy stock in this railroad.

Now is it something that you are going to trade publicly in New York?

No.

But you can buy stock now and that was simply to build up capital.

Narrator: Since then, the W K and S has evolved into the group of hobbyists and volunteers that run the trains today.

And though time has marched forward, there are some things about the W K and S that haven't changed at all.

Wally Ely: The most memorable aspect of this is its authenticity.

It is almost identical today to what it was in 1963.

This railroad ran for the first time on Memorial Day in 1963 and almost everything that operates today is operating exactly as it did in 1963.

The same little engines, the same coaches, some new engines and some new coaches.

But the original-most of the original stuff is still here.

Jim Krause: This line, though it is a tourist railroad, we think of it as a railroad.

And I think that our guests think of it as a railroad.

We're not the huge tourist operation.

Everything is authentic, right down to the time-table that we follow.

The passenger cars, which are 100 years old in 2013, still operate off of the steam heat.

Narrator: Today, the trains are running people instead of crops and coal.

And the folks at the W K and S are always thinking up new ways to keep their guests coming back.

Jim Krause: We try to maintain ticket prices at something the community can afford.

We had the murder mystery trip... we have the Christmas trip.

We have our harvest moon trip.

That's a night time trip...that sells out.

We now have a wine and cheese train.

That sells out every year.

Narrator: And while the big trains are iconic to the area, the W K and S also has a model railroad club with a scaled layout that shows the whole area from a different view.

John Woodland: it was started about the mid-70s.

This used to be a museum car here and then a couple of the earlier founders converted it to a layout.

Our layout is an H-O scale layout.

We have mountains, we have coal mine.

We have shay line- most of it's modeled of the line, the main line which ran from Reading up to Slatington, which is the branch that the WK&S runs on right now.

Narrator: But whether you're enjoying the railway for its small scale layout or its life-sized locomotives, it's only possible with a lot of help.

Jim Krause: I'll tell you this is an eclectic group.

We have everything from engineers to site surveyors, master electricians, master welders, accountants, retired chemists... Wally Ely: It has to satisfy the customers and give them something that they enjoy... As long as that happens, there will be passengers for the railroad, and the volunteers, the people that love doing-doing what they do, keeps this railroad going.

And it is- it is the warmth and love of the volunteers that makes it happen.

(applause) Spencer: The W, K and S folks ensure that all visitors leave with smiles on their faces and a greater appreciation of rail in Eastern PA.

In a moment we'll head out west to see what's new at the Colorado railroad museum- But next, we travel south on the Pennsylvania turnpike toward Philly to checkout a layout that emulates its historic surroundings- and does it quite well.

Narrator: When Bill Kachel was growing up, he was fascinated with trolley cars and their overhead power.

That fascination with overhead lines would lead him to model the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad.

Bill: I picked the Pennsylvania Railroad to model because I loved the electric overhead wiring.

And Pennsy had all the electric locomotives running right in my own neighborhood in Philadelphia where I was raised as a little guy watching the trains go by all the time.

So that was my favorite railroad from day one.

I loved the GG1s, my favorite locomotives forever, they run under catenary with the overhead wire that electrifies the locomotive as it streams along tracks.

I model the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York City to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, going through New York, over the Newark Bay, through New Jersey, to Harrisburg, then to Enola, then to Altoona, then to Horseshoe Curve, Gallitzen and then into Pittsburgh.

Then I model Chicago, off stage they call it, the trains go there and park when they aren't being used.

Narrator: The railroad covered some very scenic areas, and Bill has incorporated some of the highlights into his railroad.

Bill: My favorite scene of all time is Horseshoe Curve.

Well it's a unique area on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

It climbs in about five hundred feet and about five miles.

And you're standing in the middle of the curve and watch the whole train, engine to caboose, when they had them, you could stand there and watch the whole thing in one area.

The bridges on the layout are mostly stone.

A lot of the bridges are steel bridges that rise up and down for the boats and ships to get out, like the Bascule bridges and truss bridges.

Narrator: Scenery is an ongoing process, and Bill has some great examples.

Bill: The scenery is constructed by bench work of course, and get your track down first.

And then the scenery is added later by using screen from old screen doors, wrapped up real crumbly and tacked on the risers.

And I use gypsolite, which is like a plaster and spread that on there.

And then I make hydrocal rocks, which are rock molds.

And then you have to color everything with dyes and paints to get that color that you like.

And of course the trees are hand made, a lot of weeds are picked in the woods.

And we pickle them by putting glycerin on them to soften them up so they stay soft forever, hopefully Narrator: Of course, a railroad has to serve a purpose, and Bill has provided lots of industry.

Bill: On the layout, my main interest is coal, so in Pittsburg, I have coal mines that actually load coal trains, transport it back east here, and actually unload it into barges and ships to be exported and put into a power plant to be burned for electricity.

It's a lot of operation, bringing the trains in, unloading them, and then taking them back empty and loading them up again.

And also I unload iron ore from ships, take the iron ore to Pittsburg for making steel, and also I have a limestone quarry, that we load limestone to take to Pittsburg to the steel mill to unload for the steel making process.

Passenger trains seem to be one of my passions I guess because they're long and sleek and they're beautiful.

Like a Silver Streak moving, so that was one of my favorites.

And of course the GG1 was always pulling them, they would always pull the main passenger trains in the electrified areas.

But passenger trains were, have always been one of my loves.

Narrator: This layout is a family affair.

Bill's wife has her role in developing the special details to catch a visitor's eye.

Mary Ellen: When I first met Bill he gave me two big boxes full of people.

And I had to come up with what I was going to do with these people.

Later after we'd used those up, you can buy little kits that are little layouts.

But I enjoy the more imaginative part of it.

Creating pedestrians on the street and hobos in the parks and things like that.

Narrator: While the full size Pennsylvania Railroad may have merged into another line, the memory of its heyday is still alive in one man's home.

(music) NARRATOR: Just west of Denver, and right down the road from the Coors Brewery, you'll find a museum dedicated to the history of Colorado Railroading.

The Colorado Railroad Museum is a testament to Rocky Mountain railroading, with over 100 narrow and standard gauge steam an diesel locomotives on display.

Visitors will also find passengers cars, caboose, and operating model layouts in the 15 acre railyard.

Donald Tallman: In 1959, Bob Richardson and Cornelius Hauck had a dream of preserving railroad history.... Colorado railroad history, and specifically at that time, Colorado narrow gauge history.

NARRATOR: Visitors will find a historic masterpiece, where mountain railroading is center stage.

You'll be able to enjoy the grounds on the Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose #7.

Donald: On the Goose ride, we take you for a tour of the grounds.

And you'll see everything from some of our snow equipment to freight equipment.

We've got refrigerator cars, we've got RPO's, rail post office cars.

We've got the Denver Garden Society layout, which is a really popular exhibit.

And you'll also 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.

We have a box car, it's a refrigerator car used by Coors, and it was a beer car that dated back to the 1920's.

And it features the Coors logo on the side- this was built before they made it illegal to put billboards on railcars.

Snow fighting was really important here in Colorado because of the amount of snow that the mountains get - and so we have a couple of really impressive pieces of equipment; one is a wedge plow, and then we also have a 1900 rotary snow plow.

The rotary snow plow is a steam locomotive, and the only thing that it drives is the motor to clear the snow.

NARRATOR: Restored steam and diesel locomotives give visitors an overview of the size and complexity of their former operations.

Donald: One of them that is kind of our signature locomotive is the locomotive number 346.

It was built in 1881.

We were just given by the state locomotive number 491.

Al Blount: We're trying to make it run now.

And it's in excellent shape.

When we do get it running, it'll be the largest operating narrow gauge steam locomotive in the western hemisphere.

Donald: One of my favorite pieces of equipment is locomotive 191.

The oldest locomotive in Colorado.

It date backs to 1880.

And it's a tiny little engine with a beautiful, decorative stack.

We have a number of pieces of diesel equipment.

The 5771, which ran for the California Zephyr... but also the ski train.

The ski train ran from Denver to Winter Park in the 1950's right up until the 1980's.

So the ski train is a really popular way to get up to the mountains and do some skiing.

NARRATOR: The round house serves not only as storage, but as a workspace.

Donald: We also have a roundhouse where we do all of our restoration and mechanical work.

It's a 5-bay roundhouse and it's based on an early roundhouse design.

We also have a unique turntable.

It's called an Armstrong turntable.

And it's called an Armstrong turntable because it requires a strong arm to push it.

It's not mechanical at all.

NARRATOR: There is plenty of Colorado rolling stock on display.

Donald: The museum has a collection of business cars that were used by executives, by heads of the railroad when they travel.

The business cars that we have here, one of them is a standard gauge business car and it belonged to the Chicago Burlington and Quincy president- it was built in the 1880's.

This is caboose-land.

We have 9 cabooses on our property, everything from a little 4-wheel bobber caboose to a large, standard gauge C& caboose.

NARRATOR: The museum is more than a place to simply ooh and ahh at giant pieces of historic machinery.

It's a living testament to the efforts of countless men and women who worked behind the scenes to make sure that the trains were in top shape.

Donald: Downstairs in our exhibit hall we've got the third in a series of America, Colorado rails... and working on Colorado rails.

NARRATOR: The work here at the museum could not be done without a dedicated corps of volunteers.

Al: I put in 1500 hours last year.

Volunteers do much of the work out here, they have a few paid employees in the roundhouse and then the gift shop and the library, but most of work out here is done by volunteers, and most of us are retired.

NARRATOR: There are trains here in every size, built to delight young and old alike.

Allan Olso: We now have 7 track powered loops and 3 live steam loops.

Of course the garden is starting to mature, and we use plants that are scaled for the different scale of trains that we use out here.

And we got a mix of annuals and perennials.

The bridges were all scratch-built by members.

The club has it's own supply of rolling stock and locomotives that club members can come out and use.

NARRATOR: When you leave the Colorado Railroad Museum, you'll leave with memories of an long gone era.

(music) Spencer: Well if you're in the market for used general electric industrial parts, we have just the man to see.

Dennis Lavender's company specializes in repurposing stuff you just wouldn't believe.

(music) Narrator: Starting at an early age, Dennis Lavender cut his teeth working on railroad equipment.

An old time railroader started young Dennis on his way.

Dennis: Name was Jim Green.

He started to work for the Ohio Electric which was an electric railroad right here in Ohio.

He started in 1913.

And he worked as a motorman right up until 1929 when they closed the railroad.

And he was a member over at the Ohio Railway museum where I started.

I had a brother that was renting an apartment right across the street from it.

And I'd ride my bicycle up there after school.

Been a conductor, engineer.

I was vice president of operations, doing track work, trolley maintenance, steam locomotive repair, working on gasoline engines and track cars.

Anything that needed to be done, railroad related.

I've even sold tickets .

Narrator: That love of railroading lead Dennis into a railroad career.

Enter Western Star Rail Services.

Dennis: I buy and sell industrial GE parts pretty much all over the world.

I've shipped to Israel, Italy, South America, Mexico, Canada, England.

You go out to wherever the locomotives at.

And then you buy the locomotive.

Then you go out there and you start cutting up , cutting the parts off you want.

You get a scrap yard to come in and you load the locomotive carcass on a lowboy.

And they ship it off to the scrapyard.

And they give you so much a ton for what you don't bring back here.

Bring all the parts back here, refurbish them, put them on skids and ship them.

This is kind of like an NAPA store.

People don't walk in the door.

They'll call and we'll put it on a skid and ship it.

Sometimes we do same day shipping, next day air.

We've shipped hundreds of pounds next day air, motor freight, where you'd throw it on an airplane.

Ship to Texas, California, be there tomorrow morning.

Narrator: Just who buys these parts?

Dennis: We do steel mills, chemical companies, grain elevators.

I've done paper mills, freight car repair facilities, anybody that has to move their own freight cars from one place to another, they're involved.

They need a part, we have it.

Narrator: Of course, having access to locomotives, means that Dennis also has a great collection of memorabilia.

Dennis: I used to have a sign out on Main Street here in Newark.

And I'd get toy trains.

We'd get lanterns, locks, paperwork, books, anything railroad related would come in the door.

Maps.

We'd buy it.

Narrator: Western Star Rail Service's main office is here in this 1890's church.

And it is here that we'll find that Dennis didn't stop with the real thing.

He also has a passion for toy trains and in particular, one of the popular brands from the 1950's.

Dennis: My dad bought it for my brother and sister back in 1948, he bought the first set.

And that just kind of snowballed.

And after the brother and sister got done, then I went with that.

And pretty much own everything AC Gilbert ever made in the American Flyer line.

We had a place for a second floor, but there was no second floor.

So I built a second floor and .

It's in the neighborhood of 30 plus, 50 plus foot room.

Couldn't store locomotive parts up there.

The building wasn't so that I could put heavy weight on the second floor, so it looked like a good place for a model railroad.

And that's where we ended up putting it.

Narrator: Dennis is also a collector, and has a few pieces that are special.

Dennis: I have a a baseball diamond that I picked up, incorporated in it.

It was well made.

There was a guy that died, had a bunch of toy trains.

We went down to Vienna, West Virginia, and bought here a couple of years ago.

And somebody had spent a lot of time building this baseball diamond.

Yeah, I've got two grain elevators on there together.

The were made by a company called MiniCraft that Gilbert had bought and boxed in their own name.

And they're pretty neat.

MiniCraft stuff was made out of Masonite.

It looked pretty real.

The track's all original Gilbert for the most part.

Narrator: Dennis has one train that is a personal favorite.

Dennis: I'd have to say that it would be the UP northern and the olive green heavyweights that Gilbert made back in the 40s.

The color's about right to what the Pennsylvania Railroad painted theirs and the New York Central.

It was a dark green.

Kind of an olive color green.

Narrator: When Dennis Lavender started listening to stories at the Ohio Railway Museum, little did he know that it would feed his passion for railroading, both real and model.

(music) Spencer: So, to those who've doubted, collecting does have purpose!

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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