Utah visit

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lotsasteam
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Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:45 pm

Re: Utah visit

Post by lotsasteam »

Almost forgot The 12 gauge RR is/was located in Midway UT
lotsasteam
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Re: Utah visit

Post by lotsasteam »

Midway Shortline Railroad Utah Over 2,000 feet of 12" gauge track in Heber Valley, UT, 40 miles east of Salt Lake City. One propane-fired Live Steam 4-4-0, a gas-powered diesel, and 12 cars. Private track, but visitors are welcome. Please call in advance. Train operates Saturday afternoons 12 noon to 4:30, May through September and on holidays. No charge is made, but donations are welcomed. 801-566-6647
Rob Gardner
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Re: Utah visit

Post by Rob Gardner »

I recall seeing an article years ago in Live Steam of a 4-6-2 Pacific operating on this RR. Is is still in operation in the Midway Shortline or elsewhere?

Rob Gardner
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tsph6500
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Re: Utah visit

Post by tsph6500 »

Here's a photo taken 1/2 an hour ago my friends who run and maintain the locos at Promontory Summit.
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Harlock
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Re: Utah visit

Post by Harlock »

Yea I guess that's not going anywhere this winter Jim! :) Tube time up?

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sabin
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Re: Utah visit

Post by sabin »

Leaving tomorrow for Utah. Thanks for all the terrific ideas. Will try to see as much as weather and family allow.

Jim
Ruger338
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Re: Utah visit

Post by Ruger338 »

I believe the Midway RR (12") you mention was broken up after Mr. Thiriot passed away, the bulk of it is with the S&S Shortline in Farmington.
Ruger338
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Re: Utah visit

Post by Ruger338 »

An article link on the Midway Shortline RR. I did confirm that the bulk of equipment was purchased by the S&S Shortline RR. This is an article from the Deseret News, September 7th 1999 by Gib Truman. Pretty interesting story of the RR and his life. I grew up a block from Pioneer Village and rode the train when I was a kid.

MIDWAY -- Richard "Dick" Thiriot has given thousands of kids rides on the Monopoly-board-looking, miniature Midway Shortline Railroad in his side yard.
He's always done it for free, feeling the 2,000-foot track at 1210 Snake Creek Road, with its fairy-tale steam engines chugga-chugging around three acres, is more of a community chest than a chance to make a buck."If I charged, it would become work," said Thiriot, 79, who retired here three years ago after 30 years in a Salt Lake filmmaking business. "Then it wouldn't be a hobby.
"I just do it mainly because I've always loved trains and I feel lucky to get to share my hobby with someone else."
Maybe for a guy who was a B-24 pilot, shot down by a German night-fighter and forced to stay alive in the Belgian underground four months, it's the spirit of adventure that drew him to the Old West romance of the rails.All he knows is the bug bit him early.

A lifelong fascination
A native Salt Laker, Thiriot got his first train from Mom and Dad, Vernon and Margaret, when they lived on O Street in the Avenues and he was 3 or 4 years old.
"It was a windup train," Thiriot said.
He got his first Lionel electric three or four years later while still a student at Wasatch Elementary.
On family picnics to Lagoon you could see his fascination firming. Other kids would head to the roller coaster or Ferris Wheel.
"I made straight for the miniature train," he said. He'd amass 20 cents in savings. "I'd pace myself," he said. A nickel when they first arrived. Wait awhile. Another ride. Wait. Another.
"Then, just before we'd leave, I'd take that last ride so it'd stay with me," he said.

WWII intervenes
Train passions had to be put on a siding when he graduated from East High School. He entered the Army Air Corps, passed pilot training and made "more than 20" successful bombing runs out of England over Germany and France. Then he was assigned to a special 8th Air Force "Carpetbaggers" group that flew low-level, black B-24 night-time supply drops. On his 13th such mission, May 29, 1944, his crew was shot down by a German Junkers 88 pilot. The underground helped him flit from village stone houses to farmhouses near the Ardennes. "I was hiding in a barn on D-Day," he said. Before mustering out he was awarded three Purple Hearts. "Minor wounds, believe me," he said, grinning. "All you had to do was bleed a little and they gave you one. "His wartime experiences are typical of the determination, resourcefulness and modesty that led him back to a successful civilian profession and his love of trains.
"I was in television from the beginning," he said. Starting in 1950, he worked 11 years for KSL-TV as a program buyer and news photographer. He worked 30 years for Film Service Corp. in Salt Lake City, winding up a vice president/general manager. Among film credits: shooting the aftermath of the 1959 Yellowstone Park earthquake, numerous documentaries as a CBS stringer and a film about Nauvoo used extensively by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For 40 years he shot the University of Utah basketball and football game-day films. "I only missed two football games in 40 years," he said.

Lure of the rails

Always the rails called.
He built a huge model layout in the basement for his children. "At least I said it was for the kids," he said. "It probably mostly was for me, but they got to play with it."
Thiriot wanted more. He heard of a 12-inch gauge steam locomotive stored in a local garage, destined for the junkyard. He found the engine in many boxes, the boiler intact, but no tender.
"The owner was happy I'd haul it away if I gave him $75," Thiriot said. "I had no idea if it could ever be made to operate." A talented machinist friend, Richard Freed, helped Thiriot put the thing together, creating Engine No. 119. It's named after the Union Pacific locomotive that met the Central Pacific's Jupiter at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869, at the completion of the transcontinental railroad.
Another buddy, then U. assistant football coach Karl Schleckman, helped him build cars in the coach's garage woodworking shop. By now, Thiriot was shooting commercials on the side and did some for South East Furniture Co. The owner was Horace Sorenson, founder of Pioneer Village. Sorenson thought it'd be nice to have a mini-railroad running through an orchard on his property, as an addition to the village at 2800 South and Connor Street. Thiriot scoured the area for track. "With all the old mining operations there was plenty of 12-inch gauge," he said. He hauled about 3,000 feet of track out of a Eureka gold-and-silver mine and set to relaying it with Freed. The train went over well in Pioneer Village but in 1970 the property was sold for subdivisions. By that time Thiriot and his wife, Pat, had built a summer home on six acres one-half mile north of Homestead Resort in Midway.

Movin' on

Thiriot moved the whole train kit-'n'-caboodle up here. It took him two years to lay out track, using 2-by-4 ties, four spikes to the tie, grading and leveling and adding gravel ballast.
Another machinist-whiz friend, Wilford Match, helped build several steam engines and a diesel over the next several years. Today, when the train scoots around the meadow, with views of Snake Creek and Pine canyons, a hoot and a toot from Wasatch State Park, it also passes "Deer Hollow Village."
"We named it that because all the years we'd been coming up here, we'd have maybe 20 deer visiting us all the time," Thiriot said. So the sign says: "Deer Hollow. Pop. 20 (deer). "Also on the village fake storefronts: Pat's Pantry (named after Dick's wife, Pat), Jaimee's Hotel, Danielle's Bar and Grill, Mike and Tyler's Hardware; the Nicholas State Bank (all named after grandkids); Carlie's Boarding House (after daughter Carlie), a post office, a sheriff's office and the Good Luck Hospital. "Back in the old days if you went into the hospital, you were lucky to come out," Thiriot said. Even the inside of the neat-as-can-be cottage they expanded several years ago, reflect his attention to detail. And train of thought.

Trains everywhere

"Just look at this place," he said, smiling. "You couldn't put much more train stuff in here, could you?"
A pair of lamps are made of marker lights, the kind you see on the back of cabooses. On the mantel is an old switch stand that used to be operated by oil on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.
"Go ahead, pick it up. It works," he said, gesturing to a green plastic train phone. On the dresser: a train clock. "We got train everything here," he said. And Pat likes this decor . . . how? "Pat's not a train buff," Dick said. "She tolerates it."Appreciates may be another word. Maybe that's how you keep a 54-year marriage on track. "I figure, anything that makes him happy and keeps him interested, is good," Pat said. The kids who come to ride are therapy and joy for the Thiriots. Each rider usually gets two 5-minute runs around the track. Thiriot gives rides the first and third Saturdays of each month and also holidays, from noon to 4:30 p.m. He gave rides Monday and will give them again Sept. 18. That's kids of all ages.
"We had a lady, 82, here the other day," Carlie said. "She couldn't get enough. She said she was coming every birthday from now on. Keeping the train yard in apple-pie order requires constant tinkering. "I probably replaced 100 ties this year," he said. "I still do quite a bit of the work myself." "Keeps me young," he said, striding off briskly. "I may be almost 80, but I think 30. That's how it goes when you've been workin' almost all your life on your own railroad.
RICHK
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Re:O'Connor drawings

Post by RICHK »

I have downloaded all the referenced ,pdf files and view almost all of them.
Unfortunately the large the image the less legible it becomes.
So the impressive general assemblies are not readable.
Seems like I will need to find out where the original drawings are being held and investigate having prints made from them.
I will probably need to wait until the (partial) government shut down ends and the park service is open again.
Any ideas out there?
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Comstock-Friend
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Re: Utah visit

Post by Comstock-Friend »

Don't go to Promontory Point to see the Jupiter and 119; you want Promontory Summit. They are about 30 miles apart. The UP (former SP) mainline tracks are at Promontory Point on the Lucin Cutoff.
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