Miller's Backyard Railroads

Steve Bratina · Post by **Steve Bratina** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:29 pm

I found this add in a Feb 1958 Model Railroader Mag. I was wondering if anyone had any info on Mr Miller and what ever happened to Backyard Railroads. Also, is there any of his equipment still around. It is kind of interesting that in a 71/4" gauge area, he is selling 71/2"

Andy Rafferty · Post by **Andy Rafferty** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:42 pm

Yes, A friend of mine built a 4-4-0 many years ago. Last I heard it is in the Nashville TN area.

bcody · Post by **bcody** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:00 pm

The reason is more potential customers. If my count is correct of the live steam tracks listed in LS less than 10% of the tracks are 7.25 inch gauge. It makes perfect sense to cater to the 90% v the 10%. Are you aware that many whiskey makers in Tennessee are in dry areas and their product can't be legally sold in the town where it is made? Bill

dwilloughby · Post by **dwilloughby** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:14 pm

The patterns changed hands a number of times. The late Cliff Pettis of Houston had them at one time, Texas Railway Supply in Ft Worth back in the late 1970's, offered the line. My good friend has numerous cars with the freight car trucks. Many of the side frames have cracked do to age, but are repairable by welding.

Dick_Morris · Post by **Dick_Morris** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:31 pm

Texas Railway Supply in Ft Worth

I think I have their catalog around here somewhere. At one point was it Terry McGrath in White Settlement, Texas?

Steve Bratina · Post by **Steve Bratina** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:21 pm

Thanks for the replies. When I think of Bath, I think of the Champagne Route.
Since you guys were able to come up with info on this Live Steam history, here is another one. There used to be a hobby shop in Pine City N.Y. This was just outside of Elmira N.Y. This hobby shop had an outdoor "O" gauge layout and a 71/4" live steam layout around that. As a kid, I was only there once but the owner let me take his F unit for a spin around the track as the steamer was not running at the time. The steamer was a Northern (I think) and although not running was ship shape and Bristol fashion.
What ever became of the owner or the locomotives?

LVRR2095 · Post by **LVRR2095** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:43 pm

Steve, I am probably wrong....but I think the line was originally offered by "The Bethlehem Pattern Works" in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bath, PA, by the way, was a railroad junction town. It was where the Northampton and Bath RR met the Bangor and Portland Div. of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. It served the cement and iron industries in the Lehigh Valley. At least at the NJLS, there are still a few of the Beth. Pattern Wrks / Miller "iron fist" couplers in service.
Keith

greenwind · Post by **greenwind** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:23 pm

FLtenwheeler · Post by **FLtenwheeler** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:42 pm

We have 2 gondolas built in the early 70s at the Ridge Live steams that were built using these car and truck castings. I just replaced the old couplers about 8 years ago.

Tim

Dick_Morris · Post by **Dick_Morris** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 8:03 pm

Here is another old catalog. It's a circa 1938 LE catalog the I scanned and put on my web page -

http://www.alaska.net/~rmorris/LE%20Catalog/

steamingdon · Post by **steamingdon** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:30 pm

Hi Steve,

In other words,to answer your original question nobody knows what happened. Now that is crystal clear.

Don.

Jamesduane · Post by **Jamesduane** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 9:05 pm

Hi, This is my first time here so be gentle with me. I am writing about Miller Backyard Railroads. When I was a kid my Dad built us a Miller backyard railroad. We had two steam type engines powered by lawnmower engines. The transmissions were in the tenders, they were made up of a collection of electrical box covers, pieces of rolling pins belts, pulleys home made bearing blocks and v belts and chain went from the transmission to the tender truck that actually pushed the locomotive along, sizes, speed and everything else was figured out by trial and error. When finished it was a better driving system that the Miller friction cone drive.

A couple of years later we repowered to slightly larger (two or two and a half horsepower) B&S engines. we moved the engines to the frolnt of the tender and rode stradling the tenders like they do the 1 1/2 scale live steamers. My Dads power tools consisted of one Black and Decker 1/4 inch electric drill, there was a drill press where he worked and that did the heavy work on wheels and the like. Our locomotives were scratch built with boilers made out of steel drums, cabs were plywood, a paint can was the stack and a flashlight lamp sunk into small paint can was the headlight. Old car fog lights were the sand and steam domes, they were not really to scale but ran great, we would take them down to a live steam railroad in Pennsylvania that had a long straight track and there we could let them run as fast as we dared, they would outrun and out pull the scale model stuff there. I think the live steam pacific our host owned would out pull our engines but since we didnt have to stop and fill the boiler and tend to the fire we could go on past them as they took the siding to tend to the fire and water.

OK, now on to Miller. Robert Miller whose address was Bath Pa. actually lived and had his shop in a town called Point Phillip PA, A small town outside of Bath PA. When we were building our railroad we would drive up to Millers and buy as much rail and castings as we could afford, our first purchase was one set of trucks and 10 feet of rail. We assembled the trucks and rolled them back and forth I guess till we figured they would stay on the tracks, Miller had a railroad at his house but nothing was ever able to operate whenever we were there.

I kind of think Miller Backyard railroads were an off shot of Texas model railroads as he gave us some Texas literature when we were there. I think Texas was the higher priced heavier duty stuff, seems they had trucks with sprung trucks and better detail, we had the low budget railroad.

We would buy a few lengths of rail and a few castings at a time. My Dad found a factory in town that had piles of old pallets and he would go and take the pallets apart and hand saw the 2 x 4s in 15 inch lengths for ties, over the winter he would soak them in creosote as a preservative. Miller had the business for many years then the Bethlehem pattern shop took over the business and operated it from their shop in Bethlehem PA. I only remember one trip there to buy some wheels. Our box cars were made out of one sheet of 3/4 plywood, our caboose was 1/2 plywood, the roofs came off so small children could sit inside. My brother still has the caboose and it still looks great. I have a pile of trucks and drivers behind my shed, I dont know what to do with them. I hope this is of some help to the people who were asking about Miller backyard railroads. They were the perfect answer to someone who wanted a railroad but could not afford or were unable to build a live steamer.

Any questions you can email me at ahrensjim@hotmail.com

The Home Machinist!

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