Around the country

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Steampipe
Posts: 189
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: 40 Mile West of Philadelpha

Re: Around the country

Post by Steampipe »

Thanks all- perhaps some background then restate the question. I’ve been in the hobby for 20 years and have been to most tracks in the southeast. If I start in Florida I can travel east through the winter- California in the late winter/ early spring and east through Glacier and Yellowstone in the summe. Home in Pa in the fall for the holidays. Plus my wife will *tolerate* the Live Steam clubs if national parks are in the mix. So let me offer this.

Start February through all meets in Florida
Head west early March parks in Alabama/ Louisiana
Eastern Texas tracks late March ( Houston Live Steamers, Blanco etc)
Parks through April (western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona))
Maricoa in April or May
May June - So California heading north ( LALS, Sacramento, Bitter Creek, Joshua Tree)
RR Museum, Joshua Tree Park, etc etc
Train Mountain June/ July
July- head east/southeast - Parks in Oregon- Utah
August - tracks in Iowa etc
Yellowstone

Now can you refine and fill in the blanks?

Many thanks!!
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Around the country

Post by Glenn Brooks »

If you make it to the Seattle area, you are more than welcome to RON at our place in Woodinville and fire up my Ottaway. Only have 500’ of track, but if you go around 10 times, it’s a mile long run.

https://youtu.be/n0d_ecw-IhQ

Something to consider, is to take in a couple of live steam 12” and 15” gauge RR’s along your route. These might be interesting to visit: (most all are clubs, except for one or two commercial operations):

The Wabash, Frisco and Pacific is in Glencoe, Missouri, NE Kansas. 12 locomotives, scheduled weekend service. All volunteer, live steam club operation. Largest collection of operating 12” gauge locomotives in the world, I think.

Also in NE Kansas, you could visit the C&H Railroad, home to four 12” gauge Ottaway’s running on a mile of track.

Once you arrive in Arizona, in addition to Maricopa Live Steamers, there is a second 7.5” ga Scottsdale live steam club and 15” gauge RR at the Scottsdale Railroad Park in Pheonix.

Going further westward, to Southern California (likely you already know this one), Joshua Tree has both 15” ga and 7.5” ga railroads.

There are actually 4 Park gauge RR’s in the Bay Area - 15” ga Redwood Valley RR in Tilden Park, overlooking Oakland in the East Bay, and an original 1904 19” gauge original Cagney RR at the San Francisco Zoo. This loco is only one of two surviving 19” Cagney’s left in the world. The Golden gate live steamers is located immediately adjacent to the Redwood Valley ROW. In fact you walk under a 15” ga trestle to get to the Live Steam loading area.

Also I really enjoy visiting the 1/3 rd scale, 19” Swanton Pacific RR, located about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz, outside of Davenport, on the Pacific Coast Hiway. Swanton RR is a non profit, all volunteer preservation RR, that consists of the locos and rolling stock from the 1915 panama-Pacific Exposition, Overfair Railway very well maintained and a marvelous place to visit up in the hills above the Pacific Ocean. They have a roundhouse, maintenance shop, and four locos, plus a RR crane that you can explore. I think you could overnight there in the campground with prior coordination. You can drive down the coast from the SF Zoo RR to Davenport in about an hour or so. Very scenic, classic SF coast road.

The other two Park Guage RR’s are Billy Jones Wildcat RR in San Jose, and Traintown, in downtown Sonoma- heart of Cal wine Country.

Also, the Cal State RR Museum, in Old Town, Sacramento is absolutely worth a must visit. Close to Sac Live Steamers, right on the Sacramento River, with great food in numerous Old Town Original preserved gold rush Main Street two story buildings, with boccu ice cream parlors. Afterwards , heading north to Oregon, you could stop at The Folsom Valley Railroad, a nice 12” gauge scheduled service with two steam engines running on a 3/4 mile track in a public park in Folsom. One of them is Eric Thompson’s original 12” Cricket.

Oregon has 5 live steam clubs, plus Train Mountain. If you time it right you could be there for one of the TM monthly meets. 3-5 days of RR fun over 30 miles of track with maybe up to 100 other locomotives. Unbelievable.

Heading on up North, On I-5 there are two live steam clubs in Washington: Kitsap Live Steamers at Port Orchard, and Skykomish Live Steamers right in the little town of skykomish, at the crest of the Cascades, along Hiway 2, heading east to Spokane, Idaho, Montana, etc. this could be your turning point heading back east towards Glacier Park and Yellowstone. In fact, Hiway 2 basically follows the old Great Northern RR route to Glacier Park and onwards to Milwaukee.

If you visit KLS in Port Orchard, you could easily drive a short loop of 200 miles or so, round trip, north up the Kitsap Peninsula to visit the Olympic National Park headquartered at Port Angeles, then take the Blackball ferry across Straits of Juan De Fuca to Victoria, BC, back across to Vancouver and south through Bellingham at the border. I say this, because Victoria is home to a very nice Live Steam club just outside of town. Supberb layout, well worth a visit. Victoria is an easy weekend holiday from Seattle area and KLS members enjoy a lot of interaction and support from the Victoria Model engineering club when we visit. Vancouver also has a very nice live steam club. You can then circle around and drive down through Bellingham and on south about 50 miles to pick up Hiway 2 heading eastward through Skykomish Pass and eastwards to Glacier Park and Yellowstone.

Ok, maybe more than you bargained for! But once you make the Pass it’s literally, all downhill to Colorado and The Dakota’s. There’s lots of live steam activity on the upper left coast!

Cheers,
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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Steampipe
Posts: 189
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: 40 Mile West of Philadelpha

Re: Around the country

Post by Steampipe »

Thanks Glenn - been to TM 2x but always great to go back. The Swainton is well worth it! All great suggestions. Its how to budget all within the travel plans.
Mike Walsh
Posts: 955
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:14 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Around the country

Post by Mike Walsh »

Glenn Brooks wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:39 pm

The Wabash, Frisco and Pacific is in Glencoe, Missouri, NE Kansas. 12 locomotives, scheduled weekend service. All volunteer, live steam club operation. Largest collection of operating 12” gauge locomotives in the world, I think.
Er.... Glencoe, MO... Not in NE Kansas. :-)
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Greg_Lewis
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Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:44 pm
Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Around the country

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Steampipe wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:27 pm
I figure 5-6 months.
After reading all the suggestions, and having made five cross-country trips in my life, I'd suggest you plan on two years!
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Around the country

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Indeed, I’ve a friend whose goal is to visit all the National Parks. After 10 years he’s nearly done- having visited 286 parks so far.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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LVRR2095
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Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:50 pm
Location: Maine, USA

Re: Around the country

Post by LVRR2095 »

Glenn Brooks wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:39 pm If you make it to the Seattle area, you are more than welcome to RON at our place in
https://youtu.be/n0d_ecw-IhQ

.

There are actually 4 Park gauge RR’s in the Bay Area - 15” ga Redwood Valley RR in Tilden Park, overlooking Oakland in the East Bay, and an original 1904 19” gauge original Cagney RR at the San Francisco Zoo. This loco is only one of two surviving 19” Cagney’s left in the world.

Cheers,
Glenn
Glenn, just a slight correction. The Zoo Cagney is a 22” gauge Class E and there are at least six of these still in existence. The Zoo locomotive, two at Lakeside Park in Denver, one in a private collection but formerly displayed in front of an electric supply store in Baltimore and another in a private collection that was formerly located on Long Island in New York State and one that was formerly displayed in Florida and now in a museum in Georgia

Keith
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