Salt Lake CIty Light Rail - TRAX

TRAX is the first of two light rail systems I will visit during my trip. Surprisingly, Phoenix does not have such a system though one is under construction and due to open in December of 2008. BTW, the term light rail doesn't have anything to do with the weight of the rail, rather the amount of traffic it carries or the type of car it uses depending on what definition you use. TRAX has two lines, I rode them both. One goes east to the University of Utah and it's medical center, the other goes south to the city of Sandy. The trip to Sandy however never leaves an urban area. There is also a route that connects Sandy and the university, diverting from one line to the other at the place where they meet up and not requiring a transfer. It runs infrequently and I didn't get to ride that route. They have plans for considerable light rail expansion, and a "heavy rail" commuter line north to Ogden so the system must be rather successful. The train I rode south was coupled to a waiting train at Sandy so the trip north was on an impressively long consist of four articulated cars, giving the impression of an eight car train. Since we were headed into town on an afternoon train, the eight cars were pretty empty but they were ready for the rush hour to begin. BTW, that building in the background of the picture is the Grand American Hotel. It's quite impressive up close.

The track south, though in an urban area, appears to have originally been a freight railroad. In fact there are spurs off of the main line leading into warehouses and other plants with freight cars spotted on them so it must still be used for freight operations at night.

Midway Shortline Railroad

Never found it. I think I was in the right neighborhood but my GPS cable failed and I was searching from memory. Midway Shortline was documented in only a few places as a privately owned live steam operation that was occasionally open to the public for free. Midway, UT is near Heber City so I gave it a shot after riding the Heber Valley Railroad. If anybody knows any more, please let me know.

Heber Valley Railroad

Like the Nevada Northern in Ely, the Heber Valley Railroad is the remnant of a real railroad that was saved from destruction. Lots of the infrastructure of the railroad remains though not nearly as much as in Ely.

Running through the lush Heber Valley bordering Deer Creek Reservoir then, below the dam, running alongside the Provo River, the scenery is hard to beat. As the train winds down the canyon, snow covered peaks appear and disappear from view. Kayakers, fishermen and campers wave as the train goes by. At Vivian Park, the track comes to an abrupt end and the right-of-way becomes a hike and bike trail. There's a siding at Vivian Park, with just enough room past the switch to clear up the engine and run it around to the north end of the train for the trip home.

This is the Provo Canyon Limited trip and takes about 3 hours. Another trip, called the Soldier Hollow Express, follows the same track but turns back sooner and only takes about 90 minutes. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, two of the venues were near Soldier Hollow and spectators were shuttled to and from that location by steam train.

By chance, I happened to encounter Craig Lacey, the executive director of the organization, and had a nice conversation. He, like all the other employees I met, was open and friendly. They were ending a five day "Day Out With Thomas" event and it was fun to compare how they operate and how the Austin Steam Train works the event. I was actually surprised to find that they were running their regular train along with nine Thomas trains.

Utah railroads and other places.

All of the excursion railroad activity that I found in Utah was centered around Salt Lake City. But then most activity of any kind in Utah is centered around SLC. Salt Lake County holds about two thirds of the population of Utah. Since I'm also an amateur genealogist, I plan to spend some extra time in SLC at the Morman Genealogy Library, undoubtedly the largest and best in the world. Utah is also known for it's natural wonders and I hope to include some of those in my visit.

Nevada Northern - Keystone

The other trip the Nevada Northern operates is toward the west, into the mining district and is referred to as Keystone. This is a much more interesting trip, passing by numerous mining operations, through two tunnels and even a brothel where the employees come out and wave. This trip is also more interesting because it is normally pulled by a steam locomotive, either #40 or #93. Both these locomotives are veterans of the Nevada Northern and there are others being restored even now. The engine shop I mentioned earlier is crammed with huge machine tools. I can't say what repairs they couldn't handle there but I would guess they are few. In 2006 the whole railroad was designated a National Historic Landmark. The Secretary of the Interior referred to it as "the best-preserved, least altered, and most complete main yard complex remaining from the steam railroad era."

Nevada Northern - Adverse

Many excursion railroads have nicely restored or preserved equipment, some have a few original buildings. Nevada Northern has a whole railroad. The NN was started in the early 1900's to support a copper mine in the area. It continued in operation, updating its motive power occasionally until the last train of ore left in 1978. In 1983 the last freight train arrived in Ely and the railroad was closed down. At that time it was owned by the Kennecott Copper Company who basically donated the whole railroad to the White Pine Historical Railroad Foundation. The depot building and a warehouse building were transfered to the State of Nevada in 1990 and they operate a museum in the depot building. Among the artifacts found in the complex were extensive business records of the railroad. These are being cataloged and preserved by the museum.

Some of the passenger rolling stock is not authentic as passenger service had been discontinued long before the railroad was shut down but basically, the railroad is like an old photograph come to life. Volunteers come from all over the country to help in the operation of the trains but many are from the local area. Tours of the yard and engine house are available.

NN has two different trips, one pulled by a diesel, either an RS2 or and RS3, that goes north to Adverse. This trip is not big on scenery unless you like wide open spaces and long vistas. The Great Basin is a new part of the country to me, enclosed by mountain ranges that prevent any of it's water from draining into an ocean. Almost treeless, it has a certain appeal for awhile.

Virginia & Truckee Railroad - Virginia City, Nevada

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad is a source of confusion for me. I had long heard of it and envisioned it as a first class operation. But I kept having a hard time finding information on it. Although one web site said it operated daily, I couldn't find exactly what time of day or trip cost or equipment or a map to get there. Eventually I pieced together enough info to get there and I have to say I was disappointed. The first thing I saw was a nicely restored Virginia & Truckee depot but it turned out to be a private residence and not part of the operation. Then I spotted the old passenger car that was the ticket office and gift shop, porta-potty around back. The hours of operation were posted next to the door and the next train was in a few minutes but I was told they had left late on the previous train so they were not sure when it would be back. When the train arrived, it was pulled by a garish little switcher and had two cars, one covered, one not. Perhaps they have a steamer somewhere, I didn't ask. Seats were flat wooden benches down the sides and the middle. One unusual feature in the covered car was a bay-window section right in the middle on both sides. I used that to get the picture on the right. The trip was just a 2-1/2 miles out then back and was "actually" quite interesting and scenic. The conductor/guide could have used the word "actually" about a hundred fewer times but he did provide interesting information.

One of the other confusing things about this railroad is the great plan that someone has for the future. In my research, I found a web site for a group called the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation, Inc. Their web site "www.steamtrain.org" documents the efforts to extend the current 2-1/2 half miles of track all the way back down it's original route into Carson City. However, there is another web site for the Virginia & Truckee Railway Reconstruction Project that seems to be more up-to-date. It documents the future expenditure of 36 million dollars to do this reconstruction. Wow ... wish we could get that kind of excursion railroad money down in Texas.

Carson and Mills Park Railroad

The Carson and Mills Park Railroad is located in Mills Park of Carson City ... go figure. It was constructed and is operated and maintained by a group of volunteers, The Carson City Railroad Association. The park itself is a large, attractive park and the railroad runs right through the heart of it, through the picnic tables and playgrounds, not just around the periphery. Like many of the park RR's it's a loop to loop track. The engine and three cars were undistinguished other than a red rotary beacon on the roof of the engine. Hadn't seen that before.

Nevada State Railroad Museum - Carson City

This is the other part of the Nevada State Railroad Museum, the first part I visited was in Boulder City. As there, the Museum is part of the State Department of Cultural Affairs, Division of Museums and History. The Boulder City branch shows a staff of four, Carson City, with a much larger facility and collection, shows a staff of 13 with a vacancy in the Director's position if anybody's interested. As in Boulder City, the operation of the trains as well as a lot of the restoration work is done by a "Friends" group. The members I met were friendly and knowledgeable. They have two types of operations, a steam engine with passenger cars and a motor car or "Doodlebug." They more or less alternate the the type of operation they do each weekend. Though I would have preferred the steam operation, I happened to be there on the weekend they ran the motor car. They have a loop of track, a turntable, a small yard and a rather large annex that they use as workshop and storage. The loop has a wye attached on one side that they use to turn their steam locomotive occasionally and run it backwards. Because of the tight curves of their loop, the tire wear can be excessive and running it backwards evens out that wear over both sides.

Carson City

Well, after a slight boo-boo in my scheduling, it appears I'll be in Carson City through the weekend. Seems the various trains here only operate on weekends so I'll wait. Nice RV park with WiFi and free cable so I won't be bored. Might even go over to Reno. This is about as far from Austin as I will get so I guess you could say I'll be starting home now. (Unless I go to Reno.) The route home will be sort of zig-zag so it will take quite a bit longer however.

Moving on ...

Tomorrow I head for Carson City, the Capital of Nevada. It's a longer drive than I want to do in one day so I'll stop tomorrow night at Tonopah, NV. Don't think they have any trains there.

Las Vegas Trams

The trams in Las Vegas are all private operations, connecting hotels that are owned by the same company. There were three of them documented on the map I found at VegasJourney.com. One of those was closed due to construction taking place between the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio. I could see pillars in the middle of the construction that suggested it would be back some day but can't say for sure. I was able to ride the other two, one between the Mirage and Treasure Island and the other connecting Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Both these trams were free, basically horizontal elevators. I spotted another connecting two buildings of the CircusCircus complex but it was closed and not to be restarted according to a CircusCircus security guard. The picture included here is from the Treasure Island/Mirage trip.

Las Vegas Monorail

Is a monorail a "train?" Don't know, don't care, it was fun. I bought a $15, 24 hour pass. I probably didn't need it but managed to use it three times which means I broke even on $5 one trip fares. The system is only 4 miles long, with plans to expand depending mostly on politics. Other than the convention center, the stops are all at major hotel/casinos. It seems the casinos make the most of the reported $20 they each invested to get a station at their location by making it difficult to find your way past the hotel and routing you directly through the gaming floor to get to the main Las Vegas strip. There were some initial start up problems and the "rail" itself, which seemed to be a concrete beam, seemed to give a fairly rough ride. I read that early problems included stuff falling to the ground though I don't know if it was from the rail or the cars.

Hoover Dam

The track used by the Nevada Southern Railroad is actually a remnant of the track built by UP to support the construction of Hoover Dam. The dam was built, after years of planning, for several reasons. It controlled the huge floods that periodically came down the Colorado River, it preserved that water for later irrigation and drinking water, it produced huge amounts of electric power and provided thousands of jobs during the depression. It could be suggested that the water and power it provided for Southern California created the economy that thrives there today. BTW, the official name is Hoover Dam. After 70 years there are many who still refer to it as Boulder Dam. Guess they just like that better than calling it after a politician.

Nevada Southern Railway

The Nevada Southern Railway is actually part of the Nevada Division of Cultural Affairs. The facilities, the rolling stock and four employees are all funded by the State of Nevada. Much of the work needed to restore the equipment is done by a bunch of volunteers that call themselves the Friends of the Nevada Southern Railway. Coming from Texas where the state government is working as hard as they can to get out of the tourist railroad business I find the arrangement intriguing. The folks there do a great job, the cars I rode in reflected a lot of work. The ride they offer is limited by the small amount of track they have but was interesting none the less. They have a covered shed now to display some of their extra rolling stock and maybe one of their steam engines and have plans to build a museum building near their two track engine house. Oh BTW, the conductor noticed my interest in the caboose and offer me a caboose ride on the return trip.

A bad start in Nevada ...

Well, so much for Arizona. I didn't get to ride every train I knew about and maybe some I didn't know about but I'm having fun and that's what counts, I hope. On to Nevada and of course I had to start that with a miss. I went through Laughlin, NV on the trip from Williams to Las Vegas. It's a longer drive but avoids some windy roads, as well as construction and security problems at Boulder Dam. Laughlin also has a park railroad at the Ramada hotel but they don't operate on Thursday and Friday so I passed right through. Unless I get bored with Vegas and decide to drive all the way back to Laughlin tomorrow, that one's going to be a miss.

Verde Canyon Railroad

Every tourist railroad seems to have it's own personality. In the case of the Verde Canyon, there seems to be more of a friendly feel and less of the corporate feel as with the Grand Canyon. This is despite the fact that both operations were started by successful businessmen who got into the tourist railroad business by accident and were assisted by their wives. Verde Canyon has a very scenic ride, Grand Canyon has a very scenic destination. The equipment is comparable except Verde Canyon has no steam locomotives, in fact they have much less equipment over all but it is used creatively with an open car assigned to each coach so you can chose to ride inside or outside and switch back and forth.

Grand Canyon Railway

There is so much to the Grand Canyon Railway, it's hard to know where to start. It's a historic railroad, an excursion railroad, a useful railroad and above all a successful railroad. The first revenue train to the Grand Canyon was in 1901. This was the preferred way to get to the canyon until it was displaced by the automobile and the last train ran in 1968. It was in 1989 that the new Grand Canyon railway ran it's first train out of Williams to the Grand Canyon. Now it carries over 225,000 people a year, and a corresponding number of cars are NOT going to the limited facilities in the park. They only use their steam engines between Memorial Day and Labor Day so I didn't get to experience that ... maybe next time. Tied to the railroad is both a hotel and a huge RV park and a restaurant, allowing GCR to sell complete packages to families. Their Polar Express season starts in early November and runs into January. They board as many as 1000 people per train and often run two trains in an evening. They also do "A Day Out With Thomas," which starts this Friday. I plan to stay around long enough Friday to see how they run their Thomas operation.

Done with Phoenix ...

Well, I managed to ride all eleven of the railroads that I knew about in the Phoenix area, a lot better than Tucson. It's curious that there are so many park railroads in this area and no full size excursion trains. The Arizona Railway Museum folks do a great job with their museum so maybe they will eventually evolve into an excursion operation as well.

I have no idea how many miles I drove getting to all of these venues, but many more than I had expected, partly because of some errors on my part but also because of some scheduling problems with hours of operation at some of the venues. Eleven will likely be the record for trains ridden in one area. Tomorrow I head for Williams and only have two trains to ride, the Grand Canyon and the Verde Canyon in Clarkdale. Ought to be easy!

Rawhide Western Town Railroad

In Rawhide Town, everybody says "Howdy" and "Pleased to meet you", except for the bad guys and they don't talk much. On a Monday evening, there weren't many folks around but judging from the size of their parking lot they sometimes do quite a business. The railroad passengers consisted of me, two men and a boy. The engineer kept trying to rustle up some business before we pulled out but there just weren't many people to rustle. The trip was not particularly scenic, a few fake buildings in the town of "That-a-way" and a boot hill where everybody seems to have died in 1881.

A real railroad, sort of ...

The Superstition Scenic Railroad was the closest thing to a real railroad that I found in the Phoenix area. It runs on standard 36 inch narrow gauge tracks but the engine was the darndest thing I ever saw. It probably started it's life as some sort of diesel power unit, perhaps intended for use in a mine. Various cylinders, cones and boxes have been welded onto it to give a faint impression of an old steam engine. The engineer provided a narration about the local scenery that was quite interesting. Nearby are the Superstition Mountains and the ride passes near several old mine works including an open pit mine that recently produced a million dollars of gold and the head works of a mine shaft that's a thousand feet deep but now flooded after they struck an underground river. All true, I swear.

It's not a great zoo buts it's a good zoo ...

According to their posted messages, Wildlife World Zoo evolved from a endangered species breeding facility into a public zoo. Some of that heritage shows in the chain link boxes that most of the animals are exhibited in. I had to feel sorry for water birds, perched on limbs with nothing but a small pan of water in the corner to remind them of their calling. Hopefully the money they are saving on facilities is being used in their Species Survival Program. Enough on the zoo. The railroad was actually more than a ride in the park. It takes the riders through gates into open areas where the animals are free to roam right up to the train. Not many did but it was kind of neat. The engineer is also your tour guide and provides wildlife information as well as antidotes about taking unfertilized ostrich eggs home and making omelets for his dog. (He knew they weren't fertile because they don't have any male ostriches in the zoo.) One more thing on the zoo. They have a baby white tiger on exhibit named "Nash." I had wondered where that name came from until I saw the sign stating that the baby was named after Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. Oh well!

One more day in Phoenix ...

Well, eight down, three to go. I decided the Scottsdale Live Steamers operation at McCormick Railroad Park merited its own entry on my list. On Monday I have many miles to drive and hope to spend some extra time at the wild animal park.

Daisy Mountain Railroad

I have yet to be able to find out the history of the name Daisy Mountain. This park is in Anthem but I'm not sure if that's a town or a subdivision. Can't find a web site for the park or the train. It's at least twenty miles north of what I would call Phoenix on I-17 and I suppose they all commute to town everyday. They have a nice train however with another classy steam engine replica and a rather funky but friendly engineer.

Enchanted Island Railroad

Enchanted Island Railroad is in Encanto city park in Phoenix, is larger than all the others with more rides and may be a city rather than contractor operation. The employees, rather than wearing the ubiquitous "STAFF" shirts, were all wearing Hawaiian shirts. The equipment was different with a classy, well polished steam engine replica and larger cars. The park outside the amusement area was well attended.

Desert Breeze Park Railroad

Desert Breeze is another city park, this time in Chandler. My guess is that a single independent contractor operates the trains and other rides in several of these city parks. The equipment and format is similar. I have to wonder if the name on this engine was a mistake or an attempt to avoid trademark issues.

Adobe Western, Phoenix

The Adobe Western is the name of the railroad operated by the Maricopa Live Steamers, a non-profit organization. Although they are a private club they offer rides to the public on Sunday afternoons until summer when it gets too hot. There is no charge but they accept donations. The layout of their facility was well organized and allows members to store their equipment on site but retrieve it easily. The ride is through the desert and includes a view of a neighboring go-cart track. There is even a siding called Racewatch. Prairie dogs keep an eye on everything and an alert by the young man in front of me of a lion on the prowl turned out to be a large dog.

Freestone Park, Gilbert

The Freestone Park Railroad was the first of several in city owned parks. Gilbert is one of many towns that make up the greater Phoenix area. There was a bit of a crisis when I arrived and the locomotive was up on jacks and missing its front truck. A spot of welding fixed the problem and service started about 20 minutes late. The train wanders through the park in a loop to loop configuration that I found common among these small railroads.

Schnepf Farms, down home good ...

The folks at Schnepf farms are just the nicest you would ever want to meet. Friendly and helpful and they make great pies. The lady engineer for the railroad is very proud of her Union Pacific engine. Schnepf Farms used to ship much of their produce by rail and UP still has a spur into their farm. The ride is a pleasant one, covering many areas of a working farm/family experience. At 8 AM Sunday morning, I had the train to myself but noticed a second train parked which I found is used during the busy fall season.

The "other" train at McCormick-Stillman ...

The is the small "live steam" operation at McCormick-Stillman park. My train was not pulled by a steamer but the surrounding facilities indicated that they have a large stable of motive power and rolling stock. This operation is run by the Scottsdale Live Steamers.

By the time I get to Phoenix ...

Tucson to Phoenix was an easy drive for a change. I stopped off at the Arizona Railroad Museum in Chandler then headed to The Tiffany RV Park and with the help of the owner, Bobby Diggins, I got set up. A quick lunch and then on to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale.

A city park, they have some of the usual park amenities such as picnic areas and playgrounds but the overall theme is railroads. They have a small park train that makes a dog bone loop around the park and a much smaller, "live steam" operation run by a local club.

Tucson is a longer drive than I thought ...

I made it to Tucson but between a late start, and a 30 minute construction delay a block from the RV park, I only rode the Old Pueblo Trolley today out of the three things I knew about in Tucson. The Trolley is a class act though, going to great lengths to recreate the historic aspects of the trolley business. The people I met were very friendly and proud of the work they are doing. The area they serve was well chosen, with an eclectic mix of restaurants, shops and bars lining the street from the trolley barn to the University entrance.


SOME day, I will try to get back to Trail Dust Town and the Old Tucson Studios for their park trains.

The best laid plans ...

Well my trip didn't get off to a very auspicious start. Tuesday night, just as it got dark, the 12 volt system on my RV dropped off line. The 12 volt system runs pretty much everything important on an RV so I hurriedly moved stuff out of the refrigerator/freezer and Wednesday morning, when I'm suppose to be on my way to Fort Stockton I called the RV factory and started debugging stuff over the phone. Turned out that after 5 years of working fine, the ground strap connection to the trailer frame had lost contact. 8 hours to find, 10 minutes to fix. But now, without even getting started, I'm a day behind. Wednesday night, after studying the alternatives, I decided to make it all up in one day. It is possible to drive all the way to El Paso in one day (11 hours) with a 14,000 lb. trailer in tow so here I am in El Paso. Tomorrow I go on to Tucson and ride my first rails.