- Joined
- Nov 14, 2014
- Messages
- 851
Hello All,
Several of us here in the PNW have been talking about forming a Grand Scale , 15” park gauge, Live Steam Club (3” to 5” scale miniature locomotives) here on the eastside of the Seattle Area - with a back country miniature train railway corridor in the Issaquah, North Bend, Snoqualmie Pass, I-5 corridor area.
So, I would invite any Washington area hobby machinists to join us. Well, anyone from anywhere is more than welcome!
For those who may not know about Live Steaming, basically we are a part of a precision machining hobby group that builds and plays with Large scale miniature trains. Like my smallish back yard railway, 12” gauge 1950 Ottaway steam engine shown below.
People usually form local or regional Live Steam Clubs to build the actual railroad track upon which members can operate their own equipment. Today in the US and Canada there are about 150 live steam club railroads located in almost every
State and Province. Most live steam club tracks in the western US are 7.5” gauge (width between the rails) and accommodate either 1.6” scale (1/8th scale). The trend is to build larger equipment- now up to 2.5” scale and larger. However, some of us enjoy building and restoring Park Gauge equipment. Also called Grand Scale, which generally is 3” scale (1/4 size of the original locomotive) up to 5” scale (nearly half size). These are larger trains running on track gauges of 12”, 14 1/8”, 15” or 16” gauge. The miniature amusement park trains of the 1950’s and early ‘60’s were mostly 16” gauge trains. Today, the most versatile and popular park gauge trains for hobbyists, is 15” wide track, which is what we are interested in working with.
15” gauge trains are considered the ideal minimum gauge for Park or “Estate” size railway operations. Our 15” gauge locomotives are capable of hauling significant payloads in 8 to 10 cars, with a passenger loads of 50 or more people each trip, with riders able to sit side by side. These are powerful, yet easily managed and maintained locomotives.
So we are now working on recruiting members, formally organizing the club, and building the Railroad. They key thing is we would like our railroad Mainline to extend 1 to 3 miles, or more into the backcountry, to give members and the public, a scenic wilderness miniature train ride. Currently, we have 3 Park Gauge locomotives dedicated to club operations.
Our “theme”, or railroad operating purpose, is to engage in watershed scale forest restoration and outdoor conservation work along our rail corridor. Basically we wish to help create a scenic, backcountry, wilderness railway corridor over which we can operate.
150 years ago in Washington State, early day railroads were instrumental in clear cutting, indeed decimating, our old growth forests. Many forest areas have never recovered. We think it a very cool idea to adopt a large, scenic watershed, in the foothills of the Cascade Range, and use our Miniature Railway as the exclusive transportation corridor to help replant the old forest areas and create a new, scenic wilderness.
Here are our key concept ideas:
- Live steam club, non profit, member organization
- club owns equipment, provides insurance, mainline to operate, etc, minimizing the memberships cost of participating in the hobby.
- members can operate club locomotives, or their own locomotives and rolling stock (3” to 5” scale)
- active partnership with a regional wilderness public or non profit land management agency to establish the mainline corridor
- mainline would eventually be a 1 mile to 3 mile, point to point, scenic railway leading into the Cascade foothills back country.
Our railway would be the principal transportation corridor and transport method into a watershed scale restoration area.
Three purposes of the Club would be to enable live steamers to restore and operate Park gauge equipment; give train rides during public run days to generate revenue steams; and, use the railroad to conduct back country forest restoration and land conservation projects - partnering with our sponsoring wilderness agency, and public volunteer work crews.
We would like to hear your thoughts on our plan, and invite your participation and membership!
We are forming a steering committee and would love to have your help.
Thanks much, Certainly like to hear from you, if you are interested.
Cheers,
Glenn
Several of us here in the PNW have been talking about forming a Grand Scale , 15” park gauge, Live Steam Club (3” to 5” scale miniature locomotives) here on the eastside of the Seattle Area - with a back country miniature train railway corridor in the Issaquah, North Bend, Snoqualmie Pass, I-5 corridor area.
So, I would invite any Washington area hobby machinists to join us. Well, anyone from anywhere is more than welcome!
For those who may not know about Live Steaming, basically we are a part of a precision machining hobby group that builds and plays with Large scale miniature trains. Like my smallish back yard railway, 12” gauge 1950 Ottaway steam engine shown below.
People usually form local or regional Live Steam Clubs to build the actual railroad track upon which members can operate their own equipment. Today in the US and Canada there are about 150 live steam club railroads located in almost every
State and Province. Most live steam club tracks in the western US are 7.5” gauge (width between the rails) and accommodate either 1.6” scale (1/8th scale). The trend is to build larger equipment- now up to 2.5” scale and larger. However, some of us enjoy building and restoring Park Gauge equipment. Also called Grand Scale, which generally is 3” scale (1/4 size of the original locomotive) up to 5” scale (nearly half size). These are larger trains running on track gauges of 12”, 14 1/8”, 15” or 16” gauge. The miniature amusement park trains of the 1950’s and early ‘60’s were mostly 16” gauge trains. Today, the most versatile and popular park gauge trains for hobbyists, is 15” wide track, which is what we are interested in working with.
15” gauge trains are considered the ideal minimum gauge for Park or “Estate” size railway operations. Our 15” gauge locomotives are capable of hauling significant payloads in 8 to 10 cars, with a passenger loads of 50 or more people each trip, with riders able to sit side by side. These are powerful, yet easily managed and maintained locomotives.
So we are now working on recruiting members, formally organizing the club, and building the Railroad. They key thing is we would like our railroad Mainline to extend 1 to 3 miles, or more into the backcountry, to give members and the public, a scenic wilderness miniature train ride. Currently, we have 3 Park Gauge locomotives dedicated to club operations.
Our “theme”, or railroad operating purpose, is to engage in watershed scale forest restoration and outdoor conservation work along our rail corridor. Basically we wish to help create a scenic, backcountry, wilderness railway corridor over which we can operate.
150 years ago in Washington State, early day railroads were instrumental in clear cutting, indeed decimating, our old growth forests. Many forest areas have never recovered. We think it a very cool idea to adopt a large, scenic watershed, in the foothills of the Cascade Range, and use our Miniature Railway as the exclusive transportation corridor to help replant the old forest areas and create a new, scenic wilderness.
Here are our key concept ideas:
- Live steam club, non profit, member organization
- club owns equipment, provides insurance, mainline to operate, etc, minimizing the memberships cost of participating in the hobby.
- members can operate club locomotives, or their own locomotives and rolling stock (3” to 5” scale)
- active partnership with a regional wilderness public or non profit land management agency to establish the mainline corridor
- mainline would eventually be a 1 mile to 3 mile, point to point, scenic railway leading into the Cascade foothills back country.
Our railway would be the principal transportation corridor and transport method into a watershed scale restoration area.
Three purposes of the Club would be to enable live steamers to restore and operate Park gauge equipment; give train rides during public run days to generate revenue steams; and, use the railroad to conduct back country forest restoration and land conservation projects - partnering with our sponsoring wilderness agency, and public volunteer work crews.
We would like to hear your thoughts on our plan, and invite your participation and membership!
We are forming a steering committee and would love to have your help.
Thanks much, Certainly like to hear from you, if you are interested.
Cheers,
Glenn
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