National Geographic: Love Those Trains Page #2

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host a three-day meet

that attracts model owners

from all over the country.

Each engine is custom-built,

representing thousands of hours

of meticulous machining.

And as in real life,

the engineers discover

that steam engines can be cantankerous

beasts capable of fighting back.

Well, this is a 21/2-inch scale,

narrow gauge locomotive built

to run on 71/2-inch track.

We're trying to duplicate exactly

the kind of engine

that the Colorado & Southern used

back in the years

of 1890 through 1936.

Hey, John, you want to push

the daylight car into the siding?

The most popular daily event is

the grand tour of the line

for families and friends.

Three engines are coupled.

Together they are pulling six tons

of engines, cars, and passengers.

We now have 14 cars.

Mostly they're freight-car type

because people are way out of scale.

This train is one-eighth full size,

but people aren't.

So if you put them in a passenger car,

you can't put a roof on.

But if you put them in a freight car,

the sky is the limit.

Many of those who build and enjoy

riding live steamers

can still

recall the old days

when steam engines ruled the rails.

The halcyon days of steam and

rail began after World War 1.

The Big Boy of the 1940s was driven

by four pistons

that powered 16 drive wheels.

It was the largest steam engine

ever built,

and could pull a train five miles long

And during World War II, steam engines

transporting the freight,

weapons, and troops to the seacoasts,

made possible the fast buildup

of America's war machine.

In the 1950s, steam gave way to

diesel and rail companies,

competing for passengers

promoted streamliners

as the chic way to travel.

But late in the decade,

passengers shifted to automobiles

and airplanes for long-distance travel

and trucks took over much

of the freight.

The low point came in the 1970s.

congress rescued six bankrupt

railroad by creating Conrail.

Railroad lines were abandoned,

and hundreds of

stations closed for good.

Although Americans seemed to lose

interest in passenger train travel,

some countries maintained their

trains as national treasures.

The narrow-gauge Guayaquil and

Quito Railway in Ecuador

plays a vital part in national life,

and people here use the railroad

like a party line.

It even serves as a food market

on wheels.

Train buff and writer Carla Hunt

has traveled

throughout South America on trains.

The Guayaquil-to-Quito run draws

her back as the

most exciting in South America.

A train buff's dream

an American-built Baldwin engine-

a relic from 1900-begins a two-day

climb from sea level

to over 11,000 feet in the Andes.

Passengers have a choice

of three classes.

Second class costs a dollar sixty.

First-class cars sport padded seats

for two dollars ten cents,

and local vendors offer lunch

on brown paper.

The affluent, who ride deluxe,

get reserved seats and meal service.

But some prefer the roof where

conductors seldom collect tickets.

American engineers

laid out the route in 1898.

It took ten years to cut the line

from the sugar cane fields

of the lowlands up over the Andes.

When the train going up fails to meet

the train coming down

at the appointed siding,

there's an unscheduled stop

for a phone call to find out

what happened to the other train.

These trains, not only do they

carry the people up and down,

but they carry the mail.

Every once in a while you see them

with a medical prescription,

a telex that might have come

into Guayaquil

but can't make it up

between the two points.

There is a telex facility at Tiobamba.

But between here and Riobamba

there is absolutely nothing.

The train that's coming from Riobama

has a problem in Huigra.

One of the wheels of the machine

was falling down off the track.

And now we are going with this

train to help the other train.

So, back to Huigra.

Ah, fantastico.

Derailments are common,

but the speeds are slow

and the accidents usually minor.

As a bonus, amateur supervisors

get a chance to see how,

with a minimum of equipment,

a derailed car can be coaxed back

onto its track.

After a change of engines, the train

climbs into the mountains once again.

In the early days of the American west

railroad builders often resorted

to zigzagging switchbacks

to gain altitude.

On this line, a famous switchback

is still in use.

The train has proceeded

as far as it can up the valley.

Now it switches to another track,

and backs up the side of Devil's Nose,

giving passengers on the rear

platform a front-end view.

The train backs around the mountain,

then switches again to climb higher.

Going forward again,

the train has climbed

of the mountain.

At the end of the first day,

the train stops at Riobamba.

For Carla Hunt, a visit to the

market is a fascinating

feature of the trip.

People come from miles around

to sell and buy.

You see things in this market

you won't see anywhere else

in Latin America.

But more than anything else,

I like to wander around and look

at all those beautiful faces.

From Riobamba to Quito,

the train is really a bus on rails.

There are seats inside,

but for hardy train buffs

like Carla Hunt,

there is a much more

exciting vantage point.

The place I like to ride is up

on the luggage rack on top.

That's the best sightseeing seat

in South America.

To go through the mountains and to

climb over the two ranges of the Andes

to go through the beautiful

upland villages

with all the wild changes of

weather on route,

there's nothing in the world like it.

Clouds shroud the peaks of the Andes

as the line climbs high through cuts

in the mountains and then descends

to Ecuador's capital,

the Spanish colonial city of Quito,

to bring to an end one of the world's

most extraordinary train ride

In the United States,

another spectacular train ride

inspired one train buff

to take dramatic action.

The line from Durango to

Silverton, Colorado

was threatened

with abandonment in 1960.

Charles Bradshaw Jr.,

Florida citrus grower,

rescued it in 1981.

Like many a town in the old West,

Durango was created by a railroad.

The Denver & Rio Grande chose the

site laid out the streets,

and sold lots around the depot.

Young people, who share Bradshaw's

enthusiasm for trains, keep it running

I love it. I really love it.

I go home and tell my husband,

I learned all kinds

of new things today.

I would like to be

an engineer very much.

You have to go through

all the training,

which is pretty physical for a girl

and then you have to also a fireman,

which shovel six ton of coal a day.

I wouldn't want to get out of my

limit I don't think that's right.

My father and my grandfather

and my great-grandfather

were all railroaders before me.

They worked for the Rio Grand.

Not this particular branch.

I'm the first one in the family to

work for this branch of the railroad.

None of them were conductors.

They were all in different parts

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