Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993 TAG: 9403090010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BURNT CHIMNEY LENGTH: Medium
"These are big-boy toys," the 66-year-old retired Roanoke insurance administrator says. "I think the idea of [devoting the facility to] kids came along later. We really did it for ourselves."
Did they ever. For the past six years, volunteers have been busy on their hands and knees laying some 3,000 feet of train track, complete with 5,000 crossties - each of them laid by hand, requiring 20,000 screws in all.
There's also a tunnel there to ride under, a train depot to take off from and a genuine set of railroad-crossing signs to warn visitors of approaching trains.
The whole miniature shebang - including locomotives, passenger cars, boxcars, cabooses and gondolas - will premiere this weekend at the club's new home in Franklin County, some 5 1/2 acres of land donated by Sanderson himself. Adults and kids ages 4 and over are encouraged to hop aboard the trains for a run on the main line.
"Kids like to ride because they're real trains," explains Jim Humphrey, another member of the group. "And adults think it's neat because the ride is similar to the feel of the old passenger trains - the swinging motion, the bumps along the track.
"And if that doesn't get you, just seeing these old steam engines pulling all this weight around the track, they really do look neat."
This weekend's meet is a new beginning for the club, which originally ran the miniature train operation at the old Roanoke Transportation Museum in Wasena Park, before the 1985 flood washed the tracks away. Sanderson and the 15 other club members have been sweating away weekends, rebuilding the set-up and making it better than before.
The trains and track are "exact replicas" of actual trains, scaled down to one-eighth the size, he says. The coal-fired, steam-driven locomotives are nearly as powerful, with a weight capacity of more than 2 tons.
Sanderson wouldn't say how much he and other members have invested in the project, but he did reveal that one of his locomotives alone cost $12,000. He also built a one-bedroom house on the property to make it easier for him to visit the site, along with a four-wheeler so he can patrol the grounds. Sanderson lost both of his legs in 1979 after circulatory complications resulted from bypass surgery.
"There are two kinds of trains in everybody's minds - the steam trains and the others," Sanderson says. "The purists like the steam trains."
"Steam may not be efficient, but it's the most powerful force you ever saw."
The next step above table-top train models, steam-train miniatures are an addictive hobby, club members say.
"I usually tell people, men or women both seem to spend their money on something - whether it's golfing, beer-drinking, gardening or something else," Humphrey says.
Humphrey, for one, has been into trains since he was 6 years old. "I'm from Roanoke," he says. "I got my first train set in the sixth grade and never gave it up."
The owner of Mountain Car Co. in Salem, Humphrey even fiddles with miniature trains when he goes to work. His company makes the one-eighth-scale train cars, which are marketed and sold worldwide to enthusiasts like himself.
Blue Ridge Live Steamers meet is 1 to 8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Burnt Chimney area, at the intersections of Virginia routes 688 and 689. No admission, but donations accepted. 362-2208.
by CNB