Whistle Music Ancr: Tracks Ahead.

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Music Hi, I'm Spencer Christian.

On this episode of Tracks Ahead we'll look at New York's impressive Hellgate Bridge.

Visit a father and son who's passion is collecting vintage Lionel trains and we'll explore the fabulous Taieri Gorge in Southern New Zealand, but first most of us at some point in our lives wanted to run away and join the circus.

Most circuses' travel by train so what better way to explore the big top than by rail.

Ancr: It is called the Greatest Show On Earth.

When you say circus this is what most folk's picture.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus delights fans who are young at heart and just plain young.

Tom: We are currently performing in our third century in the United States.

We started in the 1800's worked all through all the 1900's and now it's the year 2000, that's quite remarkable in itself.

There are a lot of businesses that wish that they had the kind of success where they can be in business for 130 years.

Ancr: In an age where kids turn to the TV or computer for fun, this kind of classic entertainment still packs them in.

And this, all of this, still gets from place to place in classic fashion.

Tom: It's more economical to move it by rail.

The fleet of trucks that we would need to move this show would be astronomical, we have 42 wagons on each unit right now, as well as our animals, as well as our performers and it's just not even close economically to transport this by truck.

Ancr: The train makes getting into and out of cities and towns a swift operation.

Tom: We can unload the train in two to three hours and have everything transported from the rail yard to the arena that we'll be performing in.

Ancr: When the Greatest Show On Earth is over in one town a tear down begins with almost military precision.

Tom: When the show is over, even during the last show, we begin the loading operation we begin loading the wagons.

Everything with the show goes into an individual wagon, the wagons are numbered, it would be specifically for rubber, or for electrical, it could be for props, could be for wardrobe every wagon has a specific item that gets loaded into it.

Those wagons are then transported to the train where we have 16 flatcars and one bi-level car that we load and it takes us approximately four to five hours to load the train.

Once everything is loaded and properly secured and the ramps are put away, then we're ready to depart to the next city.

Tim: Yes, you can go ahead and turn that up, I'm going to have them dump them on the other end.

Tim: If you look at the whole evolution of the piggy-back loading in the railroad yards, that whole industry grew out of circus loadings and we're still doing it the old fashioned way.

Ancr: These aren't just ordinary trains, painted up in circus colors.

Ringling Brothers crafts them for the specific needs of the operation.

Tom: We're in Palmetto, Florida right now at our railcar recycling operations and we opened in September of 1992.

What we do basically is we take older railcars whether they're purchased from Amtrak or other railroad companies or whether they come out of our own fleet.

We strip them down to the bare raw metal and we build them totally from top to bottom; from the trucks to the car bodies to the interiors.

Ancr: There are eight different kinds of accommodations, different versions for different members of the team.

Tom: They're more or less assigned by the position that someone has on the show.

A dancer will have a different size room than the Performance Director, the Performance Director will have different size room than the General Manager, and so on.

This is one of our larger type rooms here, this has a full size bed with a twin bed up top and the dinette area also converts into a sleeping area if needed as well.

This room has a four-burner range and an oven, comes with microwave, full size refrigerator.

All of our cabinets have special knobs on them to prevent vibration while the train is moving, you have to pull the knob out and then it opens easily.

When it's closed it's secured.

These coaches here will become homes for people on the show; they'll be homes to performers and/or staff members.

They'll be their homes for two to four years for performers or for staff members it could be for the length of their career.

I lived on the Blue Unit circus train for 10 years and it's very nice even though your accommodations may seem small in relation to the train they're actually very big because a lot of people don't realize that living on a circus train is a lot like living on a ship.

You only have so much space to deal with so we try to think it out and plan, make the accommodations whether it's for someone who's just hiring off the street or whether it's for the greatest performer on earth.

We try to think out the room layout and make it as comfortable as we can for the people who'll be in living in that room.

Joni: When I first came here, I lived in a very small room.

I also lived on a car with about 12 other girls, we shared a kitchen, we shared a bathroom, it was like dormitory life but I really enjoyed it.

They were all my friends, we would have so much fun on the trips, and it was a lot of fun.

It was like being in college when you're living with a bunch of girls.

So it was fun.

Then of course when you get older and you start doing other things and my husband and I got married so we got our own room, it was comfortable, you grow with your space.

Ancr: Mark Geble grew up in the circus; his father was the famed Gunther Geble Williams.

Home for Mark has been the circus and the train nearly all his life.

Mark: I was born and raised here at the Ringling Brothers ever since I was knee-high, I was on the train and I've been on it for 30 years now.

It's a great place to live, you get a different view each week, you look out the window and you get to see a different view, a different city, different people, it's fantastic.

Tom: It's the American dream on rails.

Ancr: If you spent anytime at all around the performers you'll hear a wide range of accents and languages, many countries are represented in the Greatest Show On Earth.

Tom: Life on the train is like a mini United Nations, we've got people from Czechoslovakia, Russia, China all the European countries as well as American all the different states in America.

Everyone gets along just fine together; I wish that the world governments would look to Ringling for some of their political problems.

Ancr: This is not just a temporary place to store your clown shoes.

This is a rolling community and it doesn't have the fly-by-night feel of some kind of motel on wheels, it's home.

Tom: Many people have families that tour with the Greatest Show On Earth.

We have our own schoolteacher that tours with Ringling Brothers.

In a room like this, if this was going to a family, you could conceivably have husband and wife sleeping down in the full size bed and one child in the upper bunk and one child in the lower bunk.

This room could conceivably accommate a family of four.

Mark: The train is home to myself my wife and all the inhabitants of the train.

You forego some of the luxuries of full size bathtubs but you have a place that is home, where you have a place to put all your clothing, you're not packing up every two days and at the end of hard day, you go into bed and you're just home.

Ancr: One luxury you don't do without is good food right here in the pie car aboard the train.

Mark: I bring him in items that I get out of magazines and say "Can you make this tonight? "

What you made for the last barbecue was excellent.

Cook: Crab Bisque.

Mark: Crab Bisque.

Big old pot, there's enough for New England; I'm a New England boy, and he made a big old pot of crab bisque.

Nobody thought it would go and it was the first thing gone.

Mark: It's magic and it has to be in your heart.

He works and he does his best, he makes some of the best shepard's pie, omelets.

I can personally attest the man is personally accountable for at least 15 of my 70 pounds I've put on.

Ancr: If you've ever dreamed of running away to join the circus, make sure life on the rails is a part of that dream.

If you're dream comes true, you'll be a member of the family that puts on The Greatest Show On Earth.

The circus operates the red and blue units, which crisscross the United States all by rail.

Collecting trains becomes a life long passion for a lot of people.

Many times it's an interest that's passed on from one generation to the next.

For John Watson what started, as therapy for his son became a strong bond the two still share today.

Ancr: Look around.

Almost everywhere you look is another train.

Dave Watson has as many as 10 running at once and hundred's in his collection.

Why so many?

Dave: Every train set has some sort of a mystique to me.

If I see one and I want to share in that mystique with it, I'll buy it.

Yes I do have a lot of sets.

I've been collecting for 40 years.

I practically have everything in the catalogs that I ever wanted.

Ancr: Every kid has dreams of special trains.

Dave was no different.

Growing up in the Midwest his favorite was a local attraction.

Dave: My number one is the Hiawatha.

That was a train that I used to watch when I lived in the city of Wauwatosa.

It'd come through and it'd stop at the station and then take off.

It was so dramatic because you could be standing there six feet away from the train; it was my favorite train.

I have a lot of Hiawatha memorabilia and I have some Hiawatha engines and go from there.

Ancr: His love for toy trains has been passed on to his son John, but it didn't start out as a hobby.

Dave: When John was in kindergarten I got a report back from the school saying he was having some difficulty with his small muscle control of his hands and fingers.

I found that very hard to believe so I said well we're going to do some therapy here.

I figured if he can learn how to put track together and couple cars and put the cars on the tracks, that certainly would be real good therapy for him.

I went right out and bought a train and that's how we started.

John: All the kids from the school would always be here after school everyday, playing with the trains.

All the mother's from my class would say, "is my son there?"

My mom would say "yes."

Spencer: The motor problems, if there ever were any, went away as fast as his love for trains came on strong, with that, came a stronger bond between father and son.

John: We didn't watch a lot of television when I was younger.

When Dad would get home from the office, which would be somewhat late, I already had my p.j.

's sn, just a little guy; we'd always spend at least an hour downstairs working on the trains.

Then I'd go to bed and he'd keep on working on the trains and I'd get up early in the morning go down and see what he did.

Dave: That's when we used to get boxes of trains from garage sales and they all needed repair and clean up but that's what really got us together.

John: It was fun I enjoyed it.

We both enjoyed it together.

If it wasn't fun we wouldn't have done it.

Ancr: Both Dave and John are dentists.

John is an innovator just like his father.

He designed a critical part of the transformer that's running these trains after noticing how hot the transformer got and how slowly his trains were running.

John: Originally the pick-up from the coil of the transformer to the rest of the transformer was made through a carbon roller, made out of graphite like pencil lead, that thing was cherry red.

From my knowledge of metals and melting gold at the office, I know that cherry red is about 1700; right then and there, I thought there's a lot of resistance going on.

The hotter it got the slower everything would go and of course all the energy was going to heat up the roller and not run the train.

I thought to myself, what could we substitute for that carbon that wouldn't wear on the soft copper coils but would be a much better conductor, of course being a dentist, I thought; gold!

I went to the train show the next weekend and I bought a carbon roller from the supply guy, the parts guy, and went to the office and made an impression of it.

Made some little acrylic patterns and I cast a couple of gold rollers, polished them and brought them back, installed them in the transformers and lo' and behold, the trains went faster, you could cut back the throttles, they didn't get hot.

Ancr: As collections go, Dave Watson's is valuable but it's not dollar signs he sees hanging on his walls.

Dave: No.

That's strange, I don't.

I just see the train that I wanted to have and I wanted to admire, I wanted to see or be able to hold.

I couldn't tell you right now what dollar I paid for any one of these.

There are some structures simply because of their sheer size that are absolutely awe-inspiring at first glance.

For rail fans is one such structure as the impressive Hellgate Bridge in New York City.

We'll look at this engineering masterpiece in a moment.

In 1879 construction was started on the Otago Central Railway on the South island of New Zealand.

It took 42 years to complete the line, which was closed in 1990.

But it's back in business with a portion of it resurrected as a tourist line running through this spectacular Taieri Gorge.

Ancr: You were here in Dunedin on the eastern coast of New Zealand for one of the must-sees this country offers, a train ride through the Taieri Gorge.

But you can't help but be stunned by the jumping off point.

Dunedin's railway station is a beacon of Edwardian architecture in this bustling Kiwi city.

Complete with Royal Dalton tile floors and splendid stained glass, this fine spot is said to be the most photographed building in the country.

Grant: Yes we have a lot of business because of the station; it's very historic, station has the longest platform in New Zealand, it was built in 1906.

A few years ago the city council took it over and spent a million dollars doing it up.

Ancr: But it is the ride through the gorge itself that draws visitors from near and far.

Grant: The scenery, most people come on the railway line to go and see the scenery up the gorge, there's no other access on than the railway.

Spencer: Sliding through the rugged gorge you get a unique look at the seemingly endless wonders of New Zealand.

This trip isn't long in miles but the changes you experience, bridge quite a scenic distance.

Grant: A very narrow river gorge, lots of rocks and bit of an engineering feat getting the railway line through lots of big viaducts.

Ten tunnels all up on the line and climb from sea level right up to the top of the gorge, which is 900 meters.

Spencer: A long the way you cross a dozen wrought-iron and stone viaducts that have stood the test of time.

They almost seem part of the natural landscape.

It's a world of rocky ledges and sheer drops to pristine waterways.

Plunge into darkness as you slip into tunnel after tunnel, 10 in all and then emerge into the brilliant day once again.

Anytime of year is worth seeing here in the gorge, the trip changes each time the weather changes but that doesn't mean you have to suffer, your carried along in style.

It's the perfect spot for afternoon tea inside or perhaps a local brew with an awesome view outside.

The line was built two centuries ago when precious cargo was the mainstay of the line.

Grant: It started in 1879 it was built to take the gold into Otago for a start off and by the time it got built the gold had run out.

It was mainly built to open the countryside up.

Ancr: The T.G.R did go through a period when you find the cars loaded with passengers of a different breed.

They were a bit more wild and wooly, but those days are long gone.

Grant: The railway got out of carrying sheep in the 1970's; we do carry a bit of wool occasionally in that part of the season but we're mainly a tourist railway.

Ancr: The line is usually loaded with folks who want to look deeper inside New Zealand's rugged countryside.

But unlike sheep who used to flock to ride these rails it took a bit more to get the word out that this was a trip not to be overlooked.

Grant: We started off small, Dunedin is not a big city, we had to do a lot marketing to get people to come to Dunedin to go on the train and now it's one of the highlights of the visitors to Dunedin.

Ancr: If you're heading to New Zealand and you're a rail fan or just enjoy seeing the sites in comfort, put the Taieri Gorge Railway on your list.

Some say it's even the best train trip in the country.

Grant: Being one of the top ten railways, there's really not that many only 18 rail lines, so it's not hard to be in the top 10.

It's a diesel locomotive, DJ class locomotives built in 1968, exhibition locomotives, and the carriages are a mixture of vintages carriages built in 1920's and the three bottom carriages were built in the 1980's for the train.

Ancr: The Taieri Gorge is a natural wonder.

The train that chugs through is a marvel of engineering and ingenuity; together they make for a memorable trip.

Music Ancr: In New York City, in order to stand out you've got to be big and impressive.

The Hellgate Bridge fits the bill.

It carries train traffic over the Hellgate section of the East River known for it's strong current.

Before the bridge, if you wanted to get to one side to the other you faced either an incredibly long round about land trip or the cumbersome option of floating your train cars across the water on barges.

Joe: The important aspect of this bridge is that it permitted traffic from the South and the Southwest to access New England.

Prior to the building of the bridge, most traffic was car-floaded across the harbor, which is expensive and weather dependent.

This was the first link between let's say Washington and Boston.

It was built just after the building of Penn Station and the tunnels under the Hudson River and the East River and cut the travel time between Washington and Boston by a good four hours.

Ancr: When it opened in 1917 it was the largest steel arched bridge in the world.

Twelve stories above the water, spanning nearly 1,000 feet between twin towers, it's sheer size and graceful arch made it an engineering landmark.

Designed by Gustav Lindenthal it cemented his reputation as one of the world's premier bridge builders.

Bill: It was designed for an extremely heavy loads, it only has two tracks on it now but it was originally designed for four railroad tracks and for the later edition of the second deck with the a roadway and street car line which was never built.

It's a very heavy, enormous bridge; from an engineering point of view it's really quite a marvelous piece of work.

Some of the pieces of the bridge weighed as much as 250 tons and the parts that had to be erected in the arch some of those, I think, are 180 tons.

Usually they were lifted off the barges in the river and put in place in the bridge.

Ancr: In the mid 1970's when rail service in this region of the country was suffering, Amtrak inherited the bridge.

In the 1990's the dingy dark brown rust color was covered with vibrant deep red.

The granite-faced towers were scrubbed and the bridge once again started to look like a respectable landmark.

Joe Greenstein is a railroad writer and photographer, as well as a New York native who thinks the Hellgate is as impressive as any New York runway fashion model.

Joe: I think the scope of the bridge is just startling.

It's a beautiful structure, especially since it's been painted.

The red has really brought the bridge alive.

One aspect is the view that it gives of the city.

Most of the rails approaches into the city just don't give you a sense what New York is like.

The New York Central into Grand Central Station goes through some depressed areas, factories, junkyards and tenements and Pennsylvania goes into tunnel and you hardly get a glimse of the city at all.

But up on the Hellgate you get a magnificent view of the skyline.

It really is a gateway, it gives you a sense of Gotham of the metropolis, which you're approaching, and it is most impressive.

Ancr: Though some freight is carried over the Hellgate most of the traffic is made up of Amtrak passenger trains.

Some use the electrified catenary, which is still in place.

Whether looking at the Hellgate from a beautiful park or from the rooftop of New York residence, it is easy to see why rail fans consider this a masterpiece.

It offers visitors a majestic view as their trains come rolling into the big Apple.

With the growing push for more high-speed rail service here, the glory days of the Hellgate may be yet to come.

Not too long after the Hellgate Bridge opened, the Lionel Model Company was so impressed with it; they made a model of the bridge.

Well that's it for this episode, Thanks for being with us and please join us next time for more Tracks Ahead.

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