Model Railroading > Roy Pickard's legacy

IN the late 1970's Roy Pickard bought a ranch near Priddy, Tx. He decided to build a live steam railroad on. The land would be spread over about 150 acres of rolling land, some heavily forested and other parts out in the open.

Roy built about 80% of the railroad moving a lot of dirt and rocks to provide a right of way. Word spread about it and some came to see what he had done before it was finished. Some said he was crazy, others just thought he was a little nuts. But, in spite of that some started helping and the railroad main line was finished. It had to cross some creeks, one in particular called Cowhouse Creek which required a 120 ft bridge that ranged to a height of 10 ft over the Creek,and rise up some tough hills with plenty of curvature. Some parts such as the "raceway allowed you to "come out" on the throttle if only for a 150 yards, then it was back to curves and grades.

Roy wasn't just building a live steam track, he was building a railroad complete with many passing tracks and sidings for freight trains to work. It was to be operated as a real railroad, dispatched by radio controlling train movements and meets. Roy made use of concealment of the the track in wooded areas. In some places you would be close to another part of he mainline of the railroad and not even know it when trees and bushes were leafed out. The track ran from 3 terminals, West Yard, Comanche Yard, and Indian Gap each with a turntable and water spouts. It had tower 17, a tall structure that seated the dispatcher and a CTC machine for the Zuni (Tower 17) tracks and wye. It was the nerve center of the railroad. Radios were early radio shack 5 channel radios with only 1/4 miles range and not really good at that.

West yard had a return loop around it and Comanche would get one after friends collected money to hire a D-9 bull dozier to cut through 9 ft high rock infested ground and use the material for a fill on the loop. What Roy had unsuccessfully fought for years was done in a day by the dozier. The 1st picture shows me exiting the cut coming up to Comanche Yard. #2 is me on a portion of the race track. The mainline was 7200 feet one way and you ran out that far and back again for a total trip of 14400 ft (2.72 miles). If you had a good trip, you could make it in about 1 hour round trip. If there was lots of traffic and meets you could take 2.5 hours to make a round trip. If you were on a local freight it could take a half-day.

You will note lots of green in the pictures indicating this meet was one in early May. The October meet would not be near as lush after a hot Texas summer. The first meets were held in the early 1980's and continue to this day.

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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/15 14:29 by tomstp.

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1st picture shows me about to enter the siding of Gotebo deep in the woods. #2 shows me again on a part of the raceway on the main line and the empty track you see is the main line, separated by 3000 ft from where I am. The foliage and trees helped make you feel all alone when running on this part of the track.

Word about this track spread quickly. Live steamers came from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, and even Alaska, to run on this track. It was totally unlike any they had ever run on. It was a "railroad". As a dispatcher I can remember one day when I had 18 trains running on the main at one time and I had only 9 passing tracks to work with. I doubled up a lot of them as 2nd sections and that cut my radio traffic in half. Thanks to long passing tracks it made two and sometimes even 3 sections possible. Still, it was a rather hair-raising experience. But, there were no "head ons".

Other larger and more involved live steam tracks have now been built in Michigan, Arizona, Oregon and a few others. FRS radios have made larger tracks more possible as have innovative signals. But, Roy Pickard's C&IG was the pioneer, the one that made others copy and improve upon the original. Yes the "crazy man", started it all and his legacy is secure.

Roy died last April. I was privileged to ride a BNSF passenger train with him in Temple Tx 2 days before he passed away. He was in his 80's and I will never forget one of the last things he said to me. "Gettin old is the pits".

As I locate them, I will put more pictures of this track on T.O.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/12 15:02 by tomstp.

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Great stuff Tom.Your friend sure had a passion.Keep em coming.
Regards,DK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/12 17:17 by DKay.

I am sorry to hear of his passing, but I'm glad that he realized his dream.

Roy Pickard and his wife Marilyn, a tireless supporter of Roy, the track and live steamers everywhere.

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#1 is the approach to the Missippi bridge over Cowhouse Creek. 2 is the bridge itself. While it is planked in the picture it was operated for over 2 years without the planking and running a train across it was just a little spookie.

#3 is the bridge over Holder, a passing track.

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Another shot of the bridge over Holder. Interesting story here. One day my train derailed a gondola on the grade uphill from this bridge. It turned loose a brand new Santa Fe wood caboose belonging to a fella from California. I ran after it as hard as I could and had to run through the bridge on the side planking when all of a sudden to my horror there was no more planking. Well sir, in mid air I somehow brought my feet down between the rails on the ties and got through the bridge and caught the caboose before it got to the 3.5% grade which would have sent it like a rocket down the hill and probably derailed it on a curve. I would not have wanted to bring the pieces of the caboose to him!

2nd picture is of Holder undneath the bridge and the start of a 1.5 % grade up hill through a very long cut. This cut could flood and wash mud through it in heavy rains. It has had to be dug out several times.

3rd is the bridge at the entrance to Comanche Yard.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/12 20:09 by tomstp.

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#1 is the bridge I ran through to catch the caboose.
2 is the passing track of Lehnis
3 is the passing track of Tlaquepaque that sits on a 2% grade. It was not fun stopping there with a heavy train.

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1. Comanche yard
2 Maximilian passing track in the woods with an overhanging tree you had to remember to duck.
3. 2 1/2" scale shay on Mississippi bridge.

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1. Nothing to do with railroading, Just the meanest,nasty, ornery double 12 domino player you will ever run into! Really, Helen is a good ole gal. (had to say that or she'd kill me)

2 South end of Maximilian passing track.

3. This is my older 4-6-0 which I sold several years ago. It appears in many of these pictures. It once took 17 cars and 3 people up a 2% grade with the throttle wide open shouting to the high heavens and drafting so hard that it completely burned up the coal in the firebox without smoking. Never had that happen again. The instant I closed the throttle at Tower 17 it popped off for quite a while.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/12 17:19 by tomstp.

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1 Harry Bean and his great SP 2-8-0

2 Earl Bean and his copy of the SP 4-6-0 fire train engines 2248, lettered for Ft Worth & Western who bought it from Texas State RR.

3 My T&P 4-6-0 before it got the regulation T&P paint job.

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1 and 2. After a hard days track work, and running it would become necessary to hang out the Rule G flag and have Tee-time. While everyone would be dog tired, they were not to tired to talk and a raz one another. And boy, did it get deep!

3. You will remember the mention of Tower 17. It could get to be a busy place with one main coming through with 2 passing tracks and the wye to the Indian Gap line. Such is show here as 3 trains are at the tower.

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And it looks like a Grand Time was had by all!!
Great story and photos!
Mike



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/12 16:13 by 2720.

tomstp Wrote:
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> 1 and 2. After a hard days track work, and
> running it would become necessary to hang out the
> Rule G flag and have Tee-time. While everyone
> would be dog tired, they were not to tired to talk
> and a raz one another. And boy, did it get deep!

But of course! This is one of the most important parts of the live steam hobby.

An interesting set of photos. Is this by chance the same railroad that was featured in Model Railroader sometime in the mid-1990s?

Yes. I think there was a 4 page article by Peter Bryan on it.

WOW Where is the love button???

What is going to happen to the RR after the loss of its COO??

CB

Roy's wife has said she will keep the meets going as long as she lives. All maintainence is now done by a small group of men who come to the track about 4 weekends a year plus all those who come to meets work on track Monday-Wednesday, and then run the rest of he week. The tracks 31 year history has almost a complete turnover in those who now come to the meets. Many of the original group have passed away and others are so old now they just don't travel the long distances to get there anymore. Even I don't come but a couple of days now. Knees just can't do what they used to do. Father time can be a little cruel.