Miniature Railway Networks
The main attraction in the park was the 7 1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge miniature railway networks. It was based on two very different American railroad routes, the Rio Grande Cumbres Pass line and the Sherman Hill route of the Union Pacific Railroad; passengers were whisked through tunnels, over bridges and trestles and into canyons.
The Rio Grande line was opened in 1970 and included a 1:25 (4%) gradient, the steepest climb anywhere in the world on a passenger-carrying miniature railway. The line wove in and out of a magnificent forest, recreating the wonders of the Colorado railroads.
The Union Pacific route was opened in 1979, due to the success of the Rio Grande system, and added another stunning miniature railway network to travel on. It was modelled closely on the real Union Pacific Sherman Hill line in Wyoming and had a ruling gradient was 1:66 (1.51%), a very steep hill for a 7 1⁄4 in (184 mm) railway.
In October 2006 it was announced that after over 25 years in operation, the Union Pacific railroad was to close. The last train over the rails, fittingly hauled by Big Boy, ran on October 29th 2006.
June 2007 saw the announcement that the remaining Rio Grande route would not reopen for the 2008 season, and would be replaced by a shorter simplified line.
Read more about this topic: Dobwalls Adventure Park
Famous quotes containing the words miniature, railway and/or networks:
“To step over the low wall that divides
Road from concrete walk above the shore
Brings sharply back something known long before
The miniature gaiety of seasides.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“The great networks are there to prove that ideas can be canned like spaghetti. If everything ends up by tasting like everything else, is that not the evidence that it has been properly cooked?”
—Frederic Raphael (b. 1931)