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All aboard: Crews Lake miniature train gaining popularity

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BY CARL ORTH

SUNCOAST NEWS ASSISTANT EDITOR

Published: December 10, 2008

HUDSON - The Central Pasco and Gulf Railroad is making tracks to Crews Lake Wilderness Park.

Open for about a year, the miniature train ride has expanded, with volunteers more than doubling the amount of track.

That calls for a celebration, President Jerry Smithson said. The group is inviting the public to a rededication on Saturday at the park in the Shady Hills area north of S.R. 52 near the Suncoast Parkway.

Commissioner Ann Hildebrand and other community leaders have been invited for the festivities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Smithson noted. Santa is scheduled to make an appearance as well.

Almost 5,000 feet of track now winds through several miles of woods at the park, Smithson explains.

Steam engines will take to the tracks with the arrival of a 4-8-4 locomotive pulling 11 passenger cars painted with the authentic, yellow Union Pacific pattern. Diesel engines have done the bulk of the work so far on the excursion trains.

The designation 4-8-4 is applied to locomotives with four leading wheels, eight coupled drive wheels and four trailing wheels.

The group has built up a collection of about nine engines.

The 30-minute rides are especially popular for birthday parties. "The people love 'em," Smithson said about the private excursions, often with two to three scheduled each weekend.

The railroaders do their utmost not to harm the environment, Smithson emphasized. The rails are aluminum. The concrete base came from concrete recycled from the former Tampa Bay Executive Airport on S.R. 54. Castoff granite and marble countertops were ground up to become the ballast to hold the tracks in place.

Private donations keep the trains running. Their business boosters include Scott's Tractor Service, P.A.W. Materials, Synovus Bank of Tampa Bay, Western Florida Lighting and Samuelsen Builders, among others. The group suggests people donate $1 per ride during trips to help defray expenses.

Many generations of residents may never have seen trains rumbling through the West Pasco area, visited a train station here or waited at a railroad crossing.

The first depot came to New Port Richey in 1914 with practically the whole town at the grand opening. But trains and tracks virtually disappeared in West Pasco nearly four decades ago.

The nonprofit CP&G organization is dedicated to preserving that railroad heritage.

While a standard gauge of railroad track is 4 feet and 8.5 inches wide, the CP&G train ride will roll down rails set 7.5 inches apart.

In fact, the route of the CP&G mimics part of the Orange Belt Railway which ran from Sanford to St. Petersburg through Pasco County starting in the 1880s.

The CP&G might herald the comeback of trains to the area, members muse.

The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority is looking at high-speed commuter trains for Pasco and six other counties.

So get on board for the renaissance of railroads, CP&G members say.

For more information, go online to http://www.cpgrr.org/>, send e-mails to bobm@cpgrr.org or call 727-569-2289.

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