Comanche & Indian Gap Railroad
Overview:
The Comanche & Indian Gap Railroad is a historic private track located near Comanche, Texas. It was built by Roy Pickard and family and friends in the 1970’s and continues to be well maintained by the “Friends of the C&IG” management team today. The railroad is very large and located on a dedicated 20 acres of the ranch.
Meets are twice a year, April and October. There are both operations and open running days, but even on operation days you are free to either run as a high priority scheduled train or an extra under dispatcher control. All evenings after dinner are open running.
Contact cigrailroad@gmail.com for more information or to obtain an invite to one of the meets. Onsite electric (several 50A,30A,20A) and water hookups for RVs and campers are available.
The C&IG mainline consists of over 7500 feet, many passing sidings, 3 yards each with a turntable, 14 steaming bays, plus plenty of diesel engine tracks with electricity, a powered transfer table for unloading equipment, plenty of long train storage tracks. Water towers and ash pans in the yards for the steamers running. There is also a 2nd railroad, the HE&WT (“Rabbit”) that also has passing and industry tracks to work. . There is a large shade pavilion for communal meals.
Brief History:
The C&IG RR is historic in that it was one of the first, if not the first, point to point 7.5 inch gauge live steam track built specifically for operations. The track actually consists of two railroads, the Comanche & Indian Gap RR (C&IG) and the Houston East & West RR (HE&WT). The C&IG track crosses through significant terrain changes, both grades and ravines. It crosses 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 rises 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 is back to curves and grades. Roy didn’t just build 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 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 runs from 3 terminals, West Yard, Comanche Yard, and Indian Gap each with a turntable and water spouts. It has tower 17, a tall structure that seated the dispatcher and a switch control machine for the Zuni (Tower 17) tracks and wye. It was the nerve center of the railroad. FRS radios are used.
Track Diagram:
For more history and 40 years worth of videos, visit the C&IG page on the IBLS site.