Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- The Wasilla Municipal Airport is preparing for expansion and that means the Alaska Live Steamers have to go.

That's steamers, as in trains, not clams. Just south of the Alaska Museum of Transportation and Industry, a miniature train track runs its mile-and-a-half course on land the city has since 1993 provided for free. The aluminum tracks are narrow, separated by just 7.5 inches, and the cars are just wide enough for an adult's rear.

A group of 36 enthusiastic volunteers offer rides to the public for a wooden nickel (the nickel costs $4 in the gift shop) on weekends and uses the track area as a place to test out engines they've built or to build miniature towns along the tiny rail route.

But the railroaders are being run off, and it's not by choice. Wasilla public works director Archie Giddings said the land the Steamers' group use is owned by the city and it's adjacent to the airport, which is in the midst of expansion.

Giddings on Monday said he asked the Federal Aviation Administration to allow the Steamers to keep operating on the land permanently but was told their use was incompatible with the nearby airport.

The tracks would be about 600 feet from end of a taxiway at the airport.

"Within five years, we would have to relocate them," Giddings said.

Word that the Steamers would have to clear out came a little more than a year ago, and that kicked off the group's attempt to find new digs.

The city had some land near the Wasilla Senior Center it could sell, said Steamers president Scotty Brooks.

But the Steamers didn't have the $306,000 that the city wanted in exchange for 40 acres.

"We went back to them to ask if we could lease it," he said.

As sometimes happens with governments, the city didn't have any process set up for leasing land. So, over the past several months, changes were made to city code to allow leases to take place.

On Monday, the Wasilla City Council agreed unanimously to lease 20 acres of land to the steamers for $1,200 a year.

"I'm glad how some things really do work out for the better," said Wasilla Councilman Steve Menard. "My initial objection (to selling) was losing control of this land. I'm glad it went from 40 to 20 acres, and I'm glad, if the group goes defunct, we regain control of it."

Brooks called the lease a "smoking deal." It's good for 10 years, with ongoing options to renew. It would be nice to have something permanent, Brooks said, but this offer is too good to refuse.

"They're just going out of their way to help us," Brooks said.

His group is taking comments from members on the lease and will decide in mid-September whether to sign it or not.

Brooks said he didn't know of any major opposition.

Once the paperwork is done, the hard work begins, he said. Brooks hopes the Steamers can clear corners and get a topographical feel of the property this year and get to work on building new tracks in 2009.

"We'll probably give rides at the airport as long as we leave enough facilities there," he said. "Hopefully we can flip the switch off on the one (property) in the fall of 2009 and switch it on at the other the next spring."

But the group is made up entirely of volunteers, he said. They'll need a larger roster of members to help with this big civil engineering project.

Brooks said membership is open to anyone with an interest in trains or who might be interested in building small replica towns and scenes for the train to chug by.

And with a ravine and some hills to contend with, the group will need engineers to help design bridges and elevated sections of track.

The existing Steamers route has towns like Seward and Talkeetna along its path, as well as log cabin and farmyard-type scenes tucked amid the birch trees and devils club. Brooks said the group would like to get more creative this time around.

"When we came to where we're at right now, at the airport, it was hurry up and throw down the tracks. Now we can take a step back and plan a little," he said.

He said he hopes to see a historically accurate rendering of the northern Mat-Su community of Curry, which in its heyday had a large hotel and served as a weekend getaway for Anchorage folks.

"A person doesn't have to be a railroad person to get involved," Brooks said. "We need pickup trucks and flatbeds and forklifts -- oh man, I don't know what all this is going to take."

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709. RIDE A TINY TRAIN

• The Alaska Live Steamers operate on summer weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tracks are just south of the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry in Wasilla. The annual fall night ride is set for 9 p.m. Sept. 13. The group requests a donation of $10 for that ride. Hot chocolate and spiced cider will be served.

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