All thro I have been into trains for a few years I have never seen the show “Tracks Ahead” until today. I decides to look it up on “YouTube” and found it. The show was more then I expected. Its not just about model trans. But to get a real feel of it you need to view the program. I just wish that Georgia Public TV would run it on my local station and not just in Atlanta. But then that’s public TV for ya.
HI JOHNNNY: Tracks Ahead WAS a Model Railroader PTV program at first but in later years, no mention was made of the magazine any more. At first, it may have appeared on other than PBS but yours truly only remembers it on local public television. Spencer Christian, the Tracks Ahead MC, was the weatherman on the old Good Morning America show, when Joan Lunden was still on it. After he left GMA, Spencer started appearing on Tracks Ahead, so he was obviously hired for the job, as he had been a well-known and respected ABC TV figure as a national network weatherman. I’ve always loved watching what episodes I could catch, as the shows were/are always very interesting. It’s only on one public station in NH; usually miss it but try to watch it when I can. TTFN…papasmurf
Here in Mpls-St.Paul the first maybe 3-4 years were shown 20 years ago or more. There was a host before Spencer Christian, but I can’t recall his name right now(??) Anyway, the show hasn’t been available here on TV for maybe 15 years.
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I have watched around 25 or 30 of them on U Tube. Good way to spend a afternoon.
Cuda Ken
It’s been around how long now?!?!? I’ve seen 3 maybe 4 episodes on local PBS. Its one of those sporadic things they toss in as a time killer I guess. In any direction, the episodes were NOT old and actually talked more about the prototypes than modeling.
On a side note one of my fav public television shows is “The Woodwrights Shop” originally made for North Carolina PBS, and it just so happens my favorite episode of this show is a trip into the N.C. backwoods to specialty saw mill that cuts boards with a steam powered saw mill.
I will have to spend this weekend on the tuber to look up that show, I did highly enjoy it when it was on.
They have been showing Season 5 on my local PBS station on Thursday afternoons so I have it waiting on the DVR when I get home. After watching the season, I am going to have to buy them on DVD. I love the mix of model and prototype railroading they feature.
In the Tampa-St-Pete market, Tracks Ahead played for ten (10) seasons, but I am not sure if it is even still being produced anymore/ Perhaps someone from the Milwaukee area could better inform us. Then again, the local PBS affiliate replaced it with (yet another) car show, so perhaps it still lives on elsewhere.
Cedarwoodron
If you’re in the Chicago area, WYCC (check your cable or sattelite guide for the correct channel) has been replaying Tracks Ahead episodes on Monday nights, from 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm. It’s been going for a while and it’s on tonight (April 18).
Seven seasons of the show have been put on DVD and can be purchased from Milwaukee Public Television’s online store.
Hi all-This response is a little late but I just found this forum. The original host was Chuck Zaner(not sure if last name spelled correctly). The early episodes had interviews with Art Zirul and Bill Vollheim, both of Diorama Studies with ties to Lionel and two of the builders of the 1949 Showroom layout. Also there was an episode with Herb Lindseys wonderful Hi-Rail Lionel Layout. I saw them on PBS in Charlotte, NC but after the 1st or 2nd season they did not return. I’d like to see those early shows again as well as catch up on what was released since.
We do get Tracks Ahead via the PBS station in Watertown NY.
BUT… Our local cable monopoly would love to drop that feed, since they also have the HD feeds from Buffalo and Seattle, neither of which carry Tracks Ahead on their schedule.
So, after an attempt to drop the Watertown feed, they were reminded of the legal requirement in their agreements to carry it, and reinstated the service. But, they refuse to upgrade to the HD feed. Supposedly some episodes are HD, but we don’t know, as we never see it in that format.
Our local club does have Tracks Ahead available on the video table, so at least it is still available. MPTV has DVDs on their website too, at about $30 a copy.
Ward Kimball was the host of season 2. He had full size trains called Grizzly Flats which he donated to a mueseum somewhere. He also was a toy train collector and was on the cover of Classic Toy Trains once.
I remember Chuck Zaner, but I never saw any of the Ward Kimball ones. He would have been a great choice for host.
They were in the Seattle area once maybe 8-10 years ago filming some spots. They gave someone that I worked with some HO and N scale cars custom decorated for Tracks Ahead. I think one is an Atlas N Wide vision caboose, an N open hopper, an HO open hopper, and … can’t remember what, if anything else. There was also some non-model train items I think, like a mug, hat, etc.
I’ll have to dig them out!
-Dave