Steam & Excursion > More on famous railfan/photographers

In November of 1978. Short Line Enterprises sponsored its first Sierra Railroad Excursion featuring its 1888 4-4-0 No.8 and V&T cars 21, 8 and 10. Noted photographers, Guy Dunscomb and Al Rose, bought tickets for the trip. We took advantage of them by asking where they would like to stop for photo runbys. This shot was taken at the former site of Canyon Tank, one of the spots they suggested.

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Great shot Stan.

Martin

Excellent shot, that would have been quite a walk in to shoot there.

Out

Beautiful image. The pastel colors remind me of an 1800's colorized image. Timeless.
Bob

Stan,
I'm curious, when you guys would run the 8-spot, were Sierra enginemen used or did some of the Shortline Enterprises clan run her?

Sierra crews always ran the train and they did an admirable job.

On No.8's solo test run, in May of 78, I believe it was Soapy at the throttle and mike Pardina firing.

Bill Oden was the only other person in the cab and he was there to see how the engine performed and take care of any mechanical issues, there were none.

On our trips either Al Shelton or Dave Sell and mike Pardina fired. Wehman Caldwell and Jimmy Gibbs were the train crew.

No.8 was still lettered Virginia & Truckee from its time there in 1976. It was repainted and lettered Sierra Railroad after the successful test run. We later found it didn't make enough steam pulling a train on the Sierra's steep grades. We had converted No. 8 from coal to oil for operation in Virginia City. It steamed fine there. We looked at what the V&T had done to the 25 when they converted it to oil and applied a reducer to the nozzle in the smoke box. After that she made plenty of steam.

Pic 1 shows No. 8 backing off the turntable prior to the run.

Pic 2 shows the engine climbing the hill out of woods creek. She was really flying.

Note: I took another look at these pics and changed the order from my original post



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/15 08:08 by px320.

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Stan, beautiful shot in photo #1 of number 8 on the curve. Those were the days!

Ray

I always thought Sierra #3 and the 8 spot looked great as a team..

They were, here's an Al rose photo from the one and only doubleheader we ran. November 10, 1979.

Those really were the "Good ol' Days."

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