Steam & Excursion > Tiempo de Alamosa (diecisiete)

Alamosa Time!
Photo 1.  Good horses.
Photo 2.  Bad horses!
Photos 3&4.  There we go...
Photo 5.  Enough of that... 
We've not come to Alamosa to explore the source of Foster's Buritto de Cabollo Especial.  No, we've come to ride RGSRR 18....
Photo 6.  Literally. 
SR

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Es diez y ocho......

I had not heard of the 18 being back in service.  Was this a one time deal?

This was in '09.
We were there to kind of hang out with Earl Noob. (He used to let us ride with him when he was with the C&TS)
Earl later went to Texas, but I don't know where the 18 went. Maybe it's still there? Someone will surely step in and update us all.
SR

Earl Knoob is at Cass Scenic now.

Knoob- jeez, sorry Earl!
SR

I heard he was on the Cass, but he's quite the boomer- I wasn't sure if he was still there...
Cool.

18 was/is in the engine house, switch was pulled for service elsewhere, heard that it
was replaced but steam is still a year or two away.

Out

That is what I thought, the 18 has not be used in quite some time.  Word is two things:  manager of SL&RG does not like steam and the engine needs some work that IP can not afford.

Earl is one heck of a nice guy, very knowledgeable on steam engines,  and damn good engineer!   When he worked for IP he was a loyal company man too.   Cass is lucky to have him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/15 08:42 by tomstp.

callum_out Wrote:
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> 18 was/is in the engine house, switch was pulled
> for service elsewhere, heard that it
> was replaced but steam is still a year or two
> away.
>
> Out

18 is in the engine house. Switch was never pulled. She is serviceable and while she needs work, she could be made to run when duty calls. She is well taken care of and has a good crew watching over her. No, the crew did not all go to Texas, only Steven Butler took a job at TSR the rest hold down the fort doing other things for SLRG and IPH.

That lead looked pretty disconnected a couple years ago.

Out

I only had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Earl one time.  He is a great person.  He knew and worked with folks that I knew and worked with and had the same opinion of them that I had. 
I was hoping to meet up with him again at Texas State.
I hope that he is settled in and doing well at his new job.  He is a great person to have for a steam operation.
Pat
South Austin, TX