Steam & Excursion > Open Vestibules

This I believe is why God gave us open vestibules! Nothing much sweeter than listening to a steam locomotive do what it was built to do. This video was shot just a few miles north of Joliet on the Sunday afternoon trip. I don't know much about the Rock Island's gradient but I had heard there was a sustained grade (4 miles?) climbing out of Joliet. Throttle wide open and properly hooked up! Doesn't get much better.
A job well done to all who made these trips possible. The engine looked great, I thought it a nice tribute to the Rock Island to have the herald on the side of the canteen and a nice tip of the hat too for flying the Cubs' W flags on Saturday, and I'm not even a Cubs fan.
And look, I even learned to hold the phone horizontal! Learned my lesson. Excuse my finger in the top left corner though; so terrified I would drop the phone, I hung onto it with all I had.

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I CAN'T AGREE MORE!

You definitely had the right idea. I'd planned to put a stereo microphone to work with a handheld "blimp" windscreen until I blew up my ankle and had to miss the whole thing. Positive note though; the pre-teen boy I gave my ticket to had a blast! Come to think of it, he probably had more fun than I would have since it was his first crack at big steam and I would have been too busy recording sound to fully take it in.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

sierrawestern --
Yes!! How sweet it is ......
Thank you for that really, really nice video
and your great post. I felt as though I was
riding the train, too, and I wanted it to never end.
Brought back good memories.

sierrawestern Wrote:
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I don't know much about the
> Rock Island's gradient but I had heard there was a
> sustained grade (4 miles?) climbing out of Joliet.

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Thank you Englewood for the gradient. So it's actually a 10 mile grade climbing out of Joliet. Certainly impressive to listen to 765 work!

What is the grade going over the new Englewood flyover? Does anyone know?

Cool. Looks like just west of the Briggs Street overpass in Joliet

Ms, Mary, you are a blessing to young fans! wag216

wag216 Wrote:
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> Ms, Mary, you are a blessing to young fans! wag216


I told my mother about him, and she said "that sounds like YOU at that age!"

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

kevink, you are correct, just west of the Briggs Street overpass. I looked on MapQuest to confirm. I shot video hammering the EJ&E diamonds and the next video I shot was rounding the curve at Briggs Street. Thanks for confirming where I was at.

Nice to run an engine where the speed limit is "track speed".