Steam & Excursion > One last tribute to T&NO 786

All images Sept. 1997 except where noted.
Top: Cab as seen when tender is detached, March 2000.
Middle: Engineer Robert Schoen blows down before departure from Cedar Park.
Bottom: Somewhere along the line headed towards Burnet, TX.

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All Sept. 1997.
The last image is literally the end of the line at Burnet, TX.
Pronounced, Burn-it.

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Thanks again for posting additional pictures of SP 786.  Sure miss those days.
Hopefully one day, won't hold my breath, the locomotive will be back in operation.
Have a good day.
Pat
South Austin, TX

I haven't heard anything for ages about 786.  What is her status?

786 is in the ASTA Cedar Park yard for many years in various stages of parts and pieces, 'awaiting money to rebuild'.
I have contacted them numerous times and no real plans for return to operation, folks like the diesel. 
Pat
South Austin, TX

Joe Dale Morris and his many volunteers and the donations of many and  large sums from a few  really did a truly wonderful thing in bringing T&NO 786 back to life . It's 6 chime whistle was a joy to hear and it was a handsome locomotive. I'm glad I was able to ride behind it once . --Kelly

I was one of the volunteers on the project.  It started out one sunny Saturday afternoon and I went down to the park to take pictures.
Someone yelled, someone needs to grease the rails, so I saw a brush and a bucket of grease and away I went.
Then Joe Dale came over and said something like 'who and the heck are you?'  I introduced myself, and said I heard someone say grease the rails and nothing was happening so I saw the brush and bucket.  Sunday was a COLD, WET miserable day to finish the move.
Then I showed up at the Westinghouse Plant, got interviewed by the contractor, went over safety procedures and then got very familiar with the needle gun.  He was surprised I showed up the next weekend and from then on I worked with the contractor and limited team of volunteers.
It was hard, dirty work, but we got it done.
It was fun while it lasted, then politics got in the way.
Pat
South Austin, TX

I should have started the 786 thread with this "before" picture of it sitting in the park behind the fire house in downtown Austin at 4th & Trinity.  This photo was taken by me in the 70s and there are a number of things different now like sky-scrappers everywhere, SXSW crowds and pieces of the 786 strewn all over the Cedar Park rail yard.  Notice too, when it was harbored at this time in downtown Austin, there was no fence.


sptno Wrote:
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> I was one of the volunteers on the project.  It
> started out one sunny Saturday afternoon and I
> went down to the park to take pictures.
> Someone yelled, someone needs to grease the rails,
> so I saw a brush and a bucket of grease and away I
> went.
> 

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