Steam & Excursion > It may take a while ...

I was just hallucinating....

It would be nice to see 3713 & 1361, double headed, romping around in Pennsylvania ..in the near future..
Maybe throw in the 425... just for kicks..

I still remember double-headed K4s on the NY&LB...as well as riding Camelbacks, the Long Branch Drill, Monmouth Park race track with Iron Horses, the Highlands Branch—- before RDCs..

I hope to be around to catch what could be coming around the curves, in the not too-distant future...

Back in the day, it was enjoyable to ride in open-window P70s, and CNJ coaches, hearing all the trains’ sounds ... stack-talk echoes off
of trackside building walls, grade crossing whistling ( for every city block), clattering vestibules, squeaking, groaning brakes —-
just before the stop...

The first lurch of a K4 struggling to keep moving.... then the rapid acceleration, once above 20-per..
the increasing pace of the track rhythms... once above 30, then the K4s’ steady, hypnotic, stack-roar...at over 70 MPH..

Probably, never again ... present emasculated managers are too timid to run, minus diesels, and too scared to go over 35....
and OMG! NO open windows,
and NO dutch-doors...

Glad I got to do so much... back when Railroading was an adventure!

W.

Posted from iPhone

One of my favorite things was roaring through towns with all the echoes off the buildings and elevators.
Starting a train with 1522 and watching the people jump from the first couple of sharp exhausts.  Working hard on a grade and watching people give up and cover their ears at the exhaust.  Jim Boyd once said she was loud enough to wake the cremated.
I'm very thankful I got to live a dream for those 18 years and more or less follow in my Dad's footsteps on his old division.  I really miss that!

A couple of times we had crowds too close, as we were rolling....the steam out the cylinder cocks scattered them quickly ....
After a very short distance, maybe 3 feet, the expanded steam cooled down to a soggy sauna...
But, boy, that solved THAT problem... in all our trips, we never scratched a person, or struck a vehicle...

I loved LOUD engines....I remember watching a video of 1522....that BEAST was LOUD, but I was also amazed
at the sharp, distinct reports out the stack, not only loud, but well spaced, and square-as-a-die.

W.

Me to Wes, I always listen close to see how square or out of square an engine is.  

Last year  or maybe 2.,  the C&TS mechanics in Chama  finally got the K=36 group of engines square or in one engines case, very close to square.  What a pleasant sound it was too .

Stilts

Remember, with your attitude, you will NOT get a refund!

Scoop

I remember those daysat Scranton...with the Natl Park Service uniformed staff carrying holstered side-arms on the train with lots of women and children—-I  guess the staff thought they may have to shoot the ticket purchasers.  I thought the gun thing a little much..

I hope they don’t  still see the need to have the train staff ‘armed and dangerous’ and threatening to throw folks off their trains, into the weeds...”And you WILL NOT get a refund!”....that they loudly bellowed while passengers were boarding the train..

Addressing the passengers, staff with hands on their weapons, was also very intimidating....I thought, as an observer...
At least in Vermont they wore moth-eaten, old conductor’s uniforms.....and no guns carried by the train staff..l
 
Wes.