Steam & Excursion > Best show of the week

Milwaukee Road #261 and her train are safely tucked away at the Minneapolis Jct facility. The crew would like to thank everyone who rode with us and those who came out to watch us and speak with us. The kind comments are greatly appreciated. There will be many moments that will be discussed among the crew for years to come, but the best took place coming home on Wednesday.

Steve Sandberg ran from La Crosse to Minneapolis on Wednesday on the final leg of the trip. We got stopped at Oakland (near Pig\'s Eye yard) while a disabled coal train was helped up the hill with additional power on the rear. After #261 got the signal, Steve rolled the train down through Hoffman Ave and started up the hill at Division Street. We had 15 passenger cars and the canteen tender behind #261...the largest train behind her on this hill to date. The show was spectacular! The throttle was to the roof, the reverser was down in the corner, the sanders were on and #261 had 230 pounds of cylinder pressure with 21 pounds of back pressure showing on the gauge. The stoker was running full blast and the fireman\'s side injector was on continuously. She marched up the hill losing only 3 mph along the way. The stack talk was unreal. Everyone in the cab and in the tool car agreed that they had never heard her talk so loudly. I had a "5632 flashback" for a moment....those of you who ever experienced a CB&Q O5 will know what I mean. I can image that anyone in earshot in St. Paul yesterday about 1:30pm must have wondered what was going on. Thank goodness the weather was dry and sunny, a little moisture on the rails would have reallly made for a struggle.

Hope to see all of you the next time we get on the road.

Silver Sky

Hey Silver Sky, How about a pic for the road er... rail!

Silversky, thanks. Drool, drool. Wish I didn\'t live so far away from that great locomotive. Have great memories of her at the Steamtown grand opening.

Thanks for all your efforts and the great story. It also brought back some fond memories. 5632 could indeed put the pedal-to-the-metal on a photo run.

One of our crew was out of commission following a hernia operation but was down by the MTM\'s Jackson Street roundhouse complex and got some shots of her making this great pull up the hill. I\'m trying to talk him into providing copies to our webmaster to be included in the "Gallery" pages of the #261 website. Keep checking and hopefully they will be there soon.
Silver Sky

Did anyone get a good recording of the stack music?? I had the pleasure of firing and even running a 200 class for a few miles when, as an outside hostler, I was sent with a hostler helper to dog-catch a crew just within Milwaukee Terminal back in\'47.

P.S. Yes; I\'m an old geezer.

Not unless there was someone on board with a video camera. For the most part, only crew was on the train with the exception of maybe a handful of non-crew. Most of the crew is generally too busy to indulge in video or still photography. As for being an "old geezer" it sounds to me that you are doing quite well. After all, you\'ve have made the jump into the Internet age and I commend you for that!
Silver Sky