Steam & Excursion > The Lemon

Congratulations to Kristian Jonsson of Sweden!

Out of the nearly three thousand hits on the first page (first page counter now discontinued) of Al Krug\'s Steam Tale at http://krugtales.50megs.com/rrpictale/steam700/steam700a.htm it took nearly a month and someone from nearly half way around the world to notice and inquire about the lemon so prominently displayed on top of the Chicago Pneumatic speedometer on the SP&S 700. It was displayed there in memory of our late engineer Kenny Prager and its explanation may be found at <http://www.sps700.org/prager.html#hogreturn&gt; (sorry, not clickable) in one of many stories that Kenny wrote regarding his railroad career. Kenny\'s widow Laurel gave a plush toy lemon (seen in second picture) to both Greg Kamholz and myself in memory of Kenny and we both intended to display them on the engine on the Montana trip but ended up forgetting to bring them. A lemon obtained from the dining car ended up as a substitution.

Kenny was a great engineer to fire steam for. I had the pleasure of doing that from 1967-1969 on the SP&S and our families are intertwined for several generations as Kenny fired steam for my father, Gilbert Abney, and my father fired steam for Kenny\'s father, Nick Prager, all on the SP&S.

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Jim,

I\'ve got the lemon in front of me as I write. I\'m waiting for Greg to pay off on his dinner he owes me, and I\'ll give it to him for his dessert. Not only will it be sour, but wrinkled and orange-ish brown as well.

Actually, it brings back very fond memories of a wonderful trip for all of us. 16 days out, one year of planning, and about a million smiles, waves, and high fives. It sure was a great time. I\'m wondering how the picture of the Sandpoint wrestling team on the 700\'s pilot turned out for their year schedule? Can\'t say enough thank yous to Montana Rockies Rail Tours, MRL, BNSF and UP for everything.
John