[PRCo] Re: steam in pennsylvania

[Fred Schneider]

I would drive 3000 miles or cross the ocean, Bob, to see something new in the industry …new subway, new light rail.   If I live long enough, I'll go to California to ride their high speed rail just as I've gone to France to ride the TGV and to Britain to ride through the Channel Tunnel to Paris.  

But I seldom go back a second time to see the same thing.   I am not the sort of railfan who will go 67 miles to Philadelphia to ride those Kawasaki cars over and over.   

I put myself through college firing steam locomotives.   I know what it feels like to work behind a 400 degree boiler on a 90 degree summer day.   I don't need to go back and prove I can do it all over again.   :<)   The days of chugging gallons of water and salt tablets to stay alive are behind me.

And I guess I am not one to chase antique steam engines pulling things they were never intended to pull.   Those Berkshires on the NKP were freight engines.   The railroad, in my era, used either Hudsons or Alco PAs for passenger trains.   If I could see 765 pulling a hundred 40-foot freight cars across Indiana today, I might get in my car and chase it but it would have to look real.   I guess, to me, the joy is the memories of Norfolk and Western mallets on coal trains or B&O Mikes (or MacArthurs … remember that in WW2?) on freights or Pacifics on passenger trains out of Pittsburgh or riding behind a Pennsy K4 across south Jersey at 70 mph.   

That said, there is something unreal that I want to see.   We all have our inconsistencies.   I know it's not real.   It should have vacuum brakes instead of air brakes.  There are other things that have been upgraded to modern standards.   But the British railfans have built a new steam locomotive and I would love to ride behind the Tornado.   Those chaps know how to kick the spurs into a locomotive and make her stand up and run like hell.

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut27rSwkV2k&feature=related

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7rz8ckJUF4&feature=related

And where else in the world do we not only build a new steam locomotive in the 21st century but get the heir to the throne to name it?

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SL8PcixqkA&feature=related
   



On Aug 9, 2012, at 4:49 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:

> Earlier today, someone asked me if I was going to drive the 700 miles from Chicago to Altoona to see the engine! 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net> 
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org 
> Sent: Thursday, August 9, 2012 3:25:21 PM 
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: steam in pennsylvania 
> 
> Regarding your suggestion that I go to Harrisburg to see the Nickel Plate Berk on Monday, Derrick, 
> after 7850 miles of driving to Los Angeles and back in the last three weeks, my friend, even driving 37 miles to Harrisburg seems like more than I want to do in the immediate future.   The trip was worth it, however.  I did get to ride one of the two newest lines in Salt Lake, all the new mileage in Dallas and the new Exposition line (nee PE's Santa Monica Air Line) in Los Angeles.   Found a lot of new highway miles that I have never been over before, the La Brea Tar Pits Museum in LA, an art museum in Fort Worth, followed the Oregon Trail across Nebraska and Wyoming.   Only problem was the heat.  Highest was in Dallas � two days at 115 and 116 degrees.   
> 
> A temperature of 85 back home seems absolutely frigid!   :<) 
> 
> How is this for a souvenir of the safari � a dirt road across the Nevada desert between Ely and Tonopah to find a meteor crater?  I think the fluid in the thermometer climbed to about 109 that day.   By the way, if you don't get off the main roads, route 6 between those two towns is 186 miles long without so much as a filling station, convenience store, restaurant or even a water puddle �. nothing.   Can you imagine living out there and having to drive up to 93 miles one-way for your groceries?    Makes you glad today's cars and Michelin tires are reliable compared to what we had 50 or 60 years ago. 
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