Mainline steam, tomorrow

[nkp_174]

We had a great time today!

It started off with a little dedication ceremony...the launch of her third career.

My dad is standing on the pilot and gave the short speech. Glen was honored for his instrumental role not only in the formation of the organization, but also for both getting and seeing through the grant which returned her to steam. (btw, the previous rebuild photos were at their shop facility east of Ft. Wayne, IN...the test run was on the PRR main (the Broadway Limited line) between Ft. Wayne and Van Wert, OH.

I'll upload the video of Glen breaking the champagne bottle once I figure out how to upload them. It'll be on my blog along with other clips of today's fun: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://thesouthparkline.blogspot.com/">http://thesouthparkline.blogspot.com/</a><!-- m -->


In front of the North Judson depot.


There's the local group's 2-8-4.

Here's our crew

From L to R...my wife Lisa, yours truly, Liam, and my dad. He was able to hang out with us when he wasn't busy being a car attendant.

Here's a better look at Liam:

The open air car we road in was at one time owned by the FWRHS (the 765 group).


He enjoyed the seats. We road in the open car while the 765 was pulling...and then switched to one of the 1954 CN lightweights (read: air conditioned cars) after we'd reached the end of the line and the powered boxcar was leading on the return leg.

I like photo runbys...even if the mower failed to get the weeds hacked in time...



Back at North Judson

These are the ex-VIA CNR cars. While no where near as cool as some of the other cars I've ridden in, they are mechanically magnificent. Recently, their nice, modern brakes from VIA were backdated to their original 1950s variety...NY Airbrake discontinued supporting the product line.


And these are the two ex-FWRHS open air cars...#704 and #705.


Now, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. I've read a few places on the internet of foamers complaining that the 765 doesn't look like a late 1950s berk anymore. Their ignorance is both humorous and annoying. Basically, my dad has long been a driving force in the appearance...and I don't like people criticizing his work...such as the number boards up front. And worst of all (which is also the most common complaint) is when they criticize the good taste of FWRHS crew in leaving the Mars light back at the shop. Look at the turbo generator...singular...the second was added with the ugly light midway through her career...and the third came with the radio. More than one style of numerals was used in the illuminated number boards...the current style is consistent with the lack of a mars light. And there are other details as well...


Here are three generations of our family in front of one of our greatest joys. It was a shame that my brother didn't bring up his son






She's moving there! She's moving away from me...


and here were the historic freight cars that she was pulling. The first car is a 1929 Wabash boxcar. Followed by an MDT reefer. Then, a 1959 N&W 3-bay (which was built after the 765 was retired in '58). The 1946 NKP gon looked pretty good too. The caboose was built for the NKP in 1962 by the International Car Co in Kenton, OH (not far from Lima...back in school, I played basketball against all the school districts of the Lima schools as well as Kenton).

I must say...while I've seen the 765 pull modern freight cars on a number of occasions, she looked so much better pulling a string of vintage freight cars. Very nice.

Our engineer for the day was Rich Melvin. Our fireman was Mark St. Aubin. towards the end of the day, Gary Bensman was at the throttle...perhaps he was there for more of the day...I'm not certain, but I think that Rich became an engineer of the 765 around the same time Gary left back in the 1980s.

A few things I notice:
-the original steel bell doesn't sound as bad as I'd have thought...but it is really quiet when compared to the GG-1 bell that was previously used courtesy of Tom Stevens. If at some point they decide to go back to a brass bell, my dad purchased one just for such a purpose a few years back.
-the stack talk sounded crisper to me than in 1993 (and how well can I remember something from when I was 10 years old???)
-the running gear is silent. I can see why it could be downright dangerous to be on a crossing...the locomotive was eerily quite when approaching...prior to the whistle blast. It was very noisy before the overhaul...as it had 110,000 miles on it (IIRC, 65k from the NKP, 55k from FWRHS)...its running gear was given the works.

Food for thought: I remember seeing Tom Stevens' hand after pulling 34 passenger cars behind the MLW 261 on a New River excursion back around 1995. He was in pain from working the throttle so much as the 261 slipped like crazy. It was barely able to handle that train (which was one of the largest passenger trains ever run...if not THE largest). Before the 765's overhaul, her and 1225 were on that same stretch of railroad when the 1225 had some serious problems. The 765 pulled the entire 34 car train, plus the dead 1225, over the C&O mainline at full speed without any trouble. So, what can she do now that she's had a complete overhaul?