Re: Start Them REALLY Young

Starting them young - would this be young enough?

There was an 11 year gap between brother # 1 (Wolf) and brother #2 (Juergen), and 12 years between brother #2 and me, so I got to take the youngest out for baby carriage trips most days in 1956. Where to? Often to the Essen-Kettwig-Duesseldorf line in Germany where there was a steam powered train at least every 15 minutes. Of special interest was 2-8-4T number 65 018 on which I had been given a cab ride when the engine was less than a month from the factory in November 1956. So here she is in push-pull service, kid brother and all. Today both are alive and well, one chasing trains and the other pulling them. 65 018 is the last surviving member of her class and pulling trains in the Netherlands





My brother Wolf is assisting with introducing kid brother to 476 and 315 in August 1959





Starting early worked, because eventually Juergen ended up firing 19D 4-8-2s and 4-8-2+2-8-4 GMAM garrats for two years between Vryburg and Mafeking in South Africa.He is the (temporarily) shaggy looking one in the cab of GMAM 4121, on one of my great cab rides with him.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2020 07:31PM by Olaf Rasmussen.