Re: The complete package

Thanks for all of the nice comments - I always post NN info here with some trepidation, but to my mind the NG is as much about a certain style and mindset as it is the distance between the rails. In other words, a good shortline appeals to me for many of the same reasons that the NG does. And NN management makes no bones about the fact that the winter shoots are as much about promoting the RR as anything, so I'm just tryin' to do my share. :-)

John's comments about the NN being the total package are absolutely right on target. We often lament, for example, that the facilities at Alamosa didn't survive. Well, they did in East Ely. Everything we WISH was there in Alamosa IS there on the NN. Car shop, RIP shop, machine shop, and on and on. All left just as it was when the RR was hauling copper - tools, records and all. It's a treasure trove that's still being mined and re-discovered today. And as John notes, it makes for a wonderful place for posing trains. Saturday was an exhilarating, but exhausting, day even though we never left the yard, as we chased 93 and its various trains from one end of it to the other through deep snow.

As for the 40, it was diagnosed with the same cracked axles that 93 was a year ago. 93 is just coming back from a complete running gear overhaul, and what happened to it a week or so ago is just a glitch along that path. 40 is next, and will also see a complete overhaul of its undercarriage. They've been band-aiding the running gear for some time now, and the decision was made to band-aid no more.

Scott



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2009 01:46PM by Scott Turner.