Not necessarily, Wade.
The Steam Crew has been known to make up a little time where they can. The biggest problem is with the amount of traffic that the railroad sees today it can only be done in short spurts. Even the dispatchers know what that "Old broken down" steam locomotive can do. Many's the time when the Dispatcher has asked "Can you make so and so by this time?" It's fun to be able to beat it.
The only time that the lawyers get into the picture is when someone who is "coordinationally challenged" trips on a step and skins their knee (Probably the worst injury experienced in the past 10 years).
Our track is still good and we can make up time when it is needed (The nice part is that Steve Lee is Management).
Another "State Patrol" story is when the first double header left Cheyenne to California in '81, everybody and their dog was out to see it. It made national news since it was the first steam double header since the '50's. After the water and coal stop at Laramie, to see the railroad, one must get on US 30 and not the interstate. The highway was strangely empty as the train was cliping along at 70+ mph. Looking behind the train about 2 miles, here was a Wyoming Highway Patrol officer, straddling both westbound lanes, doing the then mandated 55 mph (It's 4 lane from Laramie to Rock River) with over two miles of traffic of frustrated railfans backed up behind him.
I guess that that beats the time in 1990 when we took an excursion from St. Louis to Findlay Junction and the railfans who were pacing us were actually forcing the southbound traffic off of the highway and on to the shoulder by taking over both lanes. The only southbound vehicle which maintained its right-of-way in the southbound lane was a Kenworth.
Drive carefully.....
Rick Steele
