Re: Happenings in Georgetown

Shay,
From what I understand, the RPO is currently the car under restoration. The 911 should be the boarded up car sharing the CHS Crypt with the newly rebuilt coach.
Great news on the 44, though. I have always been more partial to the 44 than the 40, simply from a working standpoint. Beside the fact that it's the locomotive that I learned to fire on (In Central City), I liked the placement of the firing valve about 1000 times better than that on the 40.
Roy Breffle had a reputation of highballing the locomotives up the hill. He'd sure want to move them quickly. With the 40, you might be working your butt off to keep up. With the 44 you could keep the steam feathering on the pops all the way up the hill, with a full glass of water, despite Breffle's best efforts.
I heard from others what a bitch the 44 was to fire, maybe I just understood the old girl. Who knows?
The 44 also had a very cantankerous injector on the fireman's side and if you didn't treat it just right, you would overheat it and be in a world of hurt. I remember one day in the Plume when Breffle sent me off to lunch. When I got back, Don Grace and Bref were nervously pouring bucket after bucket of cold water over the injector trying to cool it down. I asked what the heck they were doing and they said that it wouldn't prime. So I said let me try it. They were right, it was hot and they had been messing with it, but I got it on the third try. They stood there with their mouths open exclaiming that they'd have to fix it. I said "Nope.... Job Security... for me...". Needless to say, I took shorter lunch breaks.
Rick Steele