Day One with OU

Received the following email from Ed McLaughlin:
"The Jordan Spreader Day-1 Bob Wright and Ed Beard worked two days getting the OU ready for service lubercating its mechanical joints, changing air lines, repairing rotten wood on the cab, and even installing a new deck. With all of the advance advice, as we neared roll out of the OU, I suggested that we install a portable air compressor on the back of the deck. Mark Yeats said the track crew's compressor was down in storage by the water tank. It was retrieved in short order and welded to the deck of the OU as the main air source for the spreader. This worked, saving the air pump on the locomotive. Locomotive 487, with Jeremy Garcia at the throttle and Don Martinez as fireman, thundered out of Chama at 11:05 AM trailing Jordan spreader OU and caboose 06635 on its way to Lobato where, at the east end of the bridge, it came to a slow stop. Within short order, Ed Beard controlling the right blade and Orlando Ulibarri handling the left lowered the massive blades of the OU into place. Max Pacheco gave the single and the march east began slow and easy. The 487 dug-in and this brut of a rail mounted bulldozer, OU, slowly move forward clearing a swath approximately 18-ft. wide down to bare dirt. Boulders rolled away and trees fell before these blades. The operating personnel on the OU and the locomotive crew were working well together and had the process down to a fine art after a few minutes and a couple of careful starts. Within hours we reached Cresco, and by 5:00 PM we were at Cumbres Pass in a thunderstorm. Yes, the long awaited rains came today making our late afternoon progress more difficult with wet rails. The 487 spun down a number of times. Before we had to cut off just below Cumbres Pass, the 487 had handled the spreader for approximately 12.5-miles, clearing some of most fire prone landscape along the railroad."
Wish I could have been there.