NNG/AFT, 40 Years Ago Today - 02/23/76 (Houston to Fort Worth (3))
| February 23, 2016 12:46PM |
|
Hello again -
After stopping to service the engine in Temple - and to allow the crew a little time to grab some lunch - the train continued north through Valley Mills and Clifton. Andy noticed my safety-orange AFT vest as the engine passed a semaphore at milepost 230.1 and - as always - blew the whistle and waved for the camera. I'm not sure where the third of this first set was taken, but the ornate tower in the background is pretty distinctive:
A while later my 'chauffeur' found a great spot for us to watch the train cross the Brazos River on a long bridge. I even got another shot of 'The Whole Enchilada', this time pulled by #610, and with the diseasel hidden by the steamer's exhaust:
#610 crossed another long, low bridge as we approached Cleburne later in the afternoon:
O-K, I confess - three railfans in the original of the above shot have been subjected to PhotoShop's "Foamite Filter", but there's not much I can do about the telegraphone lines . . .
I'd like to 'PhotoShop' the ATSF employee who was standing on #610's tender as the train passed through the yard in Cleburne, but I just don't have the skills needed to rebuild that much of a complex background. Plus - technically - he's not quite a Foamer, and at least his red Santa Fe jacket matches #5704's red cab:
That evening #610 joined her Lima sister at the fort in Fort Worth. IIRC, that's a Santa Fe business car hiding behind #4449 in the second photo below; at least I'm sure that it's NOT the red-white-&-blue last car of the Freedom Train:
**********
This day was one of the VERY few times that the presence of a diseasel helper didn't bother me too much. Santa Fe was very good about allowing the AFT to run without a helper unless really necessary, and to let our steamers do most of the work most of the time. The ATSF was also careful to use only unit #5704 - whose Bicentennial colors fit right in with the train - and to keep her VERY clean.
(Quite a contrast with #4449's home RR and the grubby & unreliable Tunnel Motors assigned to the AFT almost everywhere we went on the S.P. . . .
)
(To Be Continued.)
- Roosso
p.s. Compare the Bicentennial Shield on #5704's shoulder in the first photo above with the Bicentennial Shield patch on Russ Shipman's shoulder in the sixth photo on [ngdiscussion.net]. IIRC, we found those patches in a small embroidery shop in Oakland, and quickly added them to our uniforms. I also had the owner make up two dozen red 4449 number plate patches for our uniforms, and some contrasting navy blue 4449 patches for the safety orange vests that a few of us wore. I still have three or four left from the bulk order of 800 of the red patches sold surreptitiously one or two at a time to fans in Arizona, New Mexico & Texas that - along with a few B&W prints - kept me from starving for about six weeks . . .
Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2017 07:47PM by Russo Loco.
After stopping to service the engine in Temple - and to allow the crew a little time to grab some lunch - the train continued north through Valley Mills and Clifton. Andy noticed my safety-orange AFT vest as the engine passed a semaphore at milepost 230.1 and - as always - blew the whistle and waved for the camera. I'm not sure where the third of this first set was taken, but the ornate tower in the background is pretty distinctive:
A while later my 'chauffeur' found a great spot for us to watch the train cross the Brazos River on a long bridge. I even got another shot of 'The Whole Enchilada', this time pulled by #610, and with the diseasel hidden by the steamer's exhaust:
#610 crossed another long, low bridge as we approached Cleburne later in the afternoon:
O-K, I confess - three railfans in the original of the above shot have been subjected to PhotoShop's "Foamite Filter", but there's not much I can do about the telegraphone lines . . .
I'd like to 'PhotoShop' the ATSF employee who was standing on #610's tender as the train passed through the yard in Cleburne, but I just don't have the skills needed to rebuild that much of a complex background. Plus - technically - he's not quite a Foamer, and at least his red Santa Fe jacket matches #5704's red cab:
That evening #610 joined her Lima sister at the fort in Fort Worth. IIRC, that's a Santa Fe business car hiding behind #4449 in the second photo below; at least I'm sure that it's NOT the red-white-&-blue last car of the Freedom Train:
**********
This day was one of the VERY few times that the presence of a diseasel helper didn't bother me too much. Santa Fe was very good about allowing the AFT to run without a helper unless really necessary, and to let our steamers do most of the work most of the time. The ATSF was also careful to use only unit #5704 - whose Bicentennial colors fit right in with the train - and to keep her VERY clean.
(Quite a contrast with #4449's home RR and the grubby & unreliable Tunnel Motors assigned to the AFT almost everywhere we went on the S.P. . . .
)(To Be Continued.)
- Roosso
p.s. Compare the Bicentennial Shield on #5704's shoulder in the first photo above with the Bicentennial Shield patch on Russ Shipman's shoulder in the sixth photo on [ngdiscussion.net]. IIRC, we found those patches in a small embroidery shop in Oakland, and quickly added them to our uniforms. I also had the owner make up two dozen red 4449 number plate patches for our uniforms, and some contrasting navy blue 4449 patches for the safety orange vests that a few of us wore. I still have three or four left from the bulk order of 800 of the red patches sold surreptitiously one or two at a time to fans in Arizona, New Mexico & Texas that - along with a few B&W prints - kept me from starving for about six weeks . . .
Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2017 07:47PM by Russo Loco.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.