Re: Where's all the Photos and NG employee yarns

Guess what? The old railroaders who did attend were just too busy getting reacquainted, catching up with each other, showing off their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids (well, OK, that was mostly me because the weekend was also kind of a homecoming for my family) and just doing what people actually do at a reunion. No time left over to "swat lies and tell flies." I spent a whole week prior to the event with Employee 2 and the only story I heard from him was how he spent a couple weeks at the end of one season with the Cumbres Cowboy rounding up strays.



Some of the Scenic Railways Vets from the 70' got together for our own mini-reunion and BBQ at the Chama River Bend Lodge on Thursday evening, before the "Big Show." We thought to take a group picture about sundown. Seen here are Bernie Watts, John Oldberg, Richard Braden, Mike Ramsey, Earl Knoob, and myself. Dave Rasconi,Marcus Brown, Margaret Oldberg, and my wife were also present, but soemhow they missed the photo op. I think we may have swatted some mosquitoes, but I am not aware of any lies being swapped (unless we exaggerated the accomplishments of our grandkids).



There were more Scenic Railways Vets at the Saturday night event, but there wasn't much opportunity for us to get involved. I mean, geez, the thing didn't start 'till 8pm, and that's past bedtime for us old geezers. Anyway, we did gather in the back room for a group photo.



Sunday morning saw the #463 leave town with a Dan Ranger tribute train. It was crewed by two Scenic Railways Vets: engineer Russ Fisher who came back to C&TS after a long absence, and visiting fireman Employee 2 (aka Richard Braden) who apparently is none the worse for having spent the past 30 years at sea level on Maui. Well, at least he was still on his feet when I saw him on Cumbres a couple of hours after this photo. Also in this photo are Dave Rasconi, Marcus Brown, Bernie Watts and myself.

It was a joy for us ol' Scenic Vets to come together again, and to see what has been built on the foundation we worked so hard to lay. I am pretty sure we will do it again. If we do it again maaybe we will invite John and tell him some stories . We really do have some, I think.

PS - Greg, these probably aren't the photos you wanted to see, but what do you expect from a reunion .

"Time spent with CATS is never wasted." -- Sigmund Freud

"Nothing endures but change." -- Heraclitus

"C'est le meilleur des mondes possibles." -- Candide



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2016 09:23AM by gothpapa.