Re: A Narrow Gauge Brute.

Greg,

I didn't take offense at your comments, just was trying to rationalise your stance, I've heard it all before during the past 45 years, and yet I still can't understand just why. What's not to like about railroading everywhere? I can get with British 2ft kettles, UP's doublediesels and those big Grande K's all in the same breath and accept each loco has its own special character.

I remember a young lad climbing up in a Diesel cab when he was 15 and being impressed that the Driver had less levers than there were on the farm tractor. The fireman had a lightswitch, a heaterswitch and a couple of window wiper valves to operate from a nice cushy seat. All that looked pretty cool to that lad.

Onward a few years and another young lad climbed up into the loco cab and told this guy all about how great the mighty steam loco's were, and used that dieseasil term to demean what he was wanting to get a cabride in. A few miles down the line and we're hitting 60 on jointed track, there's a 30mph curve coming up so into it with a couple of big reductions and no bleeding off the loco on the second application. That D^X waddles in a circular motion and then starts to dance up and down as well and the kid's sitting on the heater in the middle of the cab hanging on with an ear to ear grin as we belt around the curve. My Driver knocked the air off half way around the curve and started to get the Dixie wound up, once she was at full noise he backed off to notch 5 and straight back into notch 8. I called the kid over to look back out the left side as I knew the old girl was going to flameout, four feet of flame and roiling black smoke and that kid was just speechless.

Fast Forward a few more years and I'm backing two brand spanking new Electrics down onto the train sitting at the station, the Diesels have just cut off and roll past me on the loop headed for Loco. We're sitting there pumping up the train in the dark and who's on the platform with the other traincranks, the dieseasil Kid. He spied me and comes over, I said something like we've cured your disease with some juice. And we do a braketest and leave town full throttle, 8000 hp out of the two E^F's having that full load train up to 50mph in 500 metres. I'd love to have seen the looks on their faces as the forty bogies increasingly banged past them.

It doesn't really matter what's up front and pulling, just so long as it makes noise, smoke and looks good unless it's Electric and just growls. I think it would be far nicer to watch a Diesel freight coming into Chama from Durango to pass the waiting steam excursion train than looking at miles of abandoned roadbed....

PS the White Pass really is something to see, from the highway or the train regardless, your stance is really letting you miss out on something special there I'm afraid.

Recently here a refurbished loco was out on its first run and had bad fuel, so much it limped on the Mataroa bank.

Jack Still [flic.kr] caught it....


An E^F was summoned from a Freight in the vicinity as a solution.

Jack Still [flic.kr]


Who you going to call, Ghostbusters?