Re: Progress on Pikes Peak Cog Railway project
| October 27, 2020 06:55PM |
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yeah, I think you are correct. In other photos, I see no evidence of coal in the bunker.
But there's something about trying to get steam up that mountain. Yes, I know the Mt Washington line still runs steam; my parents took me there at a very early age. But that's not even 7000 feet high.
Just trying to maintain water facilities and everything else needed for steam in the day must have been quite a challenge. Getting the train up the 14,114 mountain might as well be like trying to get it to the moon. Even if it's oil-fired, can you imagine being in that cab when a cold northerly wind comes in at you? And yet, you are doing it for tourists. On a bad day, you wouldn't tell them to come back some other time. That was how you survived!
Railroaders that ran those engines were superhuman. I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to do that.
Bill Kepner
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2020 06:58PM by drgw0579.
But there's something about trying to get steam up that mountain. Yes, I know the Mt Washington line still runs steam; my parents took me there at a very early age. But that's not even 7000 feet high.
Just trying to maintain water facilities and everything else needed for steam in the day must have been quite a challenge. Getting the train up the 14,114 mountain might as well be like trying to get it to the moon. Even if it's oil-fired, can you imagine being in that cab when a cold northerly wind comes in at you? And yet, you are doing it for tourists. On a bad day, you wouldn't tell them to come back some other time. That was how you survived!
Railroaders that ran those engines were superhuman. I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to do that.
Bill Kepner
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2020 06:58PM by drgw0579.
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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.