Re: Silverton diesel an steam train 7/12/21

The funny thing is that a co-worker of mine, someone who is nowhere near a train fan, even noticed the Grand Canyon being dieselized was a noticeable and bad thing. Right before the pandemic started, his family rode the train to the rim and later asked me why there was only diesels now. I told him what'd happened.
He said it clearly, "It was just... more special with steam engines up front. Otherwise, it was just a commuter train."
Well said, I told him.
People in the biz love to say that nobody cares what's up front on a train, and statistically that probably is true for the most part, but I'm a brakeman on a local tourist RR and I promise you, I get asked a lot why our 2-8-2 (which is down for a prolonged rebuild) isn't up front or in steam.



KevinM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> That was indeed the point of my previous post
> about what I am currently seeing on the D&S
> schedule. There never was a choice of "Diesel
> Train" or "Steam Train" on the schedule before and
> now there is. With 3 D&S steamers converted to
> oil-firing and 1 on loan, one would think that
> there would be sufficient "safe" steam power for
> 461 and 462 to BOTH be steam-powered, with diesels
> filling in during boiler washes or unforeseen
> mechanical issues. The fact that they are
> advertising the diesel departure makes me suspect
> that no matter what, at least some of the schedule
> is planned to be diesel going forward. Perhaps
> they are testing the waters to see if most folks
> really don't care what is powering the
> train.....and I suspect they'll find most don't.
>

-Lee

Flickr photo set of my On30 layout