497 fired up

On the Friends news site Ed McLaughlin reports that the 497 has been fired up. Some shakedown runs and fine tuning remain, but it looks like the C&TS is close to having a fourth engine on the line. This is an important milestone, since it really takes four engines to run the railroad reliably. That means without midnight boiler washes and constant worrying whether an unexpected engine failure will mean leaving passengers on the platform. Hope somebody in Chama will take Bob and the shop crew out for a cold one....ice tea in Bob's case. Congratulations to the shop.