Re: Anacortes Railway

I heard the same as Paul; the Forney and 3 coaches were over at the Georgetown Powerplant. There's a 12" gauge track over there as well; Fred Hays operates his beautiful restored Ottaway engine over there. Tommy Thompson had previously operated a (9" gauge?) steam railroad elsewhere in Washington; I'd have to check for the facts on that; it's under my desk somewhere...there is a group trying to revive the line; some trackwork has been done, and a crude Critter and air-trammer were also purchased. The group is called Anacortes Train & Rail.
The Forney was built from a former Homestake Gold Mine air trammer. The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad owned one in the 80s, and a tad into the 90s; I remember seeing it in the enginehouse. Ken Middlebrook and Dave Johnson were the two volunteers that brought the engine back; and Ken did a nice write-up on the little engine. Ken and Phil Reader did some work on the engine; and the final plans didn't happen, and the locomotive was donated to the CSRM when the 2502 was on the way. I believe that the Overfair #1500 was also in the back at that point, though I don't remember. Bill Ulleseit mentioned, when I was in the roundhouse one time, that they would have liked to rebuild the little trammer into something like Tommy Thompson did. The cylinders, however, on the Forney were original; and apparently it was the only trammer on the Homestake roster with steam-type cylinders. The rest had pneumatic cylinders; and new cylinders would have had to been cast to do this. Phil or Ken can shed more light on this; everything I just said came from them, or old newspaper articles.
Anyhow, it was SOME railroad. I reccomend Dick Thiriot's 'Big Little Railways' video for footage of Anacortes and many other lines; many based on 3' narrow-gauge equipment (5-1/2" scale, 15" gauge). The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad and Swanton Pacific are also on there; as well as some private railroads you won't see much of elsewhere, including Jim Holmes and friends' 5" scale, 15" gauge railway in the Santa Cruz Mountains which is home to that neat little Shay you may have seen running at Railfair. Seeing the little engine at home is sure a sight.
-Ed Kelley