Geez. I remember those stupid sprinklers. We always had to make a run for the hill there. The corner right before this area was a real low spot and it was surprisingly steep beyond it. We called it College Hill because the beauty school that used to be there.
Those sprinklers came on everynight at 10:15 or something like that. That was usually the second diesel train of the night if we were running steam. One sprinker was turned around quite a bit (not our doing) so it watered the train and not the lawn. If we had people that were well behaved, we would speed up so people would not get that wet. But if people were doing stuff like running alongside the train, we'd slow down... "Hey, we have to wash the blood off somehow!"
Farther on up the tracks was another hump that was created when the park maintenance people redid the tracks across the long "fill" and leveled it up. This left a short stretch of somewhat steep track. Well, Clyde got the diesel stuck there and we just started to call it Clyde Hill after that. I mean he got so stuck he could not go DOWNHILL either. When the mechanics got there to look at it, Stan, our mechanic stood there pointing at the wheel spinning and said "There's your problem!" (I liked Stan. Out of many people that were mechanics, he had some knowledge of how to maintain the railroad.)
I guess it was John and I who took the #18 out (steamer) and a bucket of sand, pulled in behind the diesel, walked up, sanded the tracks much to the amazement of these mechanics and got the diesel out. Then the #18 walked right up the hill on her own without sliding. Yeah, steam showed who is superior THAT day.
The crosshead oiling system for the #18's crosshead is a drip that did more at spreading oil around the tracks than on the crosshead. We used steam oil on everything. When we start out the mornings, the oil is thick and we set the drippers for one drip per 10 seconds. After a while, it would warm up and the drips would speed up. So we had to adjust it often, about every hour or so when we traded off engineers and filled all the reserviors. When running, the oil on the foward stroke of the crosshead would put the oil at the front where the drip pans did not exist and drip on the rear wheel of the pony truck which spread the oil out. HOWEVER, the rest of the oil runs down the drip pans and drips onto the weeds and grass around the railroad. These weeds would get stuck under the wheels and ground up adding more oil and their own vegetable oil, matter, etc. to the mix. If you haven't learned not to step on the tops of the rails, you learn fast as you ski down the track.
On longer days of running the tracks would get slippier and slippier. You'd go as long as you could and then go get the bucket of sand and one guy would ride on the tender and sand by dropping sand down a funnel and tube (with a neat wire tip we made to keep it centered over the rails.) It put the sand BEHIND the drivewheels which increased friction and made it an interesting trip. Next time around it would be a little bumpy as the sand stuck to the oil so nicely. After a while the sand and oil would be gone. Oh - and we actually went out to the parking lot with buckets, a windowscreen and a shovel to get our own sand.
The steamers do have sanders but too much rainwater would get in the domes and soon the lines and (gravity) valves would plug up. The diesel had air sanders but they had some sort of problem that would cause the sand to blow out the hopper all over the engine instead. I guess after some time of needing to work on the diesel engine they just left the hoppers off. You'd have to take off the sides of the diesel to get to them anyways.
I do have quite a few funny comments made by riders, but I'll just toss out two good 'uns.
The tank at Lakeside is rotted and no longer any good, it leans to the east too much anyway. So we used a garden hose which takes a long time to fill up those tenders, meaning we put water in about every trip. One time I was helping John out and putting water in as he oiled around. The kids in the front car were chattering about what I was doing. The young boy at the front said "He's either putting in water or gas!" So I stopped and took a drink. He then said "He's either putting in water or 7-UP."
The best one I recall was John had a fella walk up to him. "I got a question about your motor there!" he said. John stopped oiling and looked at him (motor?) and said "Yes?" "Is it the smoke or the steam that makes that noise?" John replied, "Smoke doesn't make any noise does it?"
Oh, not to nitpik, but Lakeside is 22" gauge using 1903 built Saint Louis World's Fair Cagney Class "E"'s and a 1953(?) Ruth Mining Locomotive built diesel trainset.
