Ah yes… the typcial “get out of my roundhouse” response that makes the preservation world so warm and fuzzy :)

I love how Ross criticizes the VMT with nothing to back him up and yet I’m the trouble maker…. Can’t make it up!

I'd be inclined to cut Zephyr a little slack as most times I think she has good intentions.

Also, always remember to not put much stock in postings issued using phony screen names. If someone doesn't think highly enough of what they are posting to use their real name that should tell you a lot about it's relative worth.

Onward & upward. Thanks, Ross Rowland

Not only that, but how many experienced steam railroaders are unwilling to tell the world what their craft, seniority date, or employer of record is ??

It’s nothing you’d be impressed with - yours is bigger than mine - happy?

All petty squabbling above aside:

As much as I'd love the opportunity to ride behind the thoroughly modern 614 again, especially on old C&O trackage, whenever its owner once again makes declarations about its future, I instantly hear the old Rocky and Bullwinkle in-betweener segment from their shows:

"Hey, Rocky--watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat!!!"
"But that trick NEVER works!!!!!"
"THIS TIME FER SURE!!!!!!!"

Get back to me when somebody else is in charge of that locomotive.

I was getting a little worried that TGB 4th. hadn't chimed in. Worry over.

Ross Rowland

The other applicable Rocky J. Squirrel quote:

"A-GAAAAAINNNN?!?!?!?"

Tiresome and boring.

Remember the famous quote about "the definition of insanity," popularly attributed to Einstein (falsely), Al-Anon, Narcotics Anonymous, Rita Mae Brown, and others............

I'm going on record here as saying I DO expect to see something happening in a few months.

Don't make me look like a fool.

Simply polishing 614's number plate counts as "something."

Man, what a bunch of old crabs around here. . .

Come on, maybe some of us have had issues (i.e., promised projects don't work out), but there were glory days once. . .

And let's not forget the pleasant surprises we've been seeing. . .think of 4014, the Empress, and the 611 in Virginia. . .all of these were pipe dreams, impossible until they became fact.

I say, let's be patient. Those of us who are in positions or locations to work on these things, just work, and pay no attention to the crabs. Maybe something will change, maybe rail management, maybe even rail ROW ownership.

Maybe even the dumbed down, cannibalistic late stage capitalism that has infected every major enterprise will implode, clearing the way for those who see the world as more than money. That's the only way progress has ever really come.

There is a saying attributed to the Chinese, that "Fire is a good servant but a bad master."

I think we could substitute "money" for "fire," and find the saying even more appropriate for our world of today.