Twenty-five years ago yesterday, the 125th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address was marked in a way that was seemingly audacious back then, and that would be unthinkable today:
Strasburg Railroad was hired in to operate a steam train, with PRR "7002" and vintage cars (including the then-newly-built dining car Marian), over Chessie/CSX ex-WM trackage from Hanover, Pa. to arrive at the former Western Maryland station in Gettysburg, carrying a Lincoln reenactor who then proceeded in a procession to the National Cemetery to reprise the famous Gettysburg Address. The run, with Linn Moedinger at the throttle in bowler, included a stall on wet rail in rain half way between Hanover and Gettysburg--leaving me to stand on top of a covered hopper up the track in the cold drizzle and hear the pyrotechnics from afar while waiting for my shot.
Photos from that day: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiv ... x?id=87463 Mine are somewhere over in the fireproof vault. I'm still trying to remember how I got wind of that somewhat "hush-hush" event before the Internet--probably direct phone tag from a Conrail dispatcher a couple days before. I remember calling off of work that day on short notice.
