This has become one of my favorite RYPN threads. As a devout member of the "Use Real Names Club" putting faces to names of folks I have not had the pleasure of meeting face to face is great.

Anything that humanizes members of the board makes it a better board.

I have had the pleasure of getting to "know" many RYPN'ers via Facebook, and this thread is a nice compliment to that.

The more we know each other as people, the stronger the community becomes.

Rob

Agreed, Rob. One of the best threads in a long time.

All we need now...... is a female.

How about a woman? "Female" sounds too cold and detached for my opinion.

Taken during the moving of car 303 from the Lake Shore Electric (Trolleyville) to NORM. Car is on a Silk Road trailer and I had just accompanied it during its highway trip to the museum in 2009.

Steve Heister
Northern Ohio Railway Museum

Here's a pic of me with a copy of a BLW section drawing from the DeGolyer Library of SMU. The drawing is the section drawing for the Maryland and Pennsylvania #41 and 42 from 1914. I am in the process of collecting drawings and parts for this locomotive to be built in 1 1/2"= 1'-0" scale.

The first pic is of me measuring parts on the UP Big Boy at Steamtown to work up a quote for a customer.

Lee Bishop, is that the cockpit of a P-51B you are sitting in? How cool is that!

P-51D, actually. This one, to be precise, she was painted as "Old Boy" at the time: http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p51survivors/pages/44-72826.shtml
The coolest thing is I actually flew in this airplane, in formation with a B-17 and a B-24 over the Gulf of Mexico. The bombers left first and us 'fighter' guys left later, and bounced them somewhere off Apalachicola. We then flew in formation with them over water, to Panama City, where we buzzed the beach, Tyndall AFB and then made several buzz jobs of the airport (the last in trail formation, us out front, with the throttle to the firewall, pulled almost 5 Gs pulling out of that to go around on final).
Here I am with a smile you couldn't blast off with a shotgun afterward:

And what could have made this even better? I didn't pay a cent to do it! The pilot had someone lined up to ride with him but he couldn't make it. The pilot asked me to paint a flying jacket for him as compensation, but oddly, he never called or wrote to take me up on it. I even got a ride back home with someone who'd paid to ride the B-24, so other than lunch at McDonalds (where two USAF F-15 pilots really got ticked seeing my in a Nomex flight suit and WW2 jump boots, until I told them I'd just buzzed their field in a P-51, the only time a jet fighter pilot ever envied me), I didn't spend a thing.

Seriously GREAT story, Lee. Especially the McD's part.

Howard P.

That IS a great story, Lee! From what little of the canopy I could see in your original post I guess I was hoping it was a B-model, but a D is great, too. Are there any flying B's out there?

A story my dad told occasionally was that he, a B-17/B-29/B-36/B-52 pilot once got a chance to fly a P-51. Not being up to speed with the torque provided by the engine, be ground looped on his first takeoff roll. After the tower called to ask if he was "having a little trouble?", he got straight and took off. Once he landed he never got back in a fighter again! His favorite plane to fly was the B-25, but that was never his combat aircraft.

I'll dive in: a photo of me by NASA 1 back in March 2008.

I hate to say it but, I couldn't find any recent photos of me with full scale equipment. Oh well, last summer at Carillon Park will do! Andy: Glad to be able to finally put a face to the screen name!

Picture this then, I'm in a Nomex flight suit with brown WW2 Jump boots, a civilian t-shirt underneath, the flight suit has patches from various warbirds I've flown on and a Chinese blood chit on the back. I have a WW2 'crusher' cap on the counter as I'm ordering. I turn around and face two USAF fighter jocks in their flight suits...
USAF jock 1: So, what are you flying there, Ace?
Me: (looking down at the flight suit I'm wearing). Huh? (gesturing to the other guy I rode in with), we just came into PC with some WW2 birds. I came in on P-51...
USAF jock 2: You mean a Mustang?
Me: Yeah. If you were on duty an hour ago, we buzzed your flight line (gesturing to the other guy). He came in in a B-24...
USAF jock 1: Holy crap! You just flew in formation with bombers in a @#*%ing Mustang?
Me: (with a smug smile). Yep, we'd still be buzzing the tower right now if the Liberator didn't need to land (the other guy with me starts chuckling at the thought). The tower at PC must have had us make 5 passes.
USAF jock 2: (to the other jock) SEE? I told you I hear a bunch of prop jobs come over the field but no, you didn't want to go outside. Look what we missed!
Me: Must have been a heck of a sight, I'd bet. I got some video of us going past the tower a few times at PC, but the angle was all off when we went over Tyndall...
USAF jock 1: Wow. To get a ride on a 'stang, man, I'd give anything to do that!
Me: (gestruing with my hands like fighter pilots have always done) Yeah, you should have seen when we caught up with the bombers, we bounced them somewhere between Carrabelle and Apalachicola, cut between them, pulled out at about 500 feet then slid in between them. Heck of a sight!
USAF jock 2: You gotta tell us about the Gs pulling out of those passes. How she feel on takeoff?
Me: (seeing the B-24 rider give the 'point at watch, gotta go' motion) Sorry guys, gotta run, my ride is leaving, take it easy!

Though not as exciting as your ride i think I know how you feel Lee.

I had a flight in the Collings Foundation B-17 909 back in 1999. We flew out of White Plains NY on a summers evening and flew straight down the Hudson River to NY City. There's nothing like sitting in the bombardier's position looking out the plexiglass nose and buzzing the George Washington Bridge at a couple thousand feet.

We flew down to the Statue of Liberty where we did a high bank turn (with me standing in the navigators dome looking straight at the Statue) to head back north up the river at dusk as the lights came on all over Manhattan.

Best $300 I ever spent.

Hal Reiser
MP 30 Hudson Division

It is hard to find a good photo of me. Here is a link to a photo from our last open house, I am in profile in the yellow hard hat. Funny thing, I looked at that photo three times before I noticed I was in it...

http://www.nmslrhs.org/Photos/2012/09-2 ... _0016.html

Master link to the photos from that day.

http://www.nmslrhs.org/Photos/2012/09-29b/index.html

Regards,
Kevin Evans

I have a few pics of me with NW power, mostly the A, back in the late '80s. I'm quite a bit fatter since then. I'll need to scan a couple.

I still need to get those drawings I copied to you, Stuart....

That's a cute Brit locomotive. I've been looking at videos on youtube of British power. Steam at speed....there are probably 200+ videos. Impressive beasts.

I have lots of pics on my facebook page of stuff I've made for various locomotives.

Andy