Then there is the guy in PA, living in a valley that starts with the letter S, that claims to have have very recently seen a steam locomotive, dead in tow and on its own wheels, on either NS or CSX. Many people suspect it was really a tank car. Not to be confused with the PRR switcher under only a few feet of water in the quarry, of course...

NKP 765 with a Diesel helper, on Horseshoe Curve, or getting there?

Go back a little bit further - I believe that he was asked if it was floating through Pottstown in a life preserver.

Now has anyone besides me noticed the the 'Best Rumors' thread seems to be running right alongside the 'Dumped in Quarry' thread?

GME

Re: Memories and impressions...

I think I've told this story before, but here's a short version. In the late 70's i was told that somebody had seen a steam locomotive in the B&LE yard in North Bessemer. It sounded like the typical "friend of a friend" story (urban legend hadn't been coined yet) but after a couple more questions solid details emerged. The fellow I was talking to knew the guy. He was a lineman for the phone company and had seen this thing as he spent the day on a pole. Mentioned it to this fellow, who in turn told me.

Well, off I went to look... The roundhouse was still active, so I started there. Parked nearby and walked in for a look, no steam loco to be found. Wandered around the yard a bit, found a sea of hoppers, no signs of a steam loco.

These were friendlier times, so I wandered into the yard office. Asked if anyone knew anything about a steam locomotive. "Nope, they've been gone for many years, though there's a couple up in Greenville." "Nothing here, recently?" "Nope!" "You sure?" "Positive!" (Something like that anyway...)

So I leave the yard office, and I'm driving around when here comes a little work train. Pulled by a 4 wheel Plymouth or some such, and a couple of short flats. Wood cab, tall exhaust stack. Hey, you don't think that maybe he saw that? I wonder if... About that time, he blows for the crossing. The dang thing had an air whistle of some kind! Looks vaguely like a steam loco, has a smokestack, has a "steam whistle"... Mythbusters would call this one busted.

The guy wasn't lying, and he had the info correct, at least as far as he could tell. He saw a steam train, or thought he did. The railroaders were right too of course, no steam locos to be found.

I'm sure there are plenty more misunderstanding like that.

If it was steam, CSX is almost a impossible source, NS more likely if the rumor has any truth to it.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdiU93gPt4A

If that is PA then I may need to retake American Geography.

Please check the "enable sarcasm" tag in your browser, you need it around here, especially when reading AMD4's posts.

Please check the "enable sarcasm" tag in your browser, you need it around here, especially when reading AMD4's posts.[/quote]
Ha ha, I must have forgot to turn it on, my mistake, love a good laugh though! But I will say that that is interesting about that man in Penn. I would love to hear the entire story if there is much more to it.

There is too much more; and, no sarcasm intended, no, you wouldn't. The responses to his posts rose to outright mockery and personal attacks, and sadly, as much as we don't want or really tolerate that kind of thing here, he pretty much brought it all upon himself.

I was on Facebook last night and stumbled upon a page related to the Reading. At the top of the page was a disclaimer, something like "This is a S***** -free group". The man has really developed a 'following', hasn't he?

We used to have a local mill that blew a steam whistle for Shift Change, Breaks, etc.

One weekend we were eating at the Greasy Spoon down the street with several out-of-town railfans, and the Noon whistle blew.

"What was that?", "Oh thats the 0-6-0 steam engine that switches the mill", You can guess what happened, they are tearing down the street, we are rolling on the floor, it did kinda come back to bite us, we got stuck with the bill.

-Hudson

An aversion, you mean.

To be fair, he's hardly unique. It's become difficult to find a well-trafficked web forum, group, or page that doesn't feature at least one individual that, no matter what the topic or subject, finds a way to post something that makes it about them or their relatives, or post a supposedly relevant photograph:

The internet didn't create these folks, only gave them a wider platform for their travails. Before, you had to ride or chase a steam excursion to possibly have a "run-in" with the infamous guy with a pocket full of faded dog-eared photo prints of his past exploits, who'd corner you and leave you looking for an escape route, or the guy with 168 patches on his vest and a story behind each one you'll hear whether you want to or not. The decline of AOL (often called "A-Oh Hell" or "A-Hole Hell" by many) and the rise in forum moderation and blocking capabilities has reduced the propensity of these types to "clear an online room," so to speak, but they still exist.

Not to pervert this discussion too much more, but since the topic of fantrip personalities has crept in... How about the guy that always asked if a steam locomotive was superheated? Didn't matter if it was NKP 759 or an 0-4-tootie, he would always ask. I doubt if he would even know what a superheater was, even if you dropped a header on his foot. Still asked anyhow, which I guess made him a legend.

Just to interject a philosophical note, someone remarked earlier that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." That's logically incorrect, because it confuses the claim with the evidence. The claim may be extraordinary, but the evidence for it needs to be normal, generally accepted evidence. Just saying.