Breaking in the door on a shop on fire, and pulling an engine out--sounds like the fire at Cass, W.Va., ca. 1972:

http://www.cassrailroad.com/

http://www.msrlha.org/

http://www.msrlha.org/p-old-shop/index.html

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cas ... FORM=Z7FD#

I was wondering where to find you in print, if there was such a place or if you had been published. I do miss how Railroad Magazine had those stories, and how I wish Hollywood would be able to come up with a movie or TV series set in the steam era, and done the way it should be.

I will be going to see "Unstoppable," but a lot of that is because part of it was filmed in Beallaire, Oh., across the river from Wheeling, W.Va., which is where I am from originally. I will also say the performances by Denziel Washington and Chris Pine look like they might be fun; a fellow in my building who runs an advertising firm and who is also a fan of Washington and director Tony Scott said what sold him to see the flick, besides Washington and Scott, was the scene in the trailer in which Pine reports to work with Washington, in which an "old-timer" (who doesn't look that old, really) makes a crack about working in a nursery with the young Pine; Pine answers back about not liking to work in a retirement home, to which Washington reacts with "All right!"

I'll still hope to have a good time, but oh, when will Hollywood do the job the way it should be and adapt "One Way To Eldorado," "Held For Orders," or "The Long Trains Roll?"

Bob: This is a true story. The engineer was Jesus Garcia, on it happened on Nov. 7, 1907, in Nacozari, Mexico. Jesus Garcia Day is celebrated at a holiday for Mexican railroaders every Nov. 7. There are a number of U-Tube videos, mostly in Spanish, about him.

A number of years ago, we made the mistake of scheduling one of our Museum's train trips to Tecate on Nov. 7. (It happened to be a convenient Saturday). We had to cancel due to the holiday.

Jim Baker, PSRM, Campo

About Unstoppable--we happened to get stuck in Gulla's for half an hour while they were shooting scenes on the bridge. The helicopter pilots were amazing.

I don't think the through-the-shed-door rescue was Cass, although it could be. I could have sworn it was in Kentucky, but the 1976 one doesn't seem like that's it either. I do remember running across the news item and having my jaw drop. On one hand, hey, it's possible! On the other, darn, it wasn't original after all...but I doubt most people would care.

My local history books are out of Closson Press, and right now most of them are out of print except for the copies I have around (hope to remedy that soon.)

Every year I do a Christmas story for TrainNet. I'll PM you the link. They're all about a fictional railroad which, if you tilt your head sideways and squint one eye, might remind you of the Ohio River and Western. The only way I had of untangling the multiple labor unions was to have the OR&W, er, the Junk, Busted and Scrap end up in the hands of four coal miners who were running coal out of an old mine circa 1932, so rather than being a railroad with captive mines, the JB&S is technically a mine with a captive railroad and the labor force is UMWA. There are some about modern-day, some old, some back when the JB&S was a narrow gauge, and some about the Lionel layout at the museum. Since you know the area, you'll recognize some of the places even if they are in disguise.

None of this may be accurate enough for a history, but I promise not to have anybody send a train into a runaway by spilling a cup of coffee on the "control panel". There will be no squealing brainless female love interest. (There are women, and a couple of them ARE engineers, but they work. And occasionally fight.) The big iron heroine keeps her wheels on the track at all times and does not run off with an attractive but tragically unstable diesel, I promise!

If your "big iron heroine" is an EM-1 then you don't need to worry about the delay in the steam getting to the low-pressure cylinders (or the need for a simpling valve), that only applies to true compound Mallets. The EM-1's were simple articulateds, with all four cylinders the same size and operating at the same pressure.

Now there's another thought. Knowing the shop crew she has and their habit of changing what doesn't need changed and fixing what ain't broke, they might have messed with that, but the old mechanics around here referred to the EM-1s as Mallets so much I never thought to check whether they WERE. (Of course, that depends on who's defining a Mallet.) If she really is simple, that makes things, er, simpler.

This isn't about getting steam up on a Mallet but does have to do with moving an engine on low pressure.

There was a Warner Bros. sound engineer by the name of Gerald M. Best who was also a big train buff and well known rail photographer. He had a lot of friends on the railroads who would alert him when there was anything of interest and in May 1956 when UP 9000, one of their giant 3-cylinder 4-12-2's arrived at SP's Taylor Roundhouse on its way to display at the LA County Fairgrounds, someone gave him a call and he went right over to take photos.

The engine was partly obscured by oil drums and other junk. The fire had already been dumped but there was still 125 pounds on the gauge so he asked the hostler if he could move the engine forward a bit for photos. The hostler replied, "You know what to do. Move it yourself." So with the hostler standing behind him in the cab he moved the engine forward about 50 feet. Thus, it goes down in history that this engine's last movement under its own power was on the dying pressure in its boiler, with a Warner Bros. guy at the controls.

The photo taken may be seen in TRAINS, June 1972, p. 37.