From the google news archive search:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=La ... tive&hl=en

From 1955--my year!

And that fellow apparently had a lot of job satisfaction. I'm going to guess it came from good people to work for and with, a good town and neighborhood to live in, and what was practically his own steam locomotive to play with. . . :-)

How many of us are so lucky today, especially with some of the apparent jerks we get for our supervisors?

This little bit (along with a comment about a new SD-45 drawing a crowd in 1970 in "The Public Doesn't Really Care" thread) is also a reminder of how railroads used to be such a part of daily living and a part of the public conciousness in the past. That they no longer are so is part of the difficulty we face as preservationists to get people to ride our excursions, that the future-railers (i.e., light rail and high speed proponents) also face in their efforts, and the freight roads also are having to deal with with their NIMBY problems as well (as recently portrayed in Trains).

Which reminds me--I noticed in the Trains NIMBY article that the person portrayed as typical of the NIMBY crowd fits the profile I've been seeing in them--currently over 60, grey hair, would have come of age between about 1950 and 1973--surprised the Trains people didn't comment on this apparent generational aspect that I've been seeing for 20 years. . .

I wonder what the responses were from steam engineers, when they were told "their" locomotive was going to be pulled for scrap, and replaced with a Diesel. I would imagine many bristled at the idea of change. We read of crews who considered the locomotive an extension of themselves. Lots of scrap yard graffiti would bear that out.

My Dad, who hired out in engine service on the Frisco in 1916 loved running steam (and telling me countless stories about it) was not a happy camper when the Frisco dieselized. For one thing, the old drag era mentality crept back in and they would put 5 or 6 units on a huge train and run it over the hogback Frisco Eastern Div.
It wasn't fun until they realized it wasn't a good idea.
He was in running in regular passenger service in 1964 when killed in an auto accident, but never lost his love for steam. He even rode some of the Burlington steam trips out of St. Louis with me and my future wife and got us in the cab of the 4960 for a runby. There were a lot of old heads that felt that way.
It's too bad he wasn't still around when we resurrected the 1522. He would have been like a kid in a candy store. I'm convinced he was around somewhere on Rolla Hill to see if I had her hooked up right.

The 1251 survives today at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. It was acquired from the Reading by George Hart and was operated on the Ma & Pa in passenger service in the 1960's.

Its great that both the locomotive and the story survive.

More on the 1251

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=v4 ... 1251&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1h ... 1251&hl=en

Tom, Tom, why do you torture us so?

Fares, from Williamsport and Lewisburg, $9.25, from Sunbury and Shamokin, $8.00, kids under 12 and over 5 from the same points, $4.65 and $4.00, all fares including tax--and you get a 4-8-4, correct matching Reading coaches, a new Reading caboose, and a steam shop switcher. . .man, I definitely live in the wrong time!

(Of course, the other paper has stories about the Cold War, including Russian atomic bomb tests in the atmosphere--so maybe things aren't that bad after all.)