The threads below once again reduce me to curses of "born just too late"......... or maybe not.....

.... seeing PRR 7002 and 1223 westbound on the old PRR on a foggy, misty morning in 1985, caught at Irishtown Road crossing along with seemingly half the population of Lancaster County, stretching their legs and shaking the short-line slumber from their drivers, the steam, rain, and exhaust creating occasional flashes in the PRR catenary as the crowd pushes to the barriers like a crowd at Kentucky Downs as the thoroughbreds whistle through their rapidly accellerating beats. At the last second an elderly Amishman in the crowd raises his cane in salute, perfectly balancing out an otherwise grubby photo of mine......

..... Chessie 614 running from Pittsburgh to Meyersdale, Pa. on July 11, 1981. My introduction to mainline steam, including some wonderful after-dark high-speed running back to Pittsburgh.....

..... ten years later, several trips behind LNER A4's and V2 "Green Arrow" on the North Wales Coast Express, at up to 90 mph with a semi-open vestibule door window....... followed by a trip behind an LMS Black Five through the purple heather of Scotland's West Highland Line, Welsh narrow gauge, and a Merchant Navy and BR Standard 2-6-4T topping and tailing shuttle trips on the 3% Folkestone Harbour branch, now gone......

...... just about every moment behind N&W 611 and 1218, or chasing them, through Virginia Piedmont, New York and Pennsylvania vineyards, and Ohio lakesides, and North Carolina's Old Fort Loops, and Saluda Grade for their finale.....

...... subzero temps and blinding sunshine during a Steamtown winter photo charter with Milwaukee 261 and CPR 2317.....

..... a Western Maryland Scenic winter photo charter by Carl Franz, riding the front platform of the caboose as the train winds uphill through the gently-falling snow.......

lner4472@bcpl.net