I do not know what it has to do with preservation but I love both videos. Many times I have thought of chocking a moving car with my company cell phone.

What I see in both videos is me 25 or 30 years ago. When I started learning to run at the Grove I was 17. I was qualified when I was still 18. Since Williams Grove was like a second home for me in those days I recognize every building and sign. I remember clearly the day we built the "friendly fence" out of old cast iron signs beside the engine spot. For that matter I remember the winter we rebuilt two old buildings into the station including moving them to their new home. Even the crosstie you can see close up in the portion where the train is backing over the phone is familure. If you look closely you can see a countersunk hole for a lag screw. It is an old crossing timber we recycled into a tie. We did that a lot in those days, including going out to the railroad site and recovering the timbers.

Williams Grove is a great place for young people to learn steam railroading. The guys running the railroad are the same ones that were there when I was. In their young days they got the engine ready in the morning just in time for the old timers to come and play with it all day. Then the old timers walked away and left the engine to be put away. They allow the people who work to get as much "play" time as possible. While operation is pretty serious the workers are also encouraged to have some fun. If you want to learn steam railroading and are close enough to get there Williams Grove is a good place to start. From my group there are at least 3 of us who now make our living on the railroad. Another works for a major museum in the southeast. Not to bad for such a small operation in my opinion.

Letterman did his smash 'em up sequence in the early 90s at the Connecticut Central in Middletown, CT. One of CCCL's Alco S-4 switchers did the heavy work. I recall a bunch of TV sets, some watermelons, etc. There was a batch of stuff that didn't get smooshed (the TV crew ran out of time), so it was left for the CCCL crew guys to take home.

Kinda surprised that nobody has pointed out what kind of message this sends out to any easily influenced individual who sees it. Apologies to be the one stirring the pot but is it gonna be a laughing matter when somebody wants to see what happens when a tie plate or railroad spike get creamed by a locomotive? Im a strong supporter of Operation Lifesaver and this just kicks all the rules out of the door. we've got to be a little more conscientious, even for a joke!!

I have to admit, watching things get squshed by a locomotive locomotive IS rather fasinating. When I was a kid it was the old penny trick. Iam sure many of us here have done that one.

Later, as we were lowering Eagle Lake & West Branch No. 2 back onto the rails we couldn't resist placing brand new pennies under each driver.

Yup,
We did indeed lift up all 188,000 lbs of her....again, just to see how flat they were. Then we lowered her back down again onto the pennies where they will remain until someone else has to replace the rails.

We did the same with No. 1.

Somethings you never outgrow!