Just a quickie.



More later. Right now I hear the siren song of baked brie and Wild Turkey.

Great day, thanks as always to the wonderful folk at the Strasburg Rail Road.

JAC

Nice John!

Thanks!

Waiting for more!

John:

I am almost as fascinated by the vintage train behind the tender as I am by the Decapod. Hopefully you can give us a rundown of this equipment when the photos arrive.

BTW, is that perchance you, behind the camera? Or with the radio?

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

JAC grew a beard???? And I think that winter-time Kromer caps are only permitted to be worn by "Yankees".... :-))

Looks like Linn M. with the radio (and NO camera), directing the action.

Nice image; can't wait to see some more. That #90 looks way cool. Yup, I shoulda signed up for this one, John....the sun showed up, too.

[redacted]

713 Ma and Pa 36-foot wooden boxcar (l.c.l. non-interchange, archbar trucks)
CV 40025 outside-braced wooden boxcar
Rutland 6081 40' steel-end wooden boxcar
PRR #194796, class H21g 4-bay hopper car, blt. 1916
Strasburg 150, 3-bay hopper converted for ballast service, ancestry unk. to me
PRR 96451 XL class wooden boxcar
Rutland 9194 40' steel-end wooden boxcar
TWOX 1367 Tidewater Oil single-dome 10,000 gal. tank, blt. 1923
733 Ma and Pa 36-foot wooden boxcar (l.c.l. non-interchange, archbar trucks)
Strasburg wooden Caboose 12 ex-DT&I Caboose #95


I might have the Ma and Pa cars transposed but I think the rest is right; corrections welcomed.

Strasburg meticulously restored a lot of these cars in the last 10 years with very little fanfare. They now have a generic 1920s consist which equals that of any museum. For details search on this board for posts by Kelly Anderson, who describes some of the work done in recent years.

For guys like me, the consist along with the gorgeous scenery and the friendly and professional Strasburg staff is what makes these charters really special. The Strasburg guys really embrace the spirit of these charters whenever we visit. Its the little details that don't show up in the photos that make the day even better-- the Conductor in his beat-up fedora working on his wheel report in the crummy, the hot coffee brewing on the coal stove, the crew cooking up scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner as we wheeled back into East Strasburg at the end of the day--it's all the real deal. And you just couldn't ask for more gracious hosts. Thanks a million to all at the Road to Paradise.

Thanks, Erik, for your kind words. As the conductor in the beat-up fedora - more beat-up as the day wore on - I believe I speak (unofficially) for the rest of the crews that it was a pleasure to host you all.

The car shop guys work in relative anonymity (none of them crewed Friday and Saturday), but their work is truly outstanding.

For us, the pleasure is in seeing the equipment run and re-creating a place and time in history.

Wasn't there an earlier thread with links to CGW 90 photos in various eras in Colorado? I tried to search the index with no luck. Thanks.

Wesley

I think those are from the Otto Perry collection. They're online at the Denver Public Library site, but the photo search engine seems to be down right now--I've been trying to look them up myself this weekend.

This locomotive belonged to the Great Western railroad (reporting marks GW) -- Not the Chicago Great Western (reporting marks CGW).

Tom Cornillie

Alas, no steam locomotives from the Chicago Great Western survived. On the other hand, four steamers from Colorado's Great Western are still extant; numbers 51, 60, 75 and of course, number 90.

Les

The SRC hopper car, #150, is ex-NYC. Our roster says that NYC may have built it. It was converted to a ballast car with the Damy Trick Hoppers in 9/1967.

The M&P box 733 is actually #723 (typo?). Interestingly enough, when my dad bought these two cars at $50 each, they were lettered opposite each other with the 713's markings being opposite the 723's. I only realized this when I was looking at his movies of the cars in Dillerville yard. When I finally have his films transferred to DVD, I will look again to see which is which and at the next repainting, we will make them "as delivered" to the Strasburg.

It was a great gang of photographers we had for those two days. They are a hearty bunch given the weather. Fortunately the wind was blowing hard enough to prevent substantial icicles from forming on my nose.

That's Les Jarrett in the background. And me with the radio? Heaven help the crews . . .

I'm kneeling on the platform in a brown coat, blue sweater, and sunglasses.



Howard, the wind was brutal, but the photos will be worth it.

I can't say it better than Erik did, so I'll just stop here.

To the entire staff of the Strasburg Rail Road, a huge thanks.

(Linn, expect an email with some ideas when I catch up on my sleep.)

JAC

Go to:

http://photoswest.org/

and search for

GWR engine number 90

I'm pretty sure image OP-12097 is the short-smokebox, original scheme image John and Linn used as the documentation for creating No. 90's new-old look.

Just waiting for our train here at Rouses Point. If I recall, there is only one pre-WWII photo of the 90 in the Perry collection, showing two single air pumps and spoked lead truck wheels, with the short smokebox.

There was a brass model available in HO in the 1970s that was supposed to be circa-1943. I think it had the cross-compound pump, solid pilot wheels and the short smokebox. How accurate this was, I do not know, but the Strasburg Model RR Club has one. The 90 hit a truck at Birds (crossing of US 87) in 1944, and required a lot of work after that. I imagine the longer lignite smokebox was added then.