On Saturday, I once again headed up to New Haven with my mother to see what work needed done. Within five minutes of being there, I was in the firebox wearing a mask, goggles, my 765 hat, and a steel brush in my hand. I was in there for at least a few hours scraping the leftover ashes from the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately, they were running hot water through the steam pipes to prepare for the Hydrostatic test, and when your standing in a room that is designed to trap heat, it can be pretty unpleasant in there, but I still had a good time.
My mother spent the time painting parts for the A Tank's trucks.
Two things on Saturday though surprised me. After lunch, I noticed that the Society's recently acquired Plymouth locomotive was running, and I went to see what was going on with the locomotive. Dave Cox and Tom Nitza were standing on the walkway chatting and I asked a question from the ground. They couldn't hear me over the engine, so I came up there, and they invited me into the cab. I casually took a seat at the controls and Tom said, "Take this lever down here and put it in forward." Long story short, the Plymouth was the second locomotive I've operated in my lifetime.
The other thing that surprised me happened at lunch. Some of you might be aware that I love pipe organs just as much as I love trains. We got on the topic of music during lunch, and I chimed in and started talking about how I'm learning to become an organist and I mentioned the world's largest organ in Atlantic City, NJ. I thought my comment would be a dead end statement, but a bunch of the guys at the table started talking about the Atlantic City Organ too, and they knew a great deal about organs in general. I was really surprised. I'm wondering if the love of trains and pipe organs is a common combination. Let me know if that's the case with you.
I will have more pictures and a video soon!
