Big steam!

Get up early Saturday morning for the drive from my parents in Belmont to Buffalo, an hour and a half drive. Coming up to the bridge over the yard I see a black smudge in the sky, coal smoke? Yes, and steam rising into the air!! Take the exit, a few corners turned, a man in a yellow vest says "follow those cars" as he points towards the yard. Come around the corner and...

There She Is!!! Lots of people milling around a magnificent piece of machinery. Grab a few pics, then head back to find our car, "Florida". Hmm, Buffalo to Corning via Florida. Haha. Board the train, very nice car! Big windows, lots of leg room!

Settle in, wait for departure. Train starts with a slight jolt, we back out onto the main. "She's blowing smoke rings!" I said. We stop, they line the switch for the main. Another slight jolt as the slack is taken up and we're rolling!

People lined up everywhere to watch the steamer roll thru... some in interesting places. People on their roofs, a man at the top of a ladder leaned against a building, and my favorite, a guy on one of those scissor lift trucks, the ones you would find in a warehouse, all the way up...

And then we saw the Prius. And again. "Look, it's that Prius again!!" Pretty sure they chased us all the way! Enjoyed the scenery, and laughing at some of the chasers with fellow passengers... Somewhat surprised we didn't see a car accident with all the crazy drivers trying to pass the chasers...

"We're getting close to the gorge" said the car host. Get the cameras out, everyone moves to the left side... Can feel the train slowing as we approach the trestle... Heavy trees, can't see ahead. There's the safety fence, the bridge... The gorge comes into view. The car is filled with silence broken by hushed exclamations of wonder and amazement. Truly beautiful!!! The work of an Amazing Artist!!!

As we roll on, we come into Hornell, and pass by the light rail car shops of Alstom, where my dad used to work (was owned by Morrison Knudsen then). Dad grabbed some pics as we rolled by...

Lunch time! We stop briefly, then begin to roll again, and pick up boxes of subs as we slowly creep along. Now we're rolling again as we enjoy our lunch...

Corning! We climb carefully down out of the car, and head toward the locomotive, I'm looking for Rich, I spot him. I say hi, we shake hands, he excuses himself and heads back to "take care of a passenger issue". Pretty sure he went to help a handicapped man down from the train, a true gentleman...

We head to the glass museam, watched a girl hand-blow a bowl on stage right in front of us, very fascinating! Dad and I browse the "gift shop" area and I pick up something for mom and for my wife, then we get on the bus that will take us back to the train...

As we cross a bridge, we catch a glimpse of our train on the tail track of the wye. Soon we are waiting at the boarding sight. We're all waiting with cameras out for our train to come around the corner, there she comes! We board for the return trip...

The return trip offers a view of the scenery on the other side of the tracks, since they turned the whole train on the wye. We continue to laugh at the antics of the pacers, and those who didn't want to be stuck behind the pacers, who are doing 40mph in a 55mph zone...

As we back into the yard in Buffalo, it starts to rain. We had seen some storm clouds on the return trip... The rain was light, so I headed to the engine to get a few more pictures before we get into our car and head out to get dinner and go home.

After church on Sunday, I head to Hornell to watch the train returning from Corning. My dad was busy, so I was by myself. I found a nice dead end street under a bridge and parked there. A few others showed up, but then left to find a spot where they didn't have to wait as long...

As I was waiting for the 765, a freight came thru from the other direction. I gave the engineer a nice big wave as he rolled thru, then it was quiet again. I waited. Then I heard the whistle!

I set my phone up on the roof of my yellow mazda so that I could get a steady shot, then gave the fireman a nice big "highball" signal and two big thumbs up as they rolled by... After the train passed, I looked for the four pennies I had placed on the rail earlier... I found one... I wondered if anyone on the train noticed the big "765" displayed in the back window of my car, and slowly began to realize that the experience was now officially over. I got in the car, and headed back to my parents. I drove back to wisconsin on Monday, it was a long weekend, an awesome weekend. Long live Big Steam!!!

Sweet. Priceless. Memorable. Thanks.

Nice story. I'm spoiled living in Fort Wayne...

Glad you enjoyed the story. It just started coming together in my head late Tuesday night so I figured I would type it out...