Midweek Photos 8/22/2018

Number 90 pointed the big red Suburban toward the suburbs of Chicago, in July, for the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society Convention, the anticipation of a week of Home Road events causing a trail of foam to be left in the Suburban's wake, on highways across Kansas and Iowa.

A pair of war horses from the days of the Chiefs.

It's not a 16 Class rednose F3, nor a 52 Class Alco-GE, but it's the next best thing.

One of Santa Fe's small stock cars.  Naturally they were not like any other railroad's stock cars.

A former Santa Fe Alco RSD15.  I ran this one when it was still working for the Home Road.

Beautifully restored Santa Fe combine, in Santa Fe coach green.

I love that E5.  Tried all doors but couldn't get inside.

A Winton straight-six diesel engine, like the ones in Santa Fe's early EMC SC switchers.

And you don't go to conventions just for the trains.  People matter, and I took the opportunity to howdy and shake with a couple of other OGR Forumites.  Chugman and I had a great half-day watching trains on the BNSF triple-track ex-CB&Q main.  He ran a Santa Fe Chief for me on his Milwaukee Road layout, which is beautifully designed and built.

I also stopped at the Central Connecting Railroad.  Hot Water had his 1952 EMD SD9 demonstrator warmed up, as well as a beautiful 3rd Rail Burlington 4-6-4 under steam, and we had a pleasant couple of hours, including a gen-you-wine derailment caused by a center pin failure.  He really does go for realism.

Hot Water, giving the train a roll-by inspection, something railroaders always do.

Chugman and I saw numerous Metra and BNSF trains during our time out on the triple-track.

If you ever wondered what the guy at the throttle of your Amtrak train looks like, well, he could look like my long-time friend James Prater.  I am not that short;  James is that tall.  He was a Santa Fe Cleburne Engineer who chose to stay with Amtrak when Santa Fe recalled all its Amtrak Engineers.  He runs the Heartland Flyer between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City.  And, I might add, he runs it in the finest Santa Fe tradition of ultra-smooth train handling.  He is a truly fine Locomotive Engineer.  When he's in the cab, the starts and stops are like silk.

I have met a lot of people in my hobby of model railroading and real train watching.  Every now and then you are fortunate enough to meet someone that really makes the hobby a whole lot more fun.  Tom is one of those special people.  While we were out on the Aurora to Chicago "race track" together we met several BNSF employees and he introduced himself and visited with them.  I loved being along and listening to the "shop talk" from a "foamers" perspective.  Normally I get the "who is that guy looks" from RR employees, but this trip was special and I was made to feel more welcome than usual.  We visited with maintenance employees in the Metra yard in Aurora and to an engineer and conductor at the Eola yard.   

I've always believed that real RR people are usually pretty friendly and fun to be around.  Tom reinforced that in a big way.

Art

Been meaning to post these now for a couple of weeks.  On our return vacation in the Smoky Mountains I convinced the boss to let us stop in Roanoke VA to the Virginia transportation museum.  My only regret is 611 Wasn't there but I knew that ahead of time but we spent of few hours.  I've always wanted to see a Class A up close.