All the talk about who had the best Northern over on the "Real Trains" forum got me to thinking back to days gone by when the usual suspects went railfanning on the IHMD for a weekend. I went rummaging through the slides to find some photos of northerns from one of our trips.
On a Friday afternoon a long time ago, we filled up the back of Sasquatch's pickup with coolers chock full of Olympia and Point beer. and headed to our favorite railfanning spot, Cooters Corners.
Here are a couple of shots from that afternoon. Northern Pacific A-3 class northern #2664 was the first thru with the Alaskan.
We also caught Milwaukee Road northern #265 on the head end of a freight. Hot Water pointed out that the red emergency light should not have been on while the train was moving. Can't remember how he said the light was wired, but it would only come on if the train was in emergency, and stopped. That was another of the little factoids we all picked up when Hot was around.
Friday came to a close, and we drank all the beer. We all staggered back to our cabin over at Cooter's Comfy Cabins.
Saturday morning, and serious headaches arrived. We needed food. Since we all awoke in time for lunch, we wanted a burger, and there was this great burger joint in Chatham, called "Fred and Ed's". Turned out that there was a county fair that afternoon. We arrived just as the Egyptian Historical Society was finishing up lunch, and was heading back to the fair. One of the troupe was a railfan, and he went gaga over the GN O-8 mikado that went rumbling through town. She looked so clean, she had to have been fresh out of overhaul at Hillyard.
These slides made me recall that old commercial for Point Beer. "When your out of Point, your out of town." Well, we were out of Point, and we were out of Oly. All Fred and Ed's had was Meister Brau, which tasted like it was filtered thru a horse. We each had one hair of the dog, and decided to head home in search of decent beer.
On the way out of town on the top of the hill over Chatham, I shot this final slide of the elevators in Chatham.
Grain season was in full swing, and the boxcars had the grain doors installed, and were waiting for loading.
Regards,
GNNPNUT
