Wood,
Thank you for the report and photos of your visit with Spence! I too have always enjoyed Spence's posts, photos, and kindly manner. As much as Spence has shown us, I'm not surprised you found more. Yes, there are lots of great folks on this forum, and Spence is certainly one.
Fall, 1919. The USRA has been assigning their standard design locomotives to RRs around the country in an effort to provide much-needed support to them as they strive to meet the demands of immediate post-war traffic and the reorganization of their routes mandated by law.
Lima Locomotive company is in the middle of providing a series of light Mikados to the Missouri Pacific. The latest one, number 1310 was pushed onto MoPac rails a few days ago at the yard in Memphis, TN, in a sales tax-saving measure. She was run light up the White River Division and is caught here by a local photographer coming off the White River bridge toward the junction at Notch, MO, where the MoPac and the Frisco share a short section of double track and a small yard with locomotive servicing facilities.
The 1310 stops at the junction tower so that its crew can receive orders. The Form 19 tells the crew to back into the yard for coal and get ready to take a short freight up the rest of the division on its way to the shops in Sedalia.
Having topped off with water and coal and oiled around, the crew is about to move forward and back down to the train already waiting for it.
The engineer tests the air while the fireman uses the blower to get the fire ready.
The 1310 pulls the train out of the yard and onto the double main, heading for the tunnel under the town of Marmaros. The track of the narrow gauge Frisco silver dollar line which services the town can be seen climbing the ridge behind the MoPac freight.
One last shot of the new engine on the line as it prepares to head away from Notch Junction.
This engine is a Legacy Mike from the 2011 Volume II Lionel catalog; I got it at a pretty good discount from a hobby shop that had used it as a demo of Legacy features.
Some pics from the Fredericksburg show earlier today.......thank you Trackers!
Peter
First off, I'm raising my glass tonite to Scott Smith for a speedy recovery!! So glad everything is working out for you and you caught the problem before anything worse happened.
Next up, I'm seconding Art the Chugman's enthusiasm for the hi-railers in Indiana. Man is that one awesome layout! I'll be heading over there again this early fall at the latest to check out the steel mill layout that Sante Fe Jim mentioned is about complete. I saw it a month or two ago and it was already unbelievably cool. Here are few shots to enjoy!
Peter, does Max offer tutoring classes for other dogs? If he does, please sign Cody up.
Peter, what breed is Max?
Max looks like a labradoodle. We have two Buddy & Einstein. Great dogs.
Nick
Max is a Golden Doodle.....and loves the New York Central, New Haven and the New York Ontario & Western.....besides being partial to Conrail and the PennCentral 
Peter
Well I was close
Great looking dog Peter.
Nick
Max is Golden.
That's for sure!
He looks like a smart dog, I think I might be able to get him interested in the Santa Fe.
Late to the party again.... but this was a little late Sunday afternoon job that I just finished. TMCC and cruise control added to the engine. Weighted the cars with auto tire weights, that made the ride a LOT smoother and track better. Then I painted details such as inside of tender, inner parts of windows on cars, and roofs of cars, added LED lighting, took out windows and added green plexiglass in it's place. So far the train looks good I think!
Without the LEDs on the glass is dark green and beautiful! Even the flash kinda washes it out unfortunately.
First, glad Scott is doing well!
A little more progress on the "Simplicity in 6x8" living room layout.
I decided to run some trains. The F3, is the 1996 Lionel TMCC A-B set. The passenger cars are original Lionel 2500 series presidential aluminum cars. They were my dad's, and he bought them new the year I was born in 1962. He lets me use them since he has no layout. 
The loco and baby Madison set is C&NW TMCC baby Hudson and passenger cars.
The loco on siding is an MTH Railking 6-8-6 Proto 2 Pennsylvania. The box car is a pre-Atlas Industrial Rail car.
At the club this weekend, Alexa practiced switching in the yard with our (awesome) Pan Am SW-1. She got pretty good with firing the couplers and switching directions.
I also finished building a scale submarine on flat car (albeit a fantasy submarine). The sub is connected to the depressed center flat with magnets (embedded in the cribbing) so I can pop it off for storage and transport.
There's a "salvage consultant" looking to move in to our home layout's harbor area, so I've begun work on a bashed 50' barge style houseboat. Kinda making this up as I go...
Next, back at the club layout, Lightning and Mater are now hanging around downtown!
-Dustin
Hercules ACF Center Flow 5250 Cu Ft 4-compartment covered hoppers made by Weaver Models.
Andrew
my next project isn't train related. My Uncle Jim gave me this model to build. He had gotten it for himself years ago, and never got around to it. I lost my Uncle this week to a stroke. Him and I were supposed to go fly in this real one this summer. I'm going to build the model just like the real Collingings Foundation Nine O Nine.
Met a guy about 20 years ago who was a navigator on one. Have a picture of him and the crew in front of the plane in England. Sadly he passed away shortly after our meeting. Had another friend who we didn't know was a crew member on one until he told us they had been shot down over Italy or Germany. Discussed being marched across the country by the Germans and was a POW until the war ended. Sadly he passed about 5 years ago.
I think you should still go, it would be the trip of a lifetime. Maybe take someone along who never in their wildest dreams thought they would get a ride in one. Was in a B-52 once long ago, never saw so many patches on stuff in my life.
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