The Bud Titus memorial run in Decatur, IL

13-June-09 The next Saturday found Bill, Corey and I on the road again, this time to Decatur, IL to the home of Kenny Davis who has been hosting an annual run for many years. The memorial run is dedicated to the friends who used to be at the track. This is a really scenic track which packs it into a small space - the Davis' back yard. It was another early morning, long day activity, but I am enjoying visiting some other tracks and running my engine.

I ride along as Bill runs the engine in traffic.

Kenny's event is the social event of the year for steamers in the midwest, his yard was thick with kids, moms, families and of course, railroaders. All the sidings were full of engines, and the mainline was equally crowded.

The crab ran great and the replacement spring for the water pump worked without a problem. We split one switch which dropped the engine on the ground abruptly ('derailed'), I think a seam on the water tank cracked again because the water emptied out pretty quickly. Something to fix next winter.

Of interest was a Pennsylvania K4 Pacific locomotive, just like Corey is building, so I took some snaps of that. Also there was a 'naked' Mikado which barely fit on the small radius curves on this track. That was of interest to me since I am building one just like it and I asked the builder a whole bunch of questions. This was the third time the engine was out, and he had bought the chassie already finished, so he did not have much information about the performance and design characteristics.
More pictures of the track and locomotives here.