Trainfest Day Four
On Sunday we made a full day of taking in the sights, sounds and smells (mostly coal smoke) on the festival grounds. There was a lot to see and we were on our feet from gate opening to the final closing whistle-off.
In the Model Railroad tent we saw:
-The Michigan Small Scale Live Steamers G-Scale live steam elevated train layout
-A massive LEGO train layout from the Michigan LEGO Train Club
-A Lionel train layout
-An HO train layout
The miniature railroad outside was a brand new 4000' 1.5" scale live steam layout (same scale as my trains). Here I caught up with Joe Holbrook and his green pacific Southern engine. After chatting some and looking through Don Saager's pictures of a very big (155 foot long, 22 foot high) trestle on the Mill Creek Central RR, Bill and I went over to look at Joe's ballast tamper he had designed. I had seen it several years ago but this time I was able to get a close look at it and took a bunch of pictures. One of the SLLS members has been insisting we need it for our railroad, but having no design or fabrication skills has been able to get it made.
I also had the chance to more formally meet Wayne Godshall, who built the boiler for my Mikado locomotive. I thought it good to meet the man whose critical component would be sitting between my legs when I am running my locomotive!
In the very large Vendor/sponsor tent, I met Clover McGinley, the editor of "Live Steam" magazine, which I subscribe to. What a nice lady. I had never met the editor of something I was a subscriber of! We talked about someone we knew in common, 'Unka' Jesse Livingston, who I knew from the Mid-South Live Steamers in Columbia, TN.
We also saw lots of steam trains under steam!
The Leviathan 4-4-0 no. 63, the newest standard gage live steam locomotive built in the United States and just completed in June 2009 made it's public debut at the festival. It is a replica of the 1868 Central Pacific locomotive, just like it's sister engines at Promentory Point (the Golden Spike location).
Also under steam and on display were three 0-4-0 'Tank' engines. These small engines carried their water in a saddle tank draped over the boiler, unlike larger road engines which carried them in a separate car called the tender. The Flagg Coal no. 75 was giving the lucky few who could get tickets a turn at the throttle and a tug on the whistle all day; the Little River no. 1 and the Viscose no. 6 (from Dunkirk, NY!).
Here all three engines show off on the one hundred foot long 1919 turntable from the Pere Marquette railway roundhouse.
Not shown in video was the Little River 4-6-2 no. 110, the smallest "Pacific" standard gauge engine of its class. We saw it pull in from pulling a half-day excursion that afternoon.
If you think the little engines cannot pull their weight, here they move the large 1225 Berkshire loco to the turntable.
We got to go in the locomotive shop and see where the 1225 is stabled and get repair work done. I took a ride on the mini railroad, Bill and Bud struck up a conversation with a blacksmith who was working at a portable forge. We chatted up the crew in the Viscose #6 and found out the Union Electric #1 which is part of the St. Louis Museum of Transportation was only two builders numbers different. It gave Bud and I much inspiration to bring it back to operation, and we talked about what it would take to do so on our way home the next day.
What a day! At the very end all the engines whistled off a 'farewell', ending the festival. It was quite something to hear seven steam whistles all blowing at the same time. Tired from a day of walking around and suffering (not really) from overexposure to coal smoke/steam trains, we ended the day at a restaurant near the hotel with the tagline "Pasta, Pizza & 100 Brews".
In the Model Railroad tent we saw:
-The Michigan Small Scale Live Steamers G-Scale live steam elevated train layout
-A massive LEGO train layout from the Michigan LEGO Train Club
-A Lionel train layout
-An HO train layout
The miniature railroad outside was a brand new 4000' 1.5" scale live steam layout (same scale as my trains). Here I caught up with Joe Holbrook and his green pacific Southern engine. After chatting some and looking through Don Saager's pictures of a very big (155 foot long, 22 foot high) trestle on the Mill Creek Central RR, Bill and I went over to look at Joe's ballast tamper he had designed. I had seen it several years ago but this time I was able to get a close look at it and took a bunch of pictures. One of the SLLS members has been insisting we need it for our railroad, but having no design or fabrication skills has been able to get it made.
I also had the chance to more formally meet Wayne Godshall, who built the boiler for my Mikado locomotive. I thought it good to meet the man whose critical component would be sitting between my legs when I am running my locomotive!
In the very large Vendor/sponsor tent, I met Clover McGinley, the editor of "Live Steam" magazine, which I subscribe to. What a nice lady. I had never met the editor of something I was a subscriber of! We talked about someone we knew in common, 'Unka' Jesse Livingston, who I knew from the Mid-South Live Steamers in Columbia, TN.
We also saw lots of steam trains under steam!
The Leviathan 4-4-0 no. 63, the newest standard gage live steam locomotive built in the United States and just completed in June 2009 made it's public debut at the festival. It is a replica of the 1868 Central Pacific locomotive, just like it's sister engines at Promentory Point (the Golden Spike location).
Also under steam and on display were three 0-4-0 'Tank' engines. These small engines carried their water in a saddle tank draped over the boiler, unlike larger road engines which carried them in a separate car called the tender. The Flagg Coal no. 75 was giving the lucky few who could get tickets a turn at the throttle and a tug on the whistle all day; the Little River no. 1 and the Viscose no. 6 (from Dunkirk, NY!).
Here all three engines show off on the one hundred foot long 1919 turntable from the Pere Marquette railway roundhouse.
Not shown in video was the Little River 4-6-2 no. 110, the smallest "Pacific" standard gauge engine of its class. We saw it pull in from pulling a half-day excursion that afternoon.
If you think the little engines cannot pull their weight, here they move the large 1225 Berkshire loco to the turntable.
We got to go in the locomotive shop and see where the 1225 is stabled and get repair work done. I took a ride on the mini railroad, Bill and Bud struck up a conversation with a blacksmith who was working at a portable forge. We chatted up the crew in the Viscose #6 and found out the Union Electric #1 which is part of the St. Louis Museum of Transportation was only two builders numbers different. It gave Bud and I much inspiration to bring it back to operation, and we talked about what it would take to do so on our way home the next day.
What a day! At the very end all the engines whistled off a 'farewell', ending the festival. It was quite something to hear seven steam whistles all blowing at the same time. Tired from a day of walking around and suffering (not really) from overexposure to coal smoke/steam trains, we ended the day at a restaurant near the hotel with the tagline "Pasta, Pizza & 100 Brews".
Labels: trainfest
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