Mystery beer

I have to confess, one of the beers I drank at the Wrought Iron Grill in Owosso, MI had such great flavor and nuance to it that I've wondered--"What was that beer I drank?" The bartender said the name so fast I never really caught it, although it sounded unpronounceable.

I thought I might be Bell's Oberon, the one name I could remember. But when I tried one on tap at a local pub, it definitely was not it.

Still wondering about it, I called the Grill in Michigan and asked them what they had on tap a month ago...."A red ale, a summer wheat, Bell's Wheat, Bell's Oberon"... and "Dragonmead Final Absolution" Ah ha! That might be it!

From their website:
"Final Absolution Belgian Style Trippel
Dragonmead's signature product! This is the ultimate Belgian style. The very high gravity of this beer is balanced by the smoothness of its finish. Banana and Clove aromas come from the Belgian yeast strain combining with the generous dose of Belgian Candi Sugar. The Saaz hops help to give this beer a balanced bitterness with no noticeable hop aroma. O.G. 1.085, ABV 8.5-10%"

Now to find it for a taste verification!

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".

Trainfest Day Three

Nickel Plate Road 765 captured in photo runby 25-July-2009, south of Alma, MI. Shown with permission of Bud Purcell, photographer.

Excursion time! A leisurely day to ride the train. Originally we were scheduled to ride behind the 1225, but it had developed a leaky flue and could not run. Instead we rode behind the Nickel Plate Road 765, a sister engine of the same size and class as the 1225, but from a different railroad.

One of the features of an 'excursion' is they stop the train somewhere during the trip, all those who want get off the train and line up in a long diagonal line away from the tracks, shoulder to shoulder with cameras at the ready. The operators back the train up, pull the throttle open and drive by with the whistle blowing and smoke billowing putting on a great show. Once the last car goes by the photo line, they stop the train, back up and do it again!



Nickel Plate 765 in a reverse move for another photo runby, 25-July-09 south of Alma, MI. It captured the whistle talk of this high stepping Berkshire.

This is known as a 'photo run by' and we got three of them before re-boarding the train and continuing our trip back to the station. In all our excursion was about nine hours long, although the train ride was only about five hours.

After returning to Owosso, we spent a few minutes on the festival grounds sight seeing before they closed for the evening. While on the train, we had spotted a renovated industrial building on our way out of town that morning which, like other local establishments, had geared up for the festival with an outdoor tent and live music. Having a coupon on the back of our ticket, we decided to check out the wrought iron grill. It was a hoppin'in place, perhaps a little more upscale and apparently patronized by the locals and festival goers alike. I tried the regional microbrews from Bell's. Their Oberon was a bit too hoppy for me, but the wheat was nice.

Trainfest Day Two

On Friday we chased the daylight, covering country dirt roads and fields and me learning to navigate on the fly using the GPS screen. This was the first trip the Southern Pacific Railroad 4449, known as the "Daylight", has made east of Chicago since 1976. Back then it was famously known as 'The Freedom Train', and the 1941 locomotive is now back in orange and black color scheme.
The dotted lines are the path(s) we took chasing the train.

We spend the morning going from crossing to crossing with many other 'railfans', getting ahead of the train and then watching it go by. When the train arrived in Alma, MI, the endpoint of the excursion and where they turned the train around and took lunch break, we scoped out the few lunch offerings for our Saturday train ride and concluded we were best off bringing our own lunch on board. Needing lunch ourselves, we drove back to Ithaca and had lunch at the "Country Chef Cafe" with the locals. A small establishment of 10 tables, but sporting a menu with 20+ hamburg variations and reasonable prices. That evening, we drove to Clara's Lansing Station in the old Lansing railroad station and had a nice dinner outside next to the tracks.

Train Festival 2009

This year for our steam railroading excursion Bill, Bud and I went to the four day Train Festival 2009, which ran from July 23-26, 2009 and was held in Owosso, MI. Owosso is about 45 minutes northeast of Lansing, Michigan, and is home of the Steam Railroading Institute, which operates and maintains the Pere Marquette 1225 'Berkshire class' 2-8-4 steam locomotive, also known as the train in the popular Christmas animated movie "Polar Express". The 1225 locomotive needs to have the expensive 15-year annual boiler inspection performed and the festival was a way to raise money for the upcoming work.

We spent a total of three days at the festival, plus two for travel and immersed ourselves in the coal smoke, crowds and all things railroading for the duration.

We left dark and early 4:30 am Thursday morning to get a jump on the 10-hours drive north. We traveled in comfort in Bill's Audi A6. Bud had secured a room at a Residence Inn in East Lansing, near Michigan State University since Owosso is so small that it does not have hotels. I brought "Jill" our dependable GPS-based Garmin Streetpilot 2720 navigator and restaurant spotter of many such trips in the past.

Our early departure allowed us to locate the hotel, check the travel time to Owosso, locate the festival and scout the route of the train excursions. We were going to 'chase' the Southern Pacific "Daylight" 4449 on Friday, so we needed to find locations where the tracks were near the road and relatively clear of viewing obstacles so we could see and hear it go by as it went down the tracks.

Having marked several promising locations on the GPS, we returned to our hotel room and found a local restaurant to grab a late evening dinner. Sitting across from our table appeared to be the family of one of the suppliers to my hobby, Godshall Custom Machine, who I had never met but was keen to introduce myself to. When I recognized Joe Holbrook and Don Saager (people I had met in Columbia, TN at a Mid-South Live Steamers meet) stopping by the table, I found an excuse to join them and meet Wayne Godshall. The weekend was off to a good start!