Ghost for Halloween!!!

[jtryka]

Sorry, but I have pretty much been a ghost lately! Since starting my new job up here in Seattle, I have had so little time to do any posting much less reading others posts. But I am around, and try to catch up on weekends, but the last few weekends I have been out of town. Last week I was in Montana working with my beloved steam locomotive (the SP&S 700, see SPS700.ORG ). The weather was great, the trip was great, and the locomotive ran like she did as a young lady in 1938! Only a few minor glitches, but nothing worth mentioning. Everyone along the way was thrilled to see her on the longest steam excursion in quite a while (over 1500 miles total). It made the last year and a half of hard work all worth it! So that's what I've been up to, hope everything is well with all my friends here on the board!

[chrisfuccione]

Looks like a great train! How did you get into that? CHRIS

[EVillageProwler]

Good to see you back, albiet intermittently.

 

Be thankful that you have a job... I know of many who got laid off recently.

 

Regards,

 

EVP

 

[jtryka]

No worry EVP, I am happy to be employed!

 

Chirs,

 

I got involved with the 700 about a year and a half ago. I rode on their last excursion to Spokane (though I was only on the leg to Pasco), and I got to talking to a guy on the train that worked with one of the volunteers. So several phone calls later, I was down at the roundhouse working. It's been a lot of hard work, but I've loved every minute of it. The trip just ended went off flawlessly, as I just heard she arrived back in the roundhouse last night around 7:00 Pacific time. Now that I've moved up to Seattle, I won't be able to go down every saturday, but I will likely make it down at least once or twice a month.

 

On the trip, I only went to one coin shop, small and not very friendly. But I did find a nice antique store in Billings where I found a nice 49-star American flag for my wall.

[DWLange]

About 20 years ago I bought a hoard of 49-star flags from a military surplus store in San Francisco that was going out of business. I've displayed one of them on national holidays for years, and no one has ever noticed that it's one star short! But then, Hawaii doesn't really count.

[paigow_johnny]

"But then, Hawaii doesn't really count."

 

Eh bruddah...that's hurts...

 

Former Honolulu resident

[jtryka]

In the words of Grandpa Simpson, "I'll be in the cold hard ground before I recognize Missoura!"

 

For those interested, here are a couple good photos from the steam trip.

The last one is from the last day I was aboard, and I was taking a break from watering to get a picture of me in the engineers seat. The first was a photo runby, not sure where, and the middle is on a trestle just before the Mulan Tunnel (I think).