Had a nice visit with a friend this afternoon and when leaving he mentioned that tomorrow he was going to Palestine to ride the State Railroad train between there and Rusk. Driving home I started thinking of my trip there to ride that train 30 years ago next month. I was retiring from TxDOT, the train's owner at that time, and had written to them about riding it too. The main purpose to ride it was to see of they'd let me blow the whistle. I told them I'd worked in the field of engineering for a long time and never got to blow a whistle. They invited me to come and ride in the engine cab and blow the whistler whenever I wanted. WooHoo - lost no time getting there and blew the whistle quite frequently during the trip to Rusk and back! (Had forgotten my camera so used a cardboard throw-away from the drugstore.)
tommy2 wrote:
Had a nice visit with a friend this afternoon and when leaving he mentioned that tomorrow he was going to Palestine to ride the State Railroad train between there and Rusk. Driving home I started thinking of my trip there to ride that train 30 years ago next month. I was retiring from TxDOT, the train's owner at that time, and had written to them about riding it too. The main purpose to ride it was to see of they'd let me blow the whistle. I told them I'd worked in the field of engineering for a long time and never got to blow a whistle. They invited me to come and ride in the engine cab and blow the whistler whenever I wanted. WooHoo - lost no time getting there and blew the whistle quite frequently during the trip to Rusk and back! (Had forgotten my camera so used a cardboard throw-away from the drugstore.)
Had a nice visit with a friend this afternoon and ... (
show quote)
Not bad for a drugstore throw away camera!
Thanks for posting those
Jay Pat
Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA
Enjoyed the story and the images!
Pat
Fine pictures and wonderful narrative.
Very cool. Love the trainsmen.
OneShot1 wrote:
Very cool. Love the trainsmen.
The gentleman standing is Sam the official engineer who is letting me sit in the “shotgun” seat while we were stopped taking on water.
He also let me sit in the seat on the right of the cab after we got underway where the control levers and knobs are located. He very gingerly allowed me to adjust steam pressure at one point to slightly speed the engine up.
The most hard and hot part of the day was I became the official sand shoveler. Periodically a couple shovels full of sand had to be thrown into the fire box to clean the soot out of the boiler’s tubes.
When we returned to the yard he told my spouse, who had ridden in one of the passenger cars, that I was now an official train engineer!
Absolutely great day!
What a great experience. I'm envious!
DickC
Loc: NE Washington state
Nice photo of a nice old engine!!
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