Super Steam Sunday!

 

Tom Downing, Harold Heuler, Phil Cohen, Charlie Giordano, Rory Hawkins, Tim Brothers and Mark Jordan were there at the club anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jeff Badger with the the trailer full of trains. Jeff arrived right on schedule and we started to unload all the goodies.

 

After unloading and a brief  demo by Jeff  on how to operate Marks new locomotive, we all headed out to grab a quick burger for lunch. While we were eating lunch,  Rob Lamont from LALS arrived to see the goings on and a short time later another visitor from LALS, Todd Moore and his family arrived along with Todd's nice Atlantic steam locomotive.

 

Tom unloaded a beautiful pair of hopper cars that he had purchased from Tom Bee at the Maricopa meet that he had painted, labled and customized for Mark. They are really nice with loads of detail.

 

We unloaded Todd's locomotive and he started steaming up, this inspired Tom to pull out his Plantation steam locomotive and get it ready, the club's 4-4-0 American locomotive was already out and running around the tracks and Rory's 0-4-0 steamer was already in the steaming bay getting fired up.

 

Marks new 0-4-0 steamer was in the steaming bay getting a boiler inspection prior to hitting the rails again. This was the first time in a very long time that all of the steaming bays were full of working steam locomotives in the process of actually steaming up! We had 5 steam locomotives running around the tracks that day at the same time (plus the evil diesel F7) and it was a blast.

 

There were a few parts failures here and there, stuck injectors, non pumping lubricators, and a few other bumps that make running a steam locomotive fun. We all had a great time in our little impromptu steam mini-meet. The place was really hopping!

 

 

After dark and things were cleaned up, put away and locked up we all headed out to Alfredo's for some good Mexican food and told stories of the day. It was a fun time with all enjoying the camaraderie.

 

Hopefully this will be the norm rather then the exception and will become a regular event. As we add more track, sidings and other facility improvements perhaps we can actually schedule a steam meet. What a great hobby!

 

Phil