January 1, 2000 dawned as a foggy but relatively warm day despite the nay-sayers claiming that the world would end the night before. Wayne and I got a large number of cars and other rolling stock out and staged a photo shoot around the engine house (we had to delay things until the fog lifted). The photo shoot yielded a number of good pictures.
This day also marked the first time that the chassis for the Shay loco that I am working one was placed on the tracks and towed. The good news is that it stayed on the tracks fine. The bad news is that the trucks are still very tight and it was difficult to tow.
Shortly after we had finished the photos, Dan Rankin arrived with his American locomotive. It was unloaded and getting ready to be fired when the idea of double-heading the two Americans once again was broached. But, unlike previous years, this year we immediately grabbed the parts that needed “alterations” and headed for the shop. A slot was cut in one of the coupler knuckles so that it would accept the draw bar on the front of Wayne’s locomotive. So this year, we ran a double-head train and were able to haul more people at one time that in the past.
After Dan had packed up and left to return home, a number of guest engineers ran the American until well after dark. Wayne and I finally got all the rolling stock put away at about 10pm. It was a great day for running trains!!
American 4-4-0 waiting to run
