I just wanted to welcome Trainboard's own version of the "Shell Answer Man" to The Pit! Ask away and Watash will probably have an answer to your delima, HE'S the REAL McCOY! ------------------ Brent Tidaback, Member #234 BNSF Railfan-to-the Max and a N-Scaler to boot! Ship it on the Route of The Roadrunners! The Aransas Odessa & Western, a division of the BNSF
Watash, what is the secret of life?? Just kidding !! Welcome to the pit as moderator, and I am looking forward to picking your brain with many questions !! Happy Modeling!! John ------------------ The Santa Fe and Southwestern, Chief of the Southwest!!
I'd also like to welcome Wayne (Watash) to our Pit. I'm sure he will add much to this forum and is certainly the technical expert when it comes to modelling help ------------------ Regards Paul #1-Moderator & Member number 50 SPAD Investigator #1 ICQ 61198217 http://users.bigpond.net.au/railroad2000
Thanks everybody, I'll try to help, hinder, or missdirect as best you think I can. If it can be fized with rubber bands, string or balein' wire, I'm yer man! ------------------ Watash #982 "See you in the Pit"
Congratulations Watash - incidentally, I hope soon to be posting some images of my live steam locos in 0 gauge and gauge 3 which I hope might interest you (and other members). Ben
Congradulations, watash! I am glad to see that you have become a mod at trainBoard. You really have been a help to me and many other people, keep up the good work. Mike [This message has been edited by Mike (edited 21 January 2001).]
Congrats Watash You must have learned how to use bailing wire on the model T. I learned on the Model A 1929 model to be exact. Dick
Brent, You been reading too many funny books, you want to borrow my Penthouse magazines? (I only read them for the Steam Engine stories, of course!) Ben, I'll be right over. My dad built a 4 cylinder, then helped me build an HO to run on the little CO2 bulbs we used in Boy Scouts, but it froze up the valve gear!Ha. Mike, How is that pike coming along, Pounded your thumb yet? Telegrapher, Yes, Grandpa's "T" flat bed truck, and several John Deeres. Even a 2-6-0 Porter! ------------------ Watash #982 "See you in the Pit" [This message has been edited by watash (edited 21 January 2001).]
Watash,1st;congrats!!!!!! 2nd;I seem to remember,you or someone saying something about the Reader Railroad,well I was looking through my High School yearbook today(to see how I used to look)an saw an ad for the ride of a lifetime on the Reader.Also saw part of a movie the other night(Boxcar Bertha)and saw the old steam engine and passenger cars. Being raised in Shreveport I should know a lot more about it,but dont.Seems I've been have alot of senior moments lately.Just wondering if you knew where I could find info on it,I know the internet right!!?? RustyB FRISCO4EVER
Hello RRMan48! I suppose that is Senior Class of '48. I'll back up just a little. The D.K.& S. RR was the Doniphan, Kensett, and Searcy (Arkansas). It folded right after the war. (II) It ran from Searcy north east through Kensit, Judsonia and to Bald Nob. The Doniphan Lumber Co. owned it and had a spur that ran way off into the forest toward Heber Springs, and Pleasent (something) really isolated woods. Another spur ran from Kensett more easterly toward the White River, maybe over it. I never went out that way. At Kensett, there was a short section of double track I think was shared by at least two other rail lines, maybe MoPac. Our engine was an old 2-6-0 (I think) Rogers, maybe Brooks, (didn't pay attention back then), built back in 1902. It was sold to a lumber and salvage company in Texarkana, re-built, and later sold for scrap. A tourist group bought it, and ran it under its own steam over to Reeder, Ark. to be a part of a tourist attraction. Ten or fifteen years ago, my wife and I were returning home from Knoxville,Tnn. and ran across it at Reader. I have some photos (somewhere) of it while we were there, but they were just getting set up back then. The photo below is the HUGE station (empty now or may not even be there). The engine was parked just on your left where the box car is. We ran every Saturday during the war. Yes it was a fun time. I would suggest you contact the Chamber of Commerce in Reeder for info on it today. I saw Box Car Bertha, and The Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day, also, both good movies of those old engines. ------------------ Watash #982 "See you in the Pit"
Watash, are you intentionally trying to muddy the waters or just having a senior moment??? The railroad you referred to above is the DONIPHAN, KENSETT & SEARCY, was the MP's and is the UP's "practice" railroad. It is maintained as a training ground for new employees and has one car of each type that UP owns. That "Darlington" almost fooled me too. Also, the Reader never had any 2-6-0's. It had two Baldwin 2-6-2's and an Army 2-8-0. I was there the day the train had a contest with a log truck at a crossing.
Gregg, I'm going to just make your day! You are probably right. It must be one of the two. Give me 40 lashes at Dawn! It is strictly from memory and one or two photos, but fond memories of a wonderful time for me during WWII. I was there first time in 1942, and stayed at Dean Sears's home, who was a long time friend of my father's; then went home for harvest, then back in 1944/45 working for them on the student work program. At the time I went back home I think the engineer's name was Jack, but was that you? Do you remember the morning I slid a penny under eack driver, then waited to see if the engine could move, and it couldn't? You would remember it if that was you! I learned that trick from Maybery Miller my Science teacher. I had not known about the Company going out of business until a frend at the school in Searcy wrote and told me. I asked him to send some photos then, but I'm not even sure I can find them now. I was paid cash in an envelope and never thought about trying to keep anything as a souvenier. That was how Grover Meuer spelled Both names, as I recall, so I feel you are right, it probably was Kensett, and Doniphan Lumber. I had the photo of the office in an album to build a model of it, (never did). Photo of the engine, if I still have it, may be packed away in some of the stuff left at dad's when I married. I really thought it was a 2-6-0, but until Jan and I went through Reeder, I had never heard of a Reeder Railroad. I told the guy working around the engine and cars there about Searcy, and he told me the history of what happened to the engine, and that this one is the same one, and just now purchased and not even in service yet for the tourist railroad. He said it was to be called the Reeder railroad. If MoPac or UP ever had anything to do with the Searcy engine, I never heard about it when I was there. When I took the photo of the office the next day, it was empty. There used to be a desk about the middle of the room, facing the door, and had an HO model of the engine all painted up mounted on a little section of track, mounted to a mahogany piece of wood about the center of the desk top, at the edge closest to the door. The engine was facing the south. It had been there all the time I was, was it there when you were there? Did the Reeder tourist road ever get running, or is that the one you are speaking of today? In 1945 the little station office was almost grey, from lack of paint, and the lineoleum was full of holes. It was just across the dirt road from Harding Christian College then. Oh, one other thing, I remember there was supposed to be a two truck shay engine way out in the woods, that went on the ground, and was abandoned. All the rails were taken up just before the company folded. Grover helped load the rails on flat cars, (he said). Now I'm wondering, True or False? Bring me up to date, Gregg! Thanks. ------------------ Watash #982 "See you in the Pit"
Conductor! I go away for a couple weeks, and watash ends up a moderator of the inspection pit. What happened? Have you all lost your minds! Just Kidding Watash, Congrads! Keep up the good work! ------------------ Drew What's that? A train horn? Sorry, gotta go!
Congrats, Watash!!!!! I'll be crying on your shoulders as sure as God makes mountains for tunnels...lol..for help.
Watash,I wasnt even a twinkle in daddys eye in 48.I graduated in 1970,which makes me 20/with 28yrs.experience.I do appreciate all the info!!Thanks again, RUSTYB. FRISCO4EVER
Watash, first, the Reader Railroad sadly is no more. There was a gentleman in Shreveport, Louisiana, T.W.M. Long, that owned it. It's principal business was serving an asphalt refinery on line, The steam tourist train was always a "mixed" train that handled asphalt cars. Alas, when the asphalt refinery closed, so the the Reader. The locomotives are all still around, with the Army 2-8-0 on the Great Smoky Mountains Rwy. As I said, the UP still runs the DK&S. It is where they train new employees. A couple of years ago, the DK&S established stations in Mexico for ratemaking purposes. Can you imagine places like Monterey and Mexico City as stations on the lowly DK&S? They were in the Open and Prepay. After a couple of months, they ended the confusion and made them UP stations. Remember, I spent four decades in railroad marketing, with a quarter century in short line management, so I know a lot of railroads and railroad people in North America, especially since model railroading and railroad history are also my hobbies.
Gregg, Gee Whizz, I certainly did not intend to upset you, nor question your superior knowledge of railroads. I am well aware of your Knowledge, books and connections with the Reeder and all other railroads. I also fully respect your right to your opinion, and as webmaster of RailServe, I realize your responsibility to always correct your members and those who look to you for facts. I am positive there is a town in the State of Arkansas that is named Reeder. You are right, I never heard of a railroad named Reeder, (excuse me, maybe it is spelled Reader). I will retain my right to the memories and experiences of my life at Searcy, and you can chalk it up to my having wild pangs of memory some 50+ years ago. You seem stuck on a railroad I never heard of. If the DK&S had any connection to the MoPac, it may have been to trade cars at Kensett or Judsonia. None of the guys ever talked about any other railroad except the DK&S. If as you say, the MoPac owned the DK&S, why did DK&S go broke? It may be the MoPac bought the DK&S when they went broke, which was after my time. Maybe this Reader or Reeder RR never had a 2-6-0, and maybe the DK&S never had one either. It doesn't change any of my memories of those days, any more than if you tried to convince me you saw a flying saucer. You would have your memories, and to tell the truth, I don't think any 16 year old kid would have counted the rivets or measured wheels any more than I did. I do remember DK&S RR was painted on the tender. It really doesn't matter, to me. I have a senior moment once in awhile about something that I enjoyed, and have tried to tell the jist of the tale for the enjoyment of the members of this Board, with absolutely NO intent to act as an authority about the equipment. Would you wish me to run one of my experiences by you the next time and let you line me out before,(with your Authority and hopefully permission), I post it here? Gregg, I want to get along with you, really. But the fact is, I simply do not care what I was told, nor what I remember, because it has been so long with so many heartaches in between, that a happy memory of something funny is a welcome thought. So be it known to one and all: "I bow to Gregg's superior knowledge, and retract my original text, in so much as I have been officially advised that there was no Searcy, Arkansas, DK&S RR, Reeder, Arkansas, Harding Christian College, nor was there ever a Dean of that College named Sears, who was the son-in-law of Mr. Armstrong who was one of my father's teachers at Cordell, Oklahoma, before they moved the college to Searcy." I am sorry to have screwed up history. It still doesn't matter if it was a BIG BOY or the New York Central, somehow I have a photo. P.S. I almost forgot to ask: What was the engine # of the engine that stayed at Searcy? What happened to the little two truck shay the Doniphan family was supposed to have used out in the woods? I never saw anything like asphalt around Searcy, so forget the Reeder RR. When did MoPac buy the brothers out? Oh and since I was 12 the first time I went down there, my dates are wrong, it was 1943 and 45 & 46. Is Bea Rock still out on the Little White River? They were working that quarry when I was there. We used to dive off that rotating railroad bridge over the river too,(turned it to let the tugs pull the barges by), is it still there? Now, tell us about when you hit the log truck at Searcy, were you hurt, or the driver? Bring me up to date. Thanks. ------------------ Watash #982 "See you in the Pit" [This message has been edited by watash (edited 29 January 2001).]
Let's play nice boys... ------------------ Brent Tidaback, Member #234 BNSF Railfan-to-the Max and a N-Scaler to boot! Ship it on the Route of The Roadrunners! The Aransas Odessa & Western, a division of the BNSF
