You know at some point I will have the opportunity to take pictures... When there is something going on... And then start the thread on time.
"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."-Mark Twain Some time ago, after receiving my new Athearn model of HESR 3865, I noted that I had seen a rumor online to the effect that the prototype had been sold and had left the property. Tonight, I can report that this is fake news and has been debunked. Although the available shot was not the best, on my way through Vassar, MI I was pleased to find 3865 tied up there along with 3037.
CNR Hudson 5702: Class K-5-a 4-6-4, one of only five built in 1930 by MLW, with all-weather cab, tender capacity 18 tons coal, 14000 gallons water. Beautifully styled loco.
Down at the Galveston Railway Museum. The F unit is really a former Southern Pacific locomotive that is painted up to look like a Santa Fe warbonnet. They do that a lot down there. The purists are not pleased but it's only paint and the engine and its twin live on in occasional excursion service.
Just another rent-a-wreck enroute to a new owner, this switcher was built as an SW-8 for Cincinnati Union Terminal as their number 33 in August of 1951. It was hitching a ride on a westbound manifest leaving Minot.
If that was an SW8, it must have been heavily modified. It's rolling on Flexicoil trucks, has an engine hood from a Canadian SW1200RS, and gained an extra stack in the process. That's a lot of work! I snooped around and it seems it used to be a CPR SW1200RSu, same number? CP's SW1200RS units had the small number indicators integrated into the headlight on the cab, as shown, along with the big number boards over the radiator. In contrast, CN put large number boards on either end. Still, a yard goat built in 1960 still earning its keep 60+ years later is quite the feat.
