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Greatest Runs of All Time

A conversation around the club the other day, got me thinking about the best runs I have ever had in Live Steam.  This is not intended as an information page, but rather as a stimulus to get you thinking about YOUR best runs.  The track layout at Cedars may have changed since a number of these took place, but I will make reference to the distances involved where necessary.

• 10:  1982:  I pulled into the station, low on water (this was normal when #18 was a tank engine - it held enough for 3 trips around the short loop) and had to run light to the yards.  I looked up and, waiting for a ride, was Maurice "Le Mad Dog" Vachon, a professional wrestler from the 1960s and '70s.  He lived just down the road from the track, in Coteau.  I stood up and asked him if he would like to take the engine over to the yards - about 900 feet. He declined.  I said "You were my hero as a kid.  Now, sit down, shut up and run the engine!"  He did, and we had a great visit during the servicing.
   

• 9:  2000:  Jim Leggett's Mogul:  Early evening at the International Meet, I was keeping Jimbo's Mogul hot for some later night-time insanity, and I had the track to myself, except - as I came around each reverse loop, I was entering a cloud of smoke from somewhere.  I felt there was some other engine out here, but I couldn't see it.  As it turns out, the night was so calm that I was running under my own smoke...
   

• 8:  1989:  A brand-new diesel was on our track, with three matching coaches, each holding four people, and he was running right in front of me.  I had eight people aboard when I set out.  When I got to the gate, the lowest part of our line, I found that the diesel had blown the gasoline engine, and was sitting, dead.  I touched his rear coupler, pulled out on the throttle, and the whole works - 20 people, 1 dead locomotive - started to roll.  Leaning on the cab to get some more adhesive weight, I pushed the whole train 1600 feet back to the station.  The stack was LOUD and I never did stop shovelling coal!
   

• 7:  1983:  I had a girlfriend who was very shy about meeting Mom & Dad, but she wanted to see what the Track was all about.  I picked her up on a weekday morning - she was wearing a pair of fluorescent pink jeans, a white T-shirt, and a canary yellow windbreaker.  We were out there by 10:00.  I got the engine hot, and she did all the running, all day.  She had "The Touch" to get the best performance out of that engine, as we hauled more and more buckets of gravel.  By 7:00 p.m., she was dressed in one colour, head-to-toe, and wearing a huge smile.
  

Polaroid shot of a brand-new locomotive.

• 6:  tie: June 6, 1981:  First run of #18.  It was a grey day, the engine ran like a pig, we couldn't keep steam in it, but the first run of an engine will always stand out in your mind.

September 1973: George Lovett runs alongside the Highline as a nine-year-old kid (me) pulls his very first throttle on a Live Steamer: George's Tich.

October 1976: Harry Turnbull sits behind me on the tender of his 7-1/4" Tenwheeler as I do all the throttle, firing, and running to haul gravel on a workday.
 

 

• 5:  International Meet 1989:  Again, early evening:  I had coaled and watered in the yards, and was heading out for the Main Line.  Mike Fields was on the Service Lead with the original Stourbridge Lion, and he asked me if I could leave the switch open for him to access the Main.  As there were no other trains on the track, I agreed.  I knocked off lap after lap of the 2200-foot oval, always looking across the infield to see Mike directly opposite me.  Eight, ten, eleven - on the 12th lap, I opened the switch to come into the yards through the Gravel Pit, and Mike hollered across the road to leave that switch open because he was coming off, too.  I tucked into the yard and cleared the switch for him to access the turntable, and, after he had passed, I followed him up.  He got off and pushed his engine the last 50 or so feet.  I expressed my distress:  "Mike Field engines never need a push - my image is shattered.  What happened?"  His reply:  "Oh, I got the throttle stuck about eight laps ago, but you were staying out of my way, so I kept going.  When I saw you coming off, I stopped firing, and that's where it ran out of steam..."  Image restored!!
   

Jimbo keeps his toes clenched so the toenails don't fall off.

• 4:  Winter Runs:  Done this three times, and it keeps getting better and better.  You don't do much running, and it is uncomfortable as your fingers turn blue and toes go gangrene, but the kidding around, along with the great condensation effects, make for a great day.
  

ten feet out, when I realise I am 60 lbs too heavy.

• 3:  Efficiency Trials:  Again, you only get a half-hour run for the entire day.  But could you explain to me how I can knock off 12 laps nonstop (#5) in 90 minutes, but I cannot get an engine to run for 30 minutes when they weigh the coal? Top that off with my turn to run alongside a nine-year-old Elizabeth Leggett as coach for her first ever run at the 2000 trials, (see #6, above) and you see the basis for a "Top 10" run.
  

My brother, Roy, does some night running.
He couldn't see a thing after the photo flash
 

• 2:  1998: Midnight Triple Header at ALS:  Jim Leggett's Mogul, our Mogul, and Ken Power's Ten-Wheeler hooked onto a rake of 11 cars at Adirondack Live Steamers at dusk.  This club has a mile of track snaking through some thick forest just North of Albany, NY, and, come 8 p.m., they bring in truckloads of dark and it flows through the trees like molasses.  Jim Leggett had handed his engine over to Denis Tremblay, our Club President, then taken a seat towards the back of the train.  Ken Power (VP) was riding as rear brakeman, with his nephew Francois throttling the Ten-Wheeler. We had a derailment in the deepest, swampiest part of the woods, just after a tunnel.  Next to the track were some glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, and when you can see those, you know it's dark.  We heard an "All Aboard!" from the back of the train, another called from the front, so we whistled off in turn and pulled the throttles.  Running steam at night - particularly with a heavy train, is an absolute sensory experience - the roar of the stack; the pulsing flash of the ashpan on the ground under the cab; the Roman Candle effects of embers up the stack and thirty feet into the air (watch them hit the overhanging branches and careen off sideways); the blinding light and searing heat of opening the firebox door.  It is almost erotic.  We pulled into the station and stopped, when Jim came running up from the caboose end of the train:  "You left your Vice-President in the woods back there."  ?!?  "Ken got off to flag the rear of the train, and you guys left without him."  !?!  "I turned around to ask him a question, and all I could see was his tiny flashlight fading off into the distance."  We didn't see Ken come into the station on the following diesel, because all three engineers were doubled over with laughter.  The more ticked off Ken got about the whole situation, the funnier it became.
   

• 1:  My next run.  There is no way I can believe that I have had the best run ever, so I must go back to the tracks again, and again...