Here's a couple of videos from the car. I mostly tried to capture the sounds of the loco as it worked, I rode in Bluebird, which was built from a flatcar. Neat!
Very nice! I have been to Keystone a few times while in Rapid City area for soccer tournaments. I need to add this to the agenda for the next trip. I hear there's a grade exceeding 4-5% on that line. Just how steep is it?
When I first got there on the 15th, I walked around and drooled at stuff. Lotsa neat old stuff!! This is the 110, nosed out from the roundhouse and in reserve, I suppose. They do plan a double header with both of the steam loco's on Oct 3rd! Hmmmm..... The CNW car is the only known drover car left, recently restored. The former NP 1639!! Yay! An NP wood caboose!!
And today I had to go back!! What can I say? It's a steam Loco!! Functional, working and emitting sounds and smells as a steam locomotive should! Oh yes!!! We rode in the vestibule car, fun to watch the aisle moving around! Then we sat and waited for the next trip to depart, alongside the #7 which is retired from service and parked for display, sadly. And it looks like the 104 is getting a bit of work done seeing as the steam dome is off, Two videos tonight, just for fun!
Tell her there is great scenery, wildlife and ......Shopping! What a difference a year can make! Same plate as last year, significantly more weathered, A couple inside the M&StL bay window caboose, An excellent painting of the Empire Builder, And some views of the HO model RR in the museum on site. And last, but not least, the lone GP9,
I remember watching NP trains passing my grade school with a caboose such as pictured. Even more memories, as my family used to vacation on the Olympic Peninsula every summer. Before they rerouted Highway 101, it paralleled the Rayonier main along a famous four mile tangent. Got to see a bunch of their various steamers lugging logs, including these two Mallets. If only I had a camera back then! But we were happy to just hang out of the car window and try to get the engineer to whistle for us. Which they would usually do!
That's an interesting one. And clean! The louvers on the access door under the cab say GP7, but the engine hood says GP9. A little looking up reveals it was originally a GP9, C&O 6178. It changed hands a lot since then... sometime in that interval, some GP7 parts were grafted on there. As I mentioned, interesting!
When the Milwaukee was doing their GP9 into "GP20" rebuild program, they added louvers. After that happened, there were a lot of people who thought they'd discovered proof the MILW owned a batch of GP7 units. Ha ha. Fooled them!
That GN Empire Builder painting is on Gassman Coulee Trestle. Larry Fisher, I think? Here's a couple shots I grabbed while in Hill City. I didn't see the steamers in town, and didn't get a shot of the one stuffed and mounted near the 1880 train site. I think I was tired, it was too hot, or the engine was badly lit. Or all 3!
I did a few recordings, sideways out of the window of the car we were in, the Edward Gillette, just for the sounds!! And to catch the rod motions. Here's a link to a couple of them,
Wait! Hemi! You missed live steam!! For shame! Well, I enjoyed it enough for the both of us!! And then some!! So here's a couple of other videos of it all.
I took them sideways, my camera picks up sound better that way, I got a nice bit of the steam/smoke plume as well as the running gear.....and I have no editing stuff to turn them in my 'puter. Lots of excuses, mostly.
Oh, so THAT's it. I was wondering how they got the track and trains to stick to the sides of the cuts! Dog
Oh that?!! That's the new highly effective mag-lev system in use in portions of the Black Hills!! You ever been to the Kosmos site? It explains the situation!!