Monday morning, 11:00 am,Tacoma Rail has given #2100 clearance to leave the yard and run all the way to the east gate by Fort Lewis. No rider's are allowed, but they are taking the passenger cars up the hill for a trial run. I heard that tickets were sold, but TR decided against riders incase of something goin' wrong. Oh, and I can't get the day off either!!
According to a guy on Railroadforums.com, he was watching it as it left CEECO about 8:00 pm. It was finally ready to leave about 5 o'clock when they noticed something was frozen from the cold last night, but by then, they had to wait for the Sounder commuter trains to clear. So, I guess about now it's heading up the hill.
Well, she did'nt make it very far up the 3.3% Tacoma hill with 6 cars. She was slipping pretty bad!! There's pics on Railroadforums.com. It's gonna take the crew gettin' used to the Hill!! The night photo's are awesome though!!
That's why in steam days, the Milw used their N class mallet locos to drag cars up the hill. Low speed, short drivers. Made to crawl up grades, with tonnage. Boxcab E50
They shoulda had the IronHorseMan at the helm...Bill would have known how to get 2100 up the hill....
I'm curious as to who was the engineer? Hope it's someone familiar with mountain operations. REAL mountains. Was it sombody local? Boxcab E50
This has me wondering!!! Is there a problem with equipment? Or their plans??? We are not alone, in wondering.... Boxcab E50
Well, according to the Tacoma News Tribune, which interviewed the owner, Dec. 26, 05 they are going to make a run at the hill. They are waiting for an F40PH as a helper unit!? Tickets are supposed to go on sale soon at 50.00 bucks a head. Will keep ya'all posted.
An F40ph? That detracts, and distracts from the whole scenario. Did they say where from? Perhaps out of Portland? (Where there is one privately owned.) Or elsewhere? Boxcab E50
No word on where it's coming from, but I know the boy's in Portland just painted theyr's in Daylight paint! Your gonna' have the loco, tender, auxiliary tender, an F40ph, and then the passenger cars?! Atleast paint the F40ph black to match!
Better yet, disguise the diseasel to look like an old heavyweight baggage car. So it blends in.... Boxcab E50
GOOD NEWS!! She made the hill!! 02-02-2006 in the afternoon. Whole consist w/ F40PH helping of course. She slipped twice in the same spot as before, but they were better equipped knowledge wise this time too!!
Good they got up to the top. But kinda sad they had to use an infernal combustion assist. Seems like that would detract from the experience. Boxcab E50
