Welcome to the group Don,
my Grandfather also worked for the SP as a machinist
and then later as a Locomotive inspector. My Father also worked
for the SP for over 30 years. While I was a bit to young to talk steam
with my Grandfather, I do talk rail road with my dad all the time.
Steve Speck
At 04:49 PM 3/29/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello All,
>
>My grandfather was a Southern Pacific steam engineer for all of his working
>years. One of my fondest memories is about taking him to Travel Town in
>Griffith Park, Los Angeles, near our homes at that time, to look at the
>locomotives. Although recently having become a widower and in frail health
>at 90 years of age, he fairly leaped into one of the steam locos, pulled me
>up and explained every valve, lever and fitting, sliding down the stair rails
>to show me where the sand pipes came out and then back into the cab where he
>ran his hands over every surface.
>
>Turns out, that very unit was one of the locomotives he actually ran in his
>career. He even showed me the marks where he and the crew had found it
>necessary to straighten a drive arm by removing it and bending it against a
>tree in the middle of no where. I was hooked on locomotives and on steam.
>It was his greatest gift to me. He died two weeks later.
>
>New to the hobby, I am digging in my high desert New Mexico backyard now to
>lay gauge 1 track (45 mm) for a narrow gauge garden railway. A Ruby will
>probably be my first steam loco, to be purchased in June. I'll be modeling a
>logging operation and a mining line. The scale will be 1:20.3 ("Fn3").
>
>Other avocations are bonsai trees, miniature gardening, and garden ponds, so
>you can understand why this hobby is a natural for me. Since I started
>learning and planning about three months ago, it has brought me countless
>happy hours and has brought me into contact with some very fine people in New
>Mexico and on the internet.
>
>My dual occupations may be part of the reason I so enjoy this hobby. Both
>are highly fulfilling but can be among the most stressful of jobs. Weekdays
>I am a teacher of 8th grade (13-14 year olds) general mathematics, algebra
>and earth science. Weekends (well, all the time, actually) I am an ordained
>Episcopal minister.
>
>I look forward to learning and sharing.
>
>Don Cram
>
