rascal
Forum GOD!
Lmao, I have images of you doing this in front of the telly, making a mess with wood shavings. I wouldn't put up with it either,lol.
Russ
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- Thread starter buckytom
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Lmao, I have images of you doing this in front of the telly, making a mess with wood shavings. I wouldn't put up with it either,lol.
Russ
impish
Senior Member
@rascal
As a teen, scorned by my peers due to achieving 2nd. degree burns to my face while in the 8th. grade, (I was then called "Frankenstein"), having endeavored to make home-made blasting powder, I was totally cloaked in interest in my Dad's car, first, which became mine when he bought a replacement when I was 15, then my new possession. Some predicted I would marry that car. Alterations, engine swap, transmission work, gear changes, exhaust systems, all necessitated many of the Skilled Trades talents, none of which could I pay for; thus I became proficient in welding, metal-working, plumbing, and most important electrical work and understanding of it. Mainly self-taught, those skills have served me for a lifetime, though, as I then accurately predicted, I could never stand using them to earn a living. I never did. I gradually pursued an addition to the Associate (2 year degree) I got following high school in Electronics Technology, to get my Engineering Degree. Rocky road. Along the way, I married, lost in-laws to a murder-suicide, wife's brother to Ulcerative Colitis resulting from the trauma of his folks' deaths, separated and divorced at wife's request, pushed on in college at University of Nevada finally attaining my degree in 1976.
Designing and building things has pretty much been "my life". Following a steam-excursion trip taken while a high school senior, I vowed then to someday build a working scale-model of the locomotive which "saved our day" in the prairies of Central Illinois after our lead locomotive broke down. I had grown up with the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad traversing my home town, spent youthful Sunday afternoons with my folks sitting watching the trains, enjoying Frejlach's ice-cream, they being an institution in my hometown of Berwyn, Illinois.
A lifetime after taking that excursion trip at 17, I strove beginning at age 60, to build the life-long dream:
The machining of a drive wheel, 9" in diameter:
This was my lifetime dream realized, at last.
The loco itself weighed about 1000 lbs; the tender 350 dry. 13 gallons of water capacity, I ran propane for fuel initially; the tank can be seen above. I laid 750 feet of track down on our Missouri farm. Then in my 60s, I was in great physical condition due to the daily activity, not to mention splitting all the firewood! Now, I sense the sinking into an abyss never expected; arthritis, pain, inability to do the simplest (yesterday) tasks needed to continue on. impish
rascal
Forum GOD!
Man you've achieved a lot, I'm self taught as well, kicked out of school 8 weeks before my 15th birthday. Started sheet metal shop through to welding, then structural steel manufacturing. Then in to steel sales then my own company til now. I too like you may suffer slight breathing problems. I used to world a lot of galvanised metal. The fumes are a killer. I wonder if a warmer climate might help you. Your building and train system look amazing. You should be happy looking back at what you achieved. I'm amazed at your abilities. We had nothing growing up so I made sure my kids wouldn't have the same crap I had. Look forward to more of your pics impish.
Russ
Russ
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Yep, spot on. But I was the one doing the cleaning. ..
That is an incredible achievement. What has happened to it now?
Oh dear - I empathise as recently I've had all sorts of issues which have affected fitness. The main thing I think is to try to keep active despite everything. The chair is the enemy as someone said... I need to take more heed of that myself.
rascal
Forum GOD!
Lol, I'm not big on cleaning, my wife moans about how much mess I make in the kitchen. I worked cleaning at night to supplement my income when young, so I guess I've had enough of cleaning.
Don't get me wrong, I pick up after me, just not big on cleaning.
Russ
rascal
Forum GOD!
I have a mate who runs marathons, he always says exercise releases endorphins that make you happy. I used to run a lot but now walk a lot. Hope you are on the mend mg.
Russ
impish
Senior Member
The generous way in which my story has been accepted encourages me to tell a bit more of the details which ensued over my adult lifetime. It has been a deeply sentimental affair.
The Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad (CBQ; "Q") traversed my little birthplace town, Berwyn, Illinois, from east to west, only 2 miles, with it's 3 mainline tracks. Everyone loved the railroad, even the fretting at crossings while long freights passed through. Towards the end of the Steam Era, 1950s, extreme public interest resulted in Steam Excursions from time to time. One such trip, Chicago to Galesburg (IL) and return, a distance of about 200 miles one way, was scheduled early my Senior year in High School; my Mother encouraged me to take the trip, run on a Sunday with several school chums. It was a "double-header", having two giant steam locomotives, #6315, a huge Texas type 2-10-4, followed by my favorite-to-become #5632, a Northern type 4-8-4, as seen below. Behind the second engine is an old Railway Express Agency baggage car with wide doors agape, with 2X6s nailed across to prevent young fools like me from falling out. I was IN that baggage car when this photo was taken during a "run-by" photo session! I'm hoping the subscript may be legible, the date is Sept. 6, 1959. The big Texas broke down before reaching Galesburg, and 5632, behind it, was used to get the entire train moving again, working alone, until a siding was reached, where the Texas was uncoupled and abandoned. That fact alone places that trip in the most historic annals of Steam Excursions!
Over 20 years later, when my Mother died, I found a box of special things she had put away for me for "someday". In the box, I found this:
The original ticket from the trip! Note the date!
Below, a photo of 5632 shortly after it was built, in 1940. It was one of about 28 which the "Q" built itself in it's shops in Iowa! Note the Fireman climbing the ladder of the cab: those engines were Behemoths!
Another picture is shown at:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...dota_IL.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141021015645
The sad end of 5632, the fact of which brings a lump to my throat:
"Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy 5632 was one of the 28 class O-5A 4-8-4s that were built at the railroad's own shops. It was built in 1940 for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad. After the end of steam, 5632 was used along with 2-8-2 4960 in excursion service. However, the locomotive was under an overhaul when Louis W. Menk took over the CB&Q, so 5632 and 2-8-2 4963 were sold to Richard Jensen.
Jensen was trying to restore 5632 when the Chicago and Western Indiana railroad, which he had rented space at their Chicago roundhouse for his locomotives, went bankrupt and kicked him out. As a result, the gigantic 4-8-4 was moved to a scrapyard. But it derailed while moving into it, and it was scrapped right where it sat."
Thank you for reading.
The Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad (CBQ; "Q") traversed my little birthplace town, Berwyn, Illinois, from east to west, only 2 miles, with it's 3 mainline tracks. Everyone loved the railroad, even the fretting at crossings while long freights passed through. Towards the end of the Steam Era, 1950s, extreme public interest resulted in Steam Excursions from time to time. One such trip, Chicago to Galesburg (IL) and return, a distance of about 200 miles one way, was scheduled early my Senior year in High School; my Mother encouraged me to take the trip, run on a Sunday with several school chums. It was a "double-header", having two giant steam locomotives, #6315, a huge Texas type 2-10-4, followed by my favorite-to-become #5632, a Northern type 4-8-4, as seen below. Behind the second engine is an old Railway Express Agency baggage car with wide doors agape, with 2X6s nailed across to prevent young fools like me from falling out. I was IN that baggage car when this photo was taken during a "run-by" photo session! I'm hoping the subscript may be legible, the date is Sept. 6, 1959. The big Texas broke down before reaching Galesburg, and 5632, behind it, was used to get the entire train moving again, working alone, until a siding was reached, where the Texas was uncoupled and abandoned. That fact alone places that trip in the most historic annals of Steam Excursions!
Over 20 years later, when my Mother died, I found a box of special things she had put away for me for "someday". In the box, I found this:
The original ticket from the trip! Note the date!
Below, a photo of 5632 shortly after it was built, in 1940. It was one of about 28 which the "Q" built itself in it's shops in Iowa! Note the Fireman climbing the ladder of the cab: those engines were Behemoths!
Another picture is shown at:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...dota_IL.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141021015645
The sad end of 5632, the fact of which brings a lump to my throat:
"Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy 5632 was one of the 28 class O-5A 4-8-4s that were built at the railroad's own shops. It was built in 1940 for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad. After the end of steam, 5632 was used along with 2-8-2 4960 in excursion service. However, the locomotive was under an overhaul when Louis W. Menk took over the CB&Q, so 5632 and 2-8-2 4963 were sold to Richard Jensen.
Jensen was trying to restore 5632 when the Chicago and Western Indiana railroad, which he had rented space at their Chicago roundhouse for his locomotives, went bankrupt and kicked him out. As a result, the gigantic 4-8-4 was moved to a scrapyard. But it derailed while moving into it, and it was scrapped right where it sat."
Thank you for reading.
rascal
Forum GOD!
I too remember steam locos when I was very young, the local train club run excursions to Arthur's pass in summer. I've been meaning to do it. Ferrymead also have steam trains. I don't know what type or numbers but they are English steam. Cool story impish.
Russ
Russ
Lullabelle
Midlands, England
@rascal
As a teen, scorned by my peers due to achieving 2nd. degree burns to my face while in the 8th. grade, (I was then called "Frankenstein"), having endeavored to make home-made blasting powder, I was totally cloaked in interest in my Dad's car, first, which became mine when he bought a replacement when I was 15, then my new possession. Some predicted I would marry that car. Alterations, engine swap, transmission work, gear changes, exhaust systems, all necessitated many of the Skilled Trades talents, none of which could I pay for; thus I became proficient in welding, metal-working, plumbing, and most important electrical work and understanding of it. Mainly self-taught, those skills have served me for a lifetime, though, as I then accurately predicted, I could never stand using them to earn a living. I never did. I gradually pursued an addition to the Associate (2 year degree) I got following high school in Electronics Technology, to get my Engineering Degree. Rocky road. Along the way, I married, lost in-laws to a murder-suicide, wife's brother to Ulcerative Colitis resulting from the trauma of his folks' deaths, separated and divorced at wife's request, pushed on in college at University of Nevada finally attaining my degree in 1976.
Designing and building things has pretty much been "my life". Following a steam-excursion trip taken while a high school senior, I vowed then to someday build a working scale-model of the locomotive which "saved our day" in the prairies of Central Illinois after our lead locomotive broke down. I had grown up with the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad traversing my home town, spent youthful Sunday afternoons with my folks sitting watching the trains, enjoying Frejlach's ice-cream, they being an institution in my hometown of Berwyn, Illinois.
A lifetime after taking that excursion trip at 17, I strove beginning at age 60, to build the life-long dream:
The machining of a drive wheel, 9" in diameter:
This was my lifetime dream realized, at last.
The loco itself weighed about 1000 lbs; the tender 350 dry. 13 gallons of water capacity, I ran propane for fuel initially; the tank can be seen above. I laid 750 feet of track down on our Missouri farm. Then in my 60s, I was in great physical condition due to the daily activity, not to mention splitting all the firewood! Now, I sense the sinking into an abyss never expected; arthritis, pain, inability to do the simplest (yesterday) tasks needed to continue on. impish
You built that? Wow
.
Last edited:
rascal
Forum GOD!
There are some amazing people out there. And some amazing stuff t there. I was at the races a few years ago, it's a country meeting around a small country town called methven. As I drove in I spotted about 30 classic cars parked up, I went over to have a look and a chat, the group were all from this wee town. The guy running it said these cars are normally locked away. You don't realise these cars are about.
Russ
Russ
Lullabelle
Midlands, England
The generous way in which my story has been accepted encourages me to tell a bit more of the details which ensued over my adult lifetime. It has been a deeply sentimental affair.
The Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad (CBQ; "Q") traversed my little birthplace town, Berwyn, Illinois, from east to west, only 2 miles, with it's 3 mainline tracks. Everyone loved the railroad, even the fretting at crossings while long freights passed through. Towards the end of the Steam Era, 1950s, extreme public interest resulted in Steam Excursions from time to time. One such trip, Chicago to Galesburg (IL) and return, a distance of about 200 miles one way, was scheduled early my Senior year in High School; my Mother encouraged me to take the trip, run on a Sunday with several school chums. It was a "double-header", having two giant steam locomotives, #6315, a huge Texas type 2-10-4, followed by my favorite-to-become #5632, a Northern type 4-8-4, as seen below. Behind the second engine is an old Railway Express Agency baggage car with wide doors agape, with 2X6s nailed across to prevent young fools like me from falling out. I was IN that baggage car when this photo was taken during a "run-by" photo session! I'm hoping the subscript may be legible, the date is Sept. 6, 1959. The big Texas broke down before reaching Galesburg, and 5632, behind it, was used to get the entire train moving again, working alone, until a siding was reached, where the Texas was uncoupled and abandoned. That fact alone places that trip in the most historic annals of Steam Excursions!
Over 20 years later, when my Mother died, I found a box of special things she had put away for me for "someday". In the box, I found this:
The original ticket from the trip! Note the date!
Below, a photo of 5632 shortly after it was built, in 1940. It was one of about 28 which the "Q" built itself in it's shops in Iowa! Note the Fireman climbing the ladder of the cab: those engines were Behemoths!
Another picture is shown at:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...dota_IL.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141021015645
The sad end of 5632, the fact of which brings a lump to my throat:
"Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy 5632 was one of the 28 class O-5A 4-8-4s that were built at the railroad's own shops. It was built in 1940 for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad. After the end of steam, 5632 was used along with 2-8-2 4960 in excursion service. However, the locomotive was under an overhaul when Louis W. Menk took over the CB&Q, so 5632 and 2-8-2 4963 were sold to Richard Jensen.
Jensen was trying to restore 5632 when the Chicago and Western Indiana railroad, which he had rented space at their Chicago roundhouse for his locomotives, went bankrupt and kicked him out. As a result, the gigantic 4-8-4 was moved to a scrapyard. But it derailed while moving into it, and it was scrapped right where it sat."
Thank you for reading.
There are some very clever people out there, I take my hat off to anyone that creative and skilled.
Lullabelle
Midlands, England
rascal
Forum GOD!
rascal
Forum GOD!
This is a place called the bay of islands. This is Russell. I'm not named after this place but I do love it up there.
We go there every 4 or 5 years. It's in the north island. Pohutakawas every where. Beautiful tree.
Pronounced Poe hoota kar Wah.
Russ
We go there every 4 or 5 years. It's in the north island. Pohutakawas every where. Beautiful tree.
Pronounced Poe hoota kar Wah.
Russ