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| The Crystal Ball | ||
| by Jim Wrinn | ||
| Good morning and welcome to 2002. I know we're all relieved to be rid of 2001 and get on to a year with--I hope and pray--a better economy, fewer terrorism worries and more steam. My best wishes to each of you for a good year. The spring of 2001 was remarkable for its mainline steam activity, and 2002 is starting to look like a full year's worth of mainline steam as well as unusual shortline/museum activities. Things start early this year. The 2002 Winter Olympics in February get things moving nicely. Then we go to a six-day cruise with 4449 on some rare mileage in March and pick up some additional operations as the spring blossoms. The biggest event of the year takes place in August with the planned outing of San Bernadino’s AT&SF 4-8-4 3751 to Arizona's Grand Canyon Railway. It looks like SP&S 4-8-4 700 will have at least one if not two more outings on home rails. Ohio Central plans a full year’s worth of operations, possibly capping the year with a photo freight. While their schedules haven’t been announced, Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific will certainly offer some sort of corporate steam programs in 2002 using Challenger 3985 and Hudson 2816, respectively. A couple of new engines are expected to debut this year and a few others are in the shops for 2003 and later. What more could you ask for? Ok, I know: More bucks, another week’s vacation time and the return of Southern Steam Specials. But hey, let’s be realistic, you take what’s served, right? My advice is to spend a lot of time this month contemplating how much of that precious time off you can devote to riding or chasing steam. Figure out what really tickles you, then go ahead and order that brick of Kodachrome from B&H Photo. Start checking out American’s, Delta’s or USAirway's web sites for deals. Buy your DeLorme's. Polish the lenses. Make the rental car reservations and just smile with anticipation. People will wonder what you’re up to. From the viewpoint of late December, I’ll give you my take on the year ahead: January: Start out the year in California’s Bay Area Jan. 13 when Southern Pacific P8 Pacifics 2467 and 2472 will do a duet in the yard of the Golden Gate Railroad Museum in Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco. Times are 1-4 p.m. Both engines are due for their 15-year inspections, so here’s a last chance to enjoy them together one more time before they take a long break. Tickets are $25 in advance; $30 at the gate and available from Northern California RR Club, 3124 Wessex Way, Redwood City, CA 94061. Details: Ronald Vane at RVaneXEI@concentric.net. Check out Ohio Central’s web site late this month to get the line’s schedule for the year. February: Utah's Heber Valley Railroad takes on a Olympic task with operations into Soldier Hollow for most of the Olympics. The Olympics run 18 days and the HV will operate 16 of those days, but the time is actually more due to specials before and after the event. Roughly, you could say this event starts in January and doesn’t end until mid-March. Operations Manager John Rimmash has amassed a large crew of folks to provide extensive operations with ex-Union Pacific 2-8-0 618 and ex-Great Western 2-8-0 75. The two are to be joined by Nevada Northern's Consolidation 93, fresh from a 15-year inspection done at Ely, Nev. Plans call for Olympic operations Feb. 9-24 starting very early and going late into the night. A word of warning here: Expect security to be tight so be friendly and obvious as to your actions. Also expect there to be little in the way of lodging or food, so if you go prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Oh, and enjoy the steam in the snow. March: Friends of 4449 and the Northwest Rail Museum plan to run Portland's ex-Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449 to Sacramento and back via the Great Northern’s scenic Inside Gateway and Keddie Wye on the old Western Pacific mainline through the Feather River Gorge. This is a repeat of the Daylight's route to Railfair '99, which was then crew-only. This time you can ride along. The trip is three days each way: March 15-17 and March 22-24. Details are prices are at www.4449.com. April: This is usually the beginning of the year for most seasonal steam operations. Some annual steam events to enjoy: B&O Railroad Museum's open house (dates had not been announced as of this writing), which usually features the classic 4-4-0 William Mason; Sunday operations of California Western’s Skunk Train at Fort Bragg with 2-8-2 45 in some of the most beautiful redwood country; and Rail Days at my own place of volunteerism, the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, April 28-29, this year featuring Graham County Shay 1925 while BC&G 4 gets its 15-year overhaul. May: More annual events take place. Notable among them are Cass Scenic Railroad's annual Railfan Weekend. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic starts its season on Memorial Day Weekend, like many tourist lines. You might want to book some rooms at The Hermitage Motel in Bartow next door to Durbin for Memorial Day weekend. That’s the target date for Mountain State tourist operator Durbin & Greenbriar Valley to begin weekend operations of its ex-Moore-Kepple 2-truck Climax 3. Keep an eye on this one to make sure the date doesn’t get pushed back-as can often happen with steam restorations. A Climax back home in West Virginia is a wonderful thing. June: Don Wheeler of SP&S 700 says there’s a potential trip with the 4-8-4 for a joint Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Spokane Portland & Seattle historical societies. July: Head out to Durango & Silverton, which offers multiple departures this time of year. Start planning for the fall--got any frequent flier miles you can turn into tickets yet? August: 2001’s event of the year was the return of SP&S 700 on home rails down the Columbia River Gorge to Spokane. This year’s homecoming, and I think the event of the year, is AT&SF 3751’s weeklong outing to Grand Canyon Railway. It starts with a two-day in-bound move on the BNSF mainline from Los Angeles to Williams, Az., with an overnight stop at Needles. While, in town, the engine will make a trip to the Canyon and back. The sight of that Northern on that branch with heavyweight coaches in Pullman green should be, well, as close to heaven as you can get in Arizona! Return is via the Arizona & California shortline's ex-Santa Fe line via Parker and Cadiz. I hope to see many of you at this one. It should be magnificent-if the August monsoon season doesn’t cloud the pictures-literally. September - November: Further out, the 2002 steam picture gets fuzzier but still appears to be bright. There is a potential trip with SP&S 700 in Montana on ex-NP trackage, and Ohio Central’s 6325 might just put on a public photo freight in November. Expect learn details of those trips early in the year and plan accordingly. Four in the shops to watch whenever you can get out there: Work on Pennsylvania K4s 1361 continues to move along at Steamtown. Jeff Miller, one full-time helper and a few volunteers on Saturdays are putting on a show in the shop, but operations will be later. Work on ex-NKP 765 is revving up now that all of the last details in the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society’s T-21 grant have been nailed down. Rich Melvin of the group says he’ll install a web cam sometime later this month so we can all keep up with the work, which is expected to wrap up and yield an operating 2-8-4 in the upper Midwest in the spring of 2003. The good folks at the Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association, the non-profit support organization at Cass, are digging in on ex-Middle Fork Climax 9, a 3-trucker. Work weekends are moving through disassembly now. Southern 2-8-0 630 is in Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s shop. Wouldn’t she look good on the Chickamagua & Chattooga in north Georgia? Lastly, for those of you who want something completely different this year, consider the Valley Railroad’s “Your Hand on the Throttle” program April 6-14 and again Nov. 12-17. For a reasonable fee, it’s the chance to take an 80-ton, coal burning steam engine for an 8-mile, scenic excursion through the Connecticut River Valley--with the assistance of an engineer and a fireman. Prices are in line with what it takes to keep ex-Aberdeen & Rockfish 2-8-2 40 and ex-Birmingham & Southeastern 2-8-0 97 under steam this century. | ||
| Jim Wrinn, a staff writer for The Charlotte Observer and a volunteer at the N.C. Transportation Museum, writes this exclusive preview column quarterly for steamcentral.com. The next installment is April 1-send updates to crystalball@steamcentral.com. | ||
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