When we choose a Trains cover should we select an image of the way we want things to be or the as they are, even if a portion of the shot depicts something that’s not 100 percent right?

That’s the question I asked myself after the feedback we received about our August issue and readers were critical of our cover image showing the last Ringling circus train crossing a bridge in West Virginia. It’s a great picture, and it accomplishes something that’s a difficult task: It shows the last circus train cars on the road, which is the point of the story. The gripe was with a group of fans standing to the side of the tracks near the abutment where they could witness and record the passage of this historic event.

Said one reader, in part, whose note was typical of the responses we received: “The cover of the August 2017 issue of TRAINS magazine is most disturbing. The seven people shown in the photo are very obviously trespassing on railroad property, being only inches from a moving train on mainline track. Trespassing is trespassing and it should not be encouraged as your cover image does. Please, let’s stop encouraging such blatant irresponsible behavior.” We also received a letter from Operation Lifesaver, the grade crossing safety organization, and we are printing that letter in our October issue.

At Trains, we encourage readers to play it safe, not to trespass, and to be additional eyes and ears for the railroads and report vandalism, criminal activity, and safety issues. It’s important that we play it safe, keep out of the way, and be an asset rather than a liability. That’s the goal.

But it doesn’t happen 100 percent.

The reality is that fans still do get on railroad property, especially on days when something special is going on. On these days, we’ve noticed that the invisible fence around railroad property is lowered. There seems to be an unwritten rule that on those days railroaders are willing to tolerate fans being closer to the tracks as long as the behaviors don’t become extreme or dangerous.

In the past, we’ve published images of railroaders wearing inappropriate clothing for work, locomotives with front doors open, and other pictures where things just aren’t completely right. We don’t publish those images to embarrass anyone or try to get them fired. Rather, we pride ourselves on telling you how railroading really is and not a fantasy about how we want it to be.

I welcome your thoughts on where we draw the line when it comes to choosing images we publish.

Ben Cooper photo, via Astronomy Magazine

A total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 will be visible for much of the United States including at least one subdivision on every Class I railroad. 

It's the first total solar eclipse to cross this much of the country since 1918 — meaning most people who are alive today haven't witnessed what's coming.

If it's clear trackside on Aug. 21, plenty of railfans are going to want to experience the moment, so we asked for top viewing tips from Astronomy Magazine's Photo Editor Michael Bakich. See his full tip-list online. 

Here are just a few highlighted tips:

"5. Watch the weather

"Meteorologists study a chaotic system. Nobody now can tell you with absolute certainty the weather a specific location will experience on eclipse day. And don’t get too tied up in the predictions of cloud cover you’ll see for that date. Many don’t distinguish between “few” (one-eighth to two-eighths of the sky covered), “scattered” (three-eighths to four-eighths), or “broken” (five-eighths to seven-eighths) clouds and overcast. You need to dig deeper.

"6. Stay flexible on eclipse day

"Unless you are certain August 21 will be clear, don’t do anything that would be hard to undo in a short time. For example, let’s say you’re taking a motor home to a certain city. You connect it to power, hook up the sewage hose, extend the awnings, set up chairs, start the grill, and more. But if it’s cloudy six hours, three hours, or even one hour before the eclipse starts, you’re going to want to move to a different location. Think of the time you would have saved if you had waited to set up. Also, the earlier you make your decision to move, the better. I only can imagine what the traffic might be like on eclipse day.

"7. Don’t plan anything funky

"Totality will be the shortest two and a half minutes of your life. All your attention should be on the Sun. Anything else is a waste. And be considerate of those around you. Please, no music. ...

"22. Schedule an after-eclipse party or meal

"Once the eclipse winds down, you’ll be on an emotional high for hours, and so will everyone else. I’ve found no better time to get together with family and friends and just chat. Or, if you’re like me, take a secondary position and just listen to others talking about what they’ve just experienced. Fun!

"23. Record your memories

"Sometime shortly after the eclipse, when the event is still fresh in your mind, take some time to write, voice-record, or make a video of your memories, thoughts, and impressions. A decade from now, such a chronicle will help you relive this fantastic event. Have friends join in, too. Stick a video camera in their faces and capture 30 seconds from each of them. You’ll smile each time you watch it.

"24. Don’t photograph the eclipse

"This tip — specifically directed at first-time eclipse viewers — may sound strange because it’s coming to you from the photo editor of the best-selling astronomy magazine on Earth. But I’ve preached this point to thousands of people who I’ve led to far-flung corners of our planet to stand under the Moon’s shadow. True, few of them have thanked me afterward. But I can tell you of upwards of a hundred people who have told me with trembling voices, “I wish I’d followed your advice. I spent so much time trying to center the image and get the right exposures that I hardly looked at the eclipse at all.” How sad is that? And here’s another point: No picture will capture what your eyes will reveal. Trust me, I’ve seen them all. Only the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent of photographers have ever come close. And — no offense meant — but you, with your point-and-shoot pocket camera or off-the-shelf digital SLR, are not one of them."

Still curious? Michael has posted factoids online for your edification.

News this week that Al Qaeda terrorists are promoting would-be followers to make and employ do-it-yourself concrete derails is — unsurprising. The awesome mass and speed of most trains is enough to do great damage when they derail by accident in lonely locales — let alone on purpose in populated places.

We expect that people who want to do us harm in North American and Europe would do almost anything to achieve their aims. And yet, because so much focus has been on airplanes and passenger airport security, we might have been complacent in thinking that evil people forgot about our railroads and transit systems.

No more.

As railfans and rail professionals, we know how many things must go right to make a train move safely. We also know, wink-and-nudge, that if you wanted something to go wrong, all you'd have to do is [fill in the blank.]

Here is the warning, should you need one: Now that law enforcement's watchful eye is more focused on railroading and on our hobby than ever, we must be more diligent in reporting suspicious behaviors, cooperating with officials investigating reported suspicious behaviors, AND watching our idle chatter.

This last point is double-edged. WE may know about how to start or stop a train — but terrorists may not. If you know something, think twice before you blurt it over the Internet, however legal or common the knowledge or information might be. The second point is more indirect: if you have knowledge of railroading and share that information with the wrong person or the wrong venue, law enforcement may — ahem — ask you a few questions.

And this is nothing new — remember when the Denver police stopped me in March? Just expect police actions to be more common and more visible.  

To put it succinctly: If you see something say something; loose brains derail trains.

My wife and I took a vacation recently. To be completely honest, it wasn’t a true vacation. We spent a lot of time with friends and family we’d not seen in a while, did some family business, and participated in some non-profit work. I sneaked in a tiny bit of work. But we did relax for a few days, and that was a good thing. Along the way there were some railroad sites and experiences, and I’d like to share a few of them with you … a “How I spent my summer vacation” type essay right out of grade school.

I have to start this first part of this story with an apology to readers of my feature story in Trains’ February 2001 edition about railroads and the National Parks. The reason is that I missed a significant connection between railroads and National Parks at Mammoth Cave, Ky. Oh, in that story now some 16 years ago I included the usual Santa Fe and Grand Canyon and Great Northern and Glacier National Park references. I tossed in some new observations about CSX in the New River Gorge and at Harpers Ferry. Didn’t dare miss Steamtown. But I did not include the Mammoth Cave Railroad, a 9-mile-long line that ran 45 years from 1886 to 1931. My bad.

Turns out the Mammoth Cave Railroad was a significant means of transporting early visitors to the cave from a connection with the Louisville & Nashville at Park City, Ky., on the main line between the two namesake cities. The line ran with four Baldwin-built 0-4-2T Dummy engines and an equal number of passenger cars, two coaches and two combination cars. On a typical day, two trainsets shuttled visitors between Park City, the cave, and smaller caves and hotels along the route.

Today, one of the locomotives, No. 4, and combine No. 2 are well preserved under a canopy not far from the cave entrance and prominently displayed for those arriving by private automobile or tour bus. They’re delightful to study and to contemplate how people once traveled to this popular attraction that became a National Park in 1926, only five years before automobiles would supplant trains as the primary means of transport. I’m told the good folks at Kentucky Railway Museum are responsible for the fine cosmetic appearance of Nos. 4 and 2, and for that they should be commended. I’d also recommend the historic tour for the caverns … it’s well worth the $14 ticket and the two hours and two miles of walking underground. I’m not a cave person, but I found the tour fascinating.

Between the cave entrance and Park City, a portion of the Mammoth Cave Railroad’s route has been converted into a bicycle trail, although signs and just looking at the trail’s meanderings say that it has been relocated significantly over the years as highway construction and development have taken their toll.

As a footnote, in an effort to beg forgiveness from those who read my incomplete piece in 2001, I’ll suggest that if you make this trip, here’s a tip: There’s a bed and breakfast in Park City, Ky., the Grand Victorian Inn, an 1885 hotel which overlooks what was the loading site for the Mammoth Cave Railroad and still overlooks the CSX main line. We had an enjoyable evening sitting on the front porch, watching massive freights roar down the line, and enjoying the summer breeze. It was clean, convenient, and priced well. Give it a try.

My wife, Cate, and I didn’t plan to go looking for signs of the Great Locomotive Chase of Civil War fame, but during a couple of days on our recent vacation down south we found ourselves between Atlanta and Chattanooga. The important trappings of the chase were all around us. We basically just fell into it.

The initial inspiration wasn’t difficult. We were in Atlanta to see friends. Our first stop was the Atlanta History Center, where my good friend, Jackson McQuigg, oversees capital projects. Jackson’s job right now is overseeing the History Center’s major expansion to include the iconic Cyclorama of the battle of Atlanta – part painting, part diorama. As Jackson says, it was the late 19^th century’s Imax theater. Part of that renovation and expansion includes the 4-4-0 steam locomotive Texas, the locomotive that conductor Fuller commandeered and gave chase in April 1862 to the General, the 4-4-0 which Union raider James J. Andrews had stolen. The Texas arrived at the history center after a cosmetic restoration in April, and the expansion where it sits will be opened in 2018. We got a sneak peek into the area where the Texas will tell the story about its day of fame as well as the importance of railroading to this, the capital of Southeastern business, which it is because it was first a railroad center. It was great to see this famous locomotive enshrined in a new place of prominence, a far jump from its previous display site in the basement of the Cyclorama building in Grant Park.

From there, we were pumped up, so our route north on I-75 led us to Kennsaw, Ga., and the Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. Here, the General is enshrined in all of its gaudy glory. We marveled at its size, confident that we were lucky to be among the first and among the few who can say they’d seen both motive power players in the chase since the Texas returned from its restoration.

After a delightful evening in downtown Cartersville, Ga., with good friends Bill and Jana Weidemann at Appalachian Grill and watching an almost constant parade of trains on the CSX main line, the next day we set out for Tunnel Hill, Ga., one of the first railroad tunnels dug in the southeast and an important landmark along the route of the Great Locomotive Chase. We arrived first thing – it’s still hot and humid in this part of the world in August – and took the golf cart tour of the 1,477-foot tunnel, which was begun in 1848, opened in 1850, and last used in 1928. The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway dug a new tunnel adjacent to the old one. On the day of our visit, and we could see CSX track crews preparing to do maintenance work after a northbound passed the old freight shed that dates to the 1850s. A northbound freight gave us a chance to return to today after being immersed in mid-1800s railroading for a few minutes.

From there we traveled to Chattanooga, the planned destination of the Andrews Raiders, and a location they only arrived posthumously. Here, at the National Cemetery on Hotzclaw Avenue, a monument, sponsored by Ohio honors the raiders, some of whom were the first recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. You can’t miss it – the likeness of the General, pointed correctly – is visible from the street. Individual grave markers tell us the final place of eight men interred her. Notably, Andrews, whose grave is at the end of the line of the raiders, was executed a few days earlier than the rest of the group. We also noted that someone had appropriately left a buckeye, the nickname for Ohio, next to the monument. Nearby, we heard trains at Norfolk Southern’s DeButts Yard and maybe even CSX’s former Atlantic & Western mainline, where the Great Locomotive Chase took place 155 years ago. Our tour had happened by chance, but we’d go back and do it all over again. Join us?

An eastbound Toledo, Peoria & Western freight approaches Sheldon, Ind., in August 2015. Could this be the next great home for mainline steam in the U.S.? Photo by Brian Schmidt

What if there was a place where mainline steam locomotives could roam, where railfans could come to see the majesty and might of the rails? While I don't buy into the lore of steam, I do see a need for a spot, a petting zoo of sorts, where mainline steam can congregate, and maybe someone can make a few bucks off it. Steam flourishes in Britain where operators have more freedom on publicly owned rails. Why couldn't that happen in the U.S.?

My proposal is thus: a nonprofit, either newly formed or existing, buys and maintains a rail line for the express purpose of operating mainline steam locomotives. There would be a roundhouse, where the locomotives could rest and where docents could explain the importance of our railroad heritage. Being on an existing rail line, there would be income from the sale of freight service rights. And there could be a space for railroad industry trade show displays. Maybe an opportunity for testing rail equipment without the need to ship it to Pueblo.

And just what railroad should this be? The Toledo, Peoria & Western east of Peoria. Okay, now that you're done laughing, I'll explain.

The line is within day trip range of a number of major cities, such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and St. Louis; it has multiple rail connections, including two with Amtrak routes, to facilitate the movement of equipment in and out; it has a great chase route in the form of U.S. 24, which follows closely for much of its length; it is convenient to major universities, should it come to use in railroad research and testing; and it seems available for the right price – it has little or no overhead traffic and doesn't function as a trunk line for a larger network.

What's needed to get this going? First, an organization with the motivation and drive to make it happen, and likely deep pockets for insurance policies. Second, a new roundhouse and interpretative facility, probably near Peoria. Third, steam locomotives and crews that are able to spend a few weeks (or months) at a time visiting. Finally, a legion of railfans willing to support it by traveling to visit and ride those trains.

Oh, sure, people will complain. And they'll start in the comments section here. "There's no scenery!" Then go try to buy Tennessee Pass from Union Pacific. "Railfans will never support it!" Well, folks, that's all up to you.

So, will it play in Peoria?

One of the joys of being an avid railroad explorer is finding locomotives, trains, or  rolling stock or at least an appreciation for our mutual obsession in unexpected places. We all know what we’ll get when we venture to the main line. But it’s when you find railroading where you least expect it that it becomes a truly sweet thing. That happened to me last week on a family trip that took us to Beatrice, Neb., south of Lincoln, a place not far from the Kansas border. We got a three-fer in the midst of the corn. Here’s how it happened, completely unplanned.

Following city streets, avoiding construction, and trying to make sense of a cranky GPS unit, my wife, Cate, and her cousin Joan Dawson, and I came across Beatrice’s handsome 1906 brick Burlington Route station. It’s preserved today as a museum, and includes a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy caboose, although neither were open when we were there due to road construction. We were a bit late for the Union Pacific depot, which apparently was next to the Burlington station, and was torn down years ago. The UP line also was gone as of 2000, and in its place is the 40-mile Homestead Trail bike path between Beatrice and Lincoln.

Snap, snap, click, click, and we’re ready to go, but just as I am about to cross the tracks and drive our 4-Runner across the Big Blue River bridge on the west side of downtown I suddenly spy to my left an early EMD switcher working a grain elevator. This is Husker territory, so the unit, No. 2004, appropriately, is red. After doing a quick turn and finding a spot to observe the engine, I am let down because it is snugged up against a factory. Not a very good spot for a picture, at all. We retire to lunch with a mediocre image, consoling ourselves with a fantastic meal at the nearby Black Crow restaurant, whose owner, it turns out, is the son-in-law of the folks who own the factory, which makes, of all things, church pews. Small world! After the lunch and switching are done, I track down the unit, which works for the Southeast Nebraska Cooperative, and photograph it in the company of a blue Alco, labeled RE 707. After returning home and checking a few sources, it turns out the EMD is an SW1200 built for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Alco is an S3 built in 1950 as Ann Arbor No. 5. They are both great catches in this day and age when industrial units, endcab switchers, and Alcos are all rarities. Long may they run.

We found our third and final surprise at the Homestead National Monument, a tribute to the thousands of men and women who between 1862 and 1970 received 160 acres of land each in an effort to settle rural and remote parts of the country from Florida to Alaska. Railroads, of course, were eager to move settlers to their new homes and entire wall of advertisements aimed at these pioneers is a big portion of the memorial, itself a unit of the National Park Service. I recommend it and also direct your attention to the barbed wire display out back, where samples of the more than 570 types of patented barbed wire are on display and in use.

So, that’s what we discovered in Nebraska all by accident. Once again, keep your eyes open for the railroad stories and the railroading out there, past and present, that presents itself when you least expect it to. It’s out there.

Once in a while, someone does something insignificant at the time but that later on blooms into something magnificent. In the case of Jerry Joe Jacobson, the steam-loving shortline entrepreneur who passed away Wednesday at age 74, that moment came on the evening of June 20, 1957. A Baltimore & Ohio crew let a 13-year-old Jerry handle the throttle while their Mikado was in a siding setting off a hotbox car. Because of this Jerry got home late, he was grounded for weeks, and, much to the benefit of us all, he started a lifetime quest to possess his own steam locomotive. He ended up owning more than a dozen, from tiny 0-4-0Ts to a legendary 2-8-4 and a mighty 4-8-4, which he kept in the 18-stall Age of Steam Roundhouse near Sugarcreek, Ohio. He built the facility in 2012 to house his locomotive collection after selling his shortline holdings. It was the first major roundhouse built in the U.S. in more than 60 years.

I met Jerry on my first visit to the Ohio Central, a steam extravaganza in 1997 that featured no less than three big steam locomotives, a Ten-Wheeler, a Consolidation, and a Pacific. There were doubleheaders, side-by-side running, you name it. In the steam-starved late 1990s, the Ohio Central was a welcomed breath of coal smoke and hot pin grease. The next time I saw Jerry we were surveying three big hot locomotives again, but this we were across the country at the Grand Canyon Railway, where AT&SF 4-8-4 3751 was visiting in the company of the railroad’s Mikado and Consolidation. Jerry and restoration contractor Gary Bensman and I mulled the state of the industry during the layover. Jerry was riding high. He’d restored Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4 No. 6325 the year before. Things seemed to be going along like a fast express with no end in sight.

I was wrong about that. All good things do come to an end. Two years later, in 2004, the Ohio Central put on a steam festival aimed at a large audience. It was just before I left my home in North Carolina to go to work for Trains. There seemed to be a feeling of change in the air at that event, and sure enough, two years later, Jerry got out of the steam excursion business. He had become fearful of lawsuits.

In August 2012, Classic Trains Editor Rob McGonigal and I, fresh from a few days spent trackside in Pennsylvania with Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765, stopped by Sugarcreek to see the newly completed Age of Steam Roundhouse. We were excited. This was a Field of Dreams moment when we pulled up – Jerry had literally built something special in the middle of a cornfield. It was a steam locomotive nirvana, all the way from the big picture of what had been done right, the collection of locomotives, right down to the smallest of details — the slope in the floor for boiler washes, the period furniture and decorations for the offices. The amiable John B. Corns and Chief Mechanical Officer Tim Sposato hosted us that day. Jerry was not around.

And now he is gone.

I’d like to think that somewhere in the great beyond that B&O train crew from 1957 is smiling, seeing how their good deed was paid forward. I’d also like to think that somewhere out there in days to come, there’s a kid about 12 or 13 who will walk into the Age of Steam Roundhouse, find him or herself smitten with steam power, and keep it going for the next generation.

Read more about Jerry Joe Jacobson, his Ohio Central, and the Age of Steam Roundhouse in the August 2006 and February 2013 editions of Trains.

I got my love of travel from my dad and Aunt Jenny. They both loved to go. Dad got an all-expense-paid trip to the Philippines at the close of World War II. Aunt Jenny traveled to the UK, Alaska, and, I’m sure other places, as well. Last week, I was delighted to note that friends were in Hawaii (getting married, no less! Yay!), England, Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, China, and a few more places if I looked close enough. That is a delight for me. I love to see my friends out there exploring this big beautiful world. Travel is a real gift – a journey of the spirit as well as the head and heart if it’s encountered as it should be with a spirit of adventure, learning, and joy. And no real vacation is complete without a train ride … or two, right?

Next week, I will get into this big time. I’ll be with Trains’ tour in conjunction with Special Interest Tours in Peru. We’ll ride the famous FCCA railroad with its many bridges, tunnels, and switchbacks as it climbs to more than 15,000 feet. We’ll ride the new Belmond Andean Explorer sleeper train. And catch a few more railroad surprises and delights along the way. I’ll be reporting here, on Trains Facebook page, and in News Wire, as appropriate. I hope you will join me. This is my first trip to South America, so I am excited, and our friends at FCCA have said they’ll be showing us parts of the railroad that are often overlooked. It should be amazing. American-built diesel locomotives will make this even more interesting.

Trains and Special Interest tours have partnered to provide several great tours in 2018. You can take in the highlights of India’s railway system in February; explore the great tourist railroads, museums, and mainline sights and sounds of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland in June; and journey with us to one of our all-time favorite railroad destinations next September with a visit to amazing Switzerland. Other tours are in the works. Be sure to check them all out at www.specialinteresttours.com. We’d love to have you on board.

So, whether you join us on one of our tours or follow along on line or in print, as always, here at Trains, we will take you there.

LIMA, Peru – On a dusty hillside in the Chosica section east of Lima, we stood on the platform of a two-story wooden station befitting the classic station in Thurmond, W.Va., and celebrated a railroad more than 4,000 miles away and that has been gone 18 years: Conrail.

The occasion was the dedication of a former Conrail C39-8, No. 1030, still resplendent in Conrail blue and named in appreciation of James A. Hagen, the Conrail Chairman (1989 to 1996) who agreed to lend his and his company’s expertise in the early 1990s effort to privatize South America's freight railroads. FCCA Chairman Juan Olaechea and Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Railroad Development Corp. Chairman Henry Posner III (himself a CR alumni) presided.  Our Trains tour group, on its first full day in the country, FCCA workers in hard hats at this shop town, and the seemingly obligatory dog at every station in this country stood with rapt attention. When it was done and the locomotive dedication was completed, a server passed around pisco sour drinks (the local favorite), which we downed with the joy of a group of travelers embarking on an epic journey.

And that we are.

On this first day, we stumbled into the back door of Lima’s only train station, the Desemparados Station, which is today a major library. We didn’t realize that the FCCA had arranged to greet us at the front door and tour us through this spectacular Beaux Arts 1893 depot that sadly goes unused for its original purpose in this nation dominated by the car and bus. The only passenger trains run six to eight times a year as special all-day excursions into the Andes.

Our four car train consisted of a kitchen car, two Romanian-built coaches from 1982, and a heavily modified bar-observation car that reminds me of the Lookout Mountain, Southern Railway’s famous open air tail car on its 1960s and 1970s steam excursions. Naturally, our group flocked to the observation for the best views of the unfolding urban landscape. With more than 10 million people, Lima is a major urban center in South America, and for miles we rolled by hovels, businesses, food stands, and other necessities of life. We gawked at the major damage that floods caused here last spring, washing away the railroad for 16 days and costing more than $4 million to rebuild. We passed  the reason this railroad still exists, a freight train, hauling zinc medallions. Mineral traffic along with cement and fuel are major commodities on the FCCA.

We climbed from sea level to an altitude of 2,800 feet at Chosica and eventually even higher at San Bartolome. We listened to the chugging sound of our General Electric locomotive as it made its way ever upward, only stopping for the occasional car or truck parked too close to the tracks. Fortunately for us, the FCCA has grade crossing flagmen on motorbikes to guard the many crossings.   

At Chosica, after our celebratory drink, we adjourned to visit the locomotive and car shops, where among the many prizes was a former Norfolk Southern C39-8, No. 8554 in a disheveled state. The unit was being converted for use on this, one of the kings of mountain railroads. FCCA will chop the cab and radiators for tunnel clearances and lightens the engine and shortens the fuel tank for bridge loadings. A standard  SD40 and a EMD G12 export unit, which one of our party describes as an SD39L in export clothes, were also on hand.

We concluded our day at San Bartolome, where we inspected the deadline that included more former NS C39s and a handsome but out of service 2-8-0 with a Belpaire firebox. This is also where all FCCA trains change direction as the station is at the point of a single switchback. Owning to that, before we left, No. 1031 climbed onto the short turntable. Members of our group pushed the Armstrong turntable around so the engine is pointed in the right direction for tomorrow’s journey. Ahead of us are the Andes, more switchbacks, bridges, tunnels, and grades in excess of 4.2 percent. I fully expect it to look and feel like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my 50 years of being in love with trains. I’m thinking Saluda, Moffat, Wasatch grades all rolled into one and multiplied by 10.  

If this Trains tour in conjunction with Special Interest Tours sounds like something you’d enjoy, please consider joining us on a future expedition. We’ll be visiting great scenic railroads and museums of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland next June. And we’ll be visiting Switzerland next September. More tours are in the works. Please visit www.specialinteresttours.com for more information and to register.  

Henry Posner warned me before we left. Climbing the Andes on Peru’s  FCCA railroad would tax one adjective more than any other to the point of becoming a cliché before the day was out: Amazing. That word, however, does not do justice to this king of mountain railroads that challenges railroaders with an unrelenting barrage:  4.2 percent grades, dozens of tunnels, sharp curves, and one of the highest altitudes of any railroad in the world at 15,000 feet. It is beyond surrealistic with its loops, switchbacks, and seemingly every trick ever devised to push tonnage across a mountain. In places, it feels like well-known American mountain railroad icons of today and yesteryear. Tunnels tight and narrow like Southern’s pre-1963 Rathole. Bridges separating tunnels like the Clinchfield. Switchbacks like Great Northern’s original line over the top of the original Cascade tunnel in Washington State. Loops that will make you think of the Giant’s Ladder just outside Moffat Tunnel in Colorado. Think of every major mountain grade you’ve ever encountered, then combine them, and multiple them and you have the FCCA.

Our three-car special zipped up the mountain at a brisk pace, meeting opposing freight traffic, stopping for photos, and stirring both sheep and llama herds. If you are not comfortable with heights, this is one railroad that is not for you. It runs along steep cliffs on shelves high above the rest the typography. Bridges are perched at dizzying elevations. But if you are good with this, the scenery is spectacular and the show truly beyond belief.

A last parting thought on this railroad. My favorite moment came when we arrived at the summit at Galera, some 15,000 feet above sea level, late in the afternoon. On the way up, some of us were receiving oxygen to minimize the effects of altitude. Others sipped coco tea or coco candies, which the crew told us would help mitigate our experience. Despite the impact the lack of oxygen had on us, we all got off the train, snapped pictures, marveled at the summit tunnel which took minutes to clear after we’d roared through in a smoky blaze. We snapped photos of a mineral train departing the summit loadout. It was mountain railroading at its fiercest and boldest. And yes, Henry, you were right.

If this Trains tour in conjunction with Special Interest Tours sounds like something you’d enjoy, please consider joining us on a future expedition. We’ll be visiting great scenic railroads and museums of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland next June. And we’ll be visiting Switzerland next September. More tours are in the works. Please visit www.specialinteresttours.com for more information and to register.  

It truly was amazing. 

Sometimes beauty and grit are next door neighbors. Thursday’s chartered FCCA train from LaOroya to Cerro de Pasco showed us that. We saw great natural beauty. And we saw scars that industry can leave on the land. 

On the third day of our special tour of Peru, we took FCCA’s branch to this mining community, nicknamed the city that is consuming itself because of the continuing mining activity that causes portions of the city to be relocated on a regular basis. We climbed from around 11,000 feet to about 14,000 feet.

The branch is interesting. It starts at a junction city where an industrial railroad once ran. Danish self-powered diesel cars purchased for an uncompleted passenger operation are parked on a siding, slowing rusting away. The yard is full of freight cars on arch bar trucks, some of them with roller bearings. Not far out of the city, we travel through the one and only switchback on this line, a moderate leap compared to what we saw on the FCCA’s main line the day before. Outside of there, we stopped for a photo runby, where a friendly couple and their dog greeted us at their house by the tracks.

From there, we traveled to what must be the most interesting photo runby ever performed. It took place at a wetlands, where flamingos take up residence. We stopped for a photo runby that, yes, included flamingos. And yes, I was as surprised as you are that they did not fly away when the train came. Our next stop was Shelby, where a rusting 30-inch gauge diesel of, we believe, eastern European manufacture, had been abandoned next to the FCCA freight station.

We completed the climb, pulling into the yard at Cerro de Pasci, where the local was making up its train. Mining activity was all around us, and we marveled at what we saw. The deep pit in the city of the city, a crater like one on the moon. The tall mounds of mine tailings as high as a roller coaster. Murky sedimentation ponds designed to hold back pollution.

Beautiful birds and deep mines. Preservation and consumption. Beauty and grit. They do exist side by side, and we saw it first hand thanks to this opportunity to explore the world by rail.

Itching to hit the road, use your passport, rack up more frequent flier miles? You can do it on one of our many tours, both foreign and domestic. Check them out at www.specialinteresttours.com. They’re the exclusive partner for Trains magazine tours.

HUANCAYO, Peru – This day won’t be as exciting or amazing, Henry Posner told me as we boarded the C30-7 for Friday’s trip from LaOroya to Hauncayo, Peru. We were riding on a FCCA railroad branch that sees about one train a week. I’m sorry, Henry, but I have to disagree. Yes, it’s not crossing the Andes at 15,000 feet or traveling to the city that is eating itself. But this is truly a scenic beauty once we left the smelter town of LaOroya. We followed a river gorge that reminded me of Union Pacific’s Cascade, Idaho branch, and the UP main line at Echo Canyon. In order to select the best photo spots, Henry and I rode far forward – as far forward as possible, on the front of No. 1001. The view, as you can imagine, was immense and intense. We stopped for photos several times along the way, each one a breathtaking masterpiece of railroading and nature. We passed farmers in their fields, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows grazing alongside the tracks. And at one point, we even herded a group of llamas using the locomotive horn and bell, hand claps, and Henry’s trusty whistle. I’m happy to report that no llamas were injured in Friday’s excursion, although I was worried about one especially slow one. But it finally cleared the right of way.

The branch was supposed to be unoccupied other than our train, but at Pachacayo we found a genuine surprise in the siding: a Brazilian-built double-ended locomotive built under license from EMD. The shape was unique, but the sound was that of a good old fashioned American SD40. Our hosts even backed up our train for a better view of this rare beast. But that is not all. When we arrived at Huancayo, in the station complex was a small narrow gauge 2-6-0 that looked to be of American descent, on display in an avocado green paint scheme. It made the steam lovers among us (myself included) very happy. It’s been stripped of parts and empty liquor bottles rested on backhead oil can platform, attesting to the engine’s long service as a display piece.  

There was one more surprise at Huancayo, whose compact and fenced depot complex is surrounded by urban development and big box stores. We noticed a bagged cement transload that was straight out of another era. Here, workers struggled with bags of cement in containers, hand loading them onto pallets resting on a truck. Posner says cement is the only traffic on the line, but it is good business the railroad enjoys.

Today’s post is a short one as we have a super early call time tomorrow for our flights to Lima and then to Arequipa, where we will join the Belmond Andean Explorer train, a new luxury service that I am eager to sample. Have a great evening and be sure to check out posts from the explorer train over the weekend. Good night Trains Nation!

Ready to travel? Trains and Special Interest Tours are offering domestic and foreign trips in 2018. Be sure to check out the website, www.specialinteresttours.com.  

ON BOARD THE BELMOND ANDEAN EXPLORER – Not that long ago, entrepreneurs in North America touted the American Orient Express as the ultimate in rail cruise travel. But that ended with a resounding thud a few years ago as the market just wasn’t there. Now UK-based hotelier Belmond is experimenting with the concept in Peru with its relatively new (begun in May) Belmond Andean Explorer.

I just completed a two-day, two-night journey on the train from Arequipa to Puno and from Puno to Cusco in the southern part of Peru. After a week in Peru on our Trains magazine-sponsored tour, my senses are overloaded with the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this amazing land. But this was an over the top experience, a first for me. I am traveling with the Trains magazine Special Interest Tours group, and we were among the lucky 47 passengers to occupy this 16-car train. Yes, you read that correctly, there are only 47 passengers on the train, and there are almost as many staffers. The experience by design is to be that of a 5-star Belmond hotel, and that is apparent from the attentive, well coiffured staff to the gourmet food and the immaculate equipment. The clientel is international as evidenced by the passengers from Singapore, Chile, England, and Australia. As the passengers disembarked, the staff gathered to applaud, and the passengers returned the salute.

First, the important stuff. The train was built in Australia and used there until just a few years ago. Each passenger car carries a Queensland shop builders’ plate on the steps, we were told that Belmond had the cars refurbished and prepared for use in Peru in shops at Cusco. Most of the train is made up of cars which are the equivalent of the roomettes in a 10-6 sleeper, but a few feature more spacious double bedrooms. In the consist is a car with a piano bar, a galley car, a well disguised head-end power car, two diners, and an observation lounge. The observation lounge is my favorite as the rear half is all open, much like the Southern Railway excursion car Lookout Mountain of the 1960s and 1970s. It is an ideal vantage point from which to watch the countryside go by.

Second, the service and food were what you’d expect from a major luxury hotel. No need to tell you about the culinary treats we dined on except to say that you’d not expect to find 90 percent of the menu on an American restaurant menu. Alas, the PeruRail roadbed on the first night was not smooth, and I found sleep difficult. On the second night, the Explorer parked on a rural siding, so sleep was assured for those who find it hard to snooze and travel simultaneously.

Third, the concept is much like that of a cruise ship with stops for shore excursions. On Sunday, our train stopped at Puno for a boat of the famous floating islands of Lake Titicaca and lunch on nearby island. On Monday, we stopped for an hour at Raqchi to visit nearby Incan ruins. That was when another passenger, Sven Malmberg from Sweden, and I elected to remain behind and shoot roster shots of the locomotives and passenger cars.

That leads me to the most interesting point for our readers, the power on the point. Motive power is two six-axle locomotives, one of Montreal Locomotive Works design, and the second one an Alco product of 1966. It was great to hear these two machines in fine form, and our appreciation for them drew the attention of the mechanic on board who ushered us into the cab. He was one proud railroader, and he made sure to take our photos on his charge and we reciprocated by having our photo made with him. The crew eventually insisted that we have our photos made sitting at the controls. None of us spoke Spanish, and their English was non-existent, but the language and love of railroading, is indeed universal.

Tomorrow, we go to the famous Incan ruins at Macchu Piccu. Our mode of transportation, of course, is train, but this time a special one. Make sure to check back for a report on that on Wednesday as our day is long and our return late tomorrow.

If traveling by train to see the sights in the U.S. or worldwide is of interest, please consider a Trains-sponsored tour in conjunction with Special Interest Tours. Please see the website for 2018 tours, www.specialinteresttours.com

CUSCO, PERU – Standing in the ruins of the 15^th century Incan city Machu Picchu in southern Peru, you  suddenly find yourself thrust into a National Geographic cover and checking with your fellow travelers  regularly to see if you actually are standing in this world famous and ancient place that was only “discovered” a little more than a century ago.

And then, as you learn about the Incans, their way of life on this mountainside, their gods, how they came here, and why they deserted such a special place after only about 100 years there, the silence and reverence for this spectacular world heritage site may be interrupted by the sound of an air horn or a passing train. Yes, railroading plays a prominent role in getting more than 3 million annual visitors to this place that is better in person than it is in pictures.

Both PeruRail and IncaRail use the tracks outside this shrine. They’re at river level, far below the ruins, but you can hear and occasionally see them from the ruins’ dizzying heights. Our Trains magazine tour of Peruvian railroads arrived here by PeruRail from the suburban Cusco station in Poroy after a 3 and a half hour journey on the meter-gauge line. We were impressed with the coaches, which have a standard gauge bodies and skylights in the ceiling – a Vista Dome to the Peruvians, not so much for those of us in North America who are used to the likes of the California Zephyr. PeruRail runs a tight operation, and our group noted no less than three trains each morning between Cusco, the center for tourism in this country, and Aguas Caliente, the touristy village at the bottom of the hill, where the tracks run down a gulch of restaurants, shops, and hotels. Passengers alight here from the train at a modern station, pass through a literally inescapable tunnel of souvenirs and t-shirts, and then come out on a rickety wooden foot bridge to ultimately board a bus for a hair-raising ride on a switchback filled dirt road that would look right at home in Colorado. A long and taxing trip? Yes, but well worth it. And once at the ruins, you can know that railroading is a significant part of this place and how people appreciate it.

Today is the last day of Trains’ tour of Peru. A few of us still had enough energy to get up this morning and wander down to PeruRail’s main standard gauge depot in Cusco to watch the 7:10 a.m. departure for Puno. We managed to get one picture of the departure. The four-car day-time train looks like fun.

We’ve enjoyed visiting with our readers from across North America and Sweden who joined us on this trip. Participants came from California, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, and everywhere in between. It was great to be with old friends and to make new ones. Our thanks to the amazing Henry Posner, the great folks at FCCA, PeruRail, and our tour partner, Special Interest Tours. We’re already planning more journeys for 2018 and beyond. If you’re interested, visit www.specialitneresttours.com

CUSCO, Peru -- The engine revs up and with a lurch the aircraft begins racing forward down the runway at 11,000 feet above sea level. My heart races a little knowing that an A319 only has so much linear footage at this altitude to become airborne or spatter itself on the side of the Andes. Instead of fretting about high altitude departures, though, my thoughts instead turn to Peru, its railroads, and their people who have welcomed the Trains tour group and me for the last 11 days. What a ruggedly beautiful country, and what spectacular railroading. Sadly what takes place here is mostly out of sight due to its location far from U.S. and European eyes, save for a few intrepid travelers and photographers who come in search of amazing scenery; indefatigable North American Alcos, GEs, and odd-ball EMDs; and sheer railroading audacity. I came not really having expectations that needed to be met. After a lifetime studying the business,

I know mountain railroading from Crawford Notch, N.H., to Donner Pass in California, and most places in between. But I was still unprepared for the likes of this place with tracks placed as high as 15,000 feet. It must be illegal or at least immoral to build a railroad into the mountains without switchbacks or loops. And every time you think the train has come to the end of a box canyon, you realize that construction engineers (most of them British, we believe; note the neatly groomed, well defined right of ways in most locations) figured out some way to escape to higher ground, whether by zig zags, as they prefer to call switchbacks, a tunnel or two or several, a high bridge, or any number of solutions that would tire those who layout railroads. It is as if David Moffat’s Denver & Salt Lake up and over the Rockies was transported 4,000 miles to the south, where fortunately the nearby equator prevents a snow disaster here like the one that plagued the Moffat Road west of Denver.

As most railroaders know getting up the grade is a one kind of feat. Getting down the grade is even more important. On railroads like this it is a lifesaving technique that is shared among fearless railroaders who have four tools at their disposal: Air brakes, straight air (basically an extension of the independent brake running through the train; notice the twin brake pipes and air hose connections between cars), dynamics, and as a last resort, hand brakes. On the FCCA, life is indeed like a mountain railroad. Grades of up to 4.7 percent dictate what goes up and what goes down.

This has been and is a land of intense mineral exploitation (copper, gold, silver, to name a few), and where there are minerals, there are railroads. That has always been a fact, it remains one, and will likely always be. Minerals are big bulky stuff that is idea for railroads. Some of what once was slumbers in anticipation of changing world market conditions (the giant, quietly simmering smelter we traveled through last week in LaOroya would make a fine model, but then again, so would the entire FCCA out of Lima to the east), and some continues in operation, such as the line to Cerro de Pasco, whose nickname, “the city that is consuming itself,” as the open pit mine grows and expands, is no joke. The zinc ingots we saw heading to port at Lima once again prove that minerals are the bedrock traffic here.

This is a land of railroading contrasts. While the gritty standard gauge FCCA hauls freight up and down the Andes east of Lima, PeruRail, IncaRail, and the new and genteel Belmond Andean Explorer between Arequipa, Puno, and Cusco, tote tourists bound for the ruins at Machu Picchu a few hundred miles to the south. We marveled at PeruRail’s meter-gauge money machine, hauling tourists to the Incan mountain citadel. It may be one of the most profitable passenger lines in the world with high volumes of high revenue tourists filling every seat.

We also wondered at some of what we saw without answer:

• The trans-Lake Titicaca carferry parked at Puno for an undetermined amount of time since it last moved freight cars between Peru and Bolivia. And yes, my friends, those are dual gauge tracks on the deck. Nobody seems to know when it was last used or what its prospects for renewed service might be.

• PeruRail’s Alcos, which are rumored to be up for replacement with newer power. Yes, that was a 1966 graduate of Schenectady, No. 600, on the Belmond train we took. If confirmed, expect a rush of visitors before the last 251 engine is stilled.

• The longevity of the Armstrong turntable at San Bartolome, which sees daily use as trains reverse directions at this switchback.

• And at the same location, steam locomotive No. 209, which has been out of service about a decade. There are those who would repair and run the engine once again, but there are also those who see it as a difficult and expensive toy. But in the end you have to ask yourself, wouldn’t it look good on this mountain railroad?

• And lastly, dogs. Raildogs to be precise. They seem to be everywhere in this country, and with as many homes as face the tracks, it is not surprising to see them. They seem to populate every yard and railroad station, some welcomed and beloved, and some tolerated. How good it must be to be a dog in Peru, whose primary duty seems to be chasing trains out of their territory and then returning for praise and food.

Those are questions I shall ponder further along with the memories and pixels we collected. But right now the A319 has leaped into the air and we are soaring to the northwest over the Andes. Lima and a change of planes await. In a few hours, I will be back in the U.S., where I belong. I am glad for having had the chance to see this country and its railroads. And I hope someday that I shall return. What will I find then? On the first night of our visit here, I dined with FCCA Chairman Juan Olaechea. Near the end of our meal, I asked him if I were to come back in 10 years, what might I see. His reply was swift, the kind that comes from a thinking man who contemplates the future with frequency: Switchbacks, gone, replaced by spiral tunnels. Commuter trains on the tracks in Lima. Flood controls in place. And newer engines and more freight traffic, of course. I hope it happens. I hope that railroading in the Andes continues to evolve. Whether by zig zags or spiral tunnels, I hope it keeps climbing ever higher than before.

Excuse me if I've asked you this before, but what do you think of Elon Musk's Hyperloop proposals? 

The basic facts are both simple in concept and ridiculously ambitious.

Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and has a gargantuan stash of cash and reserves to spend on technology, wants to build a magnetic levitation system in a low-pressure tube to convey people, and possibly freight, at high speed around the country.

Remember when you used to be able to drive up to a bank branch and place paper checks and deposit slips into a cylinder that a not-too-distance teller would receive through a tube? That's the general idea — but bigger.

The Hyperloop is getting more publicity these days because of Musk and constant media attention. Mainly, it is touted as a way to cut transit times between New York and Washington — with roughly the same route as the Northeast Corridor, mind you —  or between Toronto and Montreal. Heck, why not go from San Francisco to New York? After all, at 760 mph, it would only take about four hours to cross the country non-stop.

But I have conflicted opinions on what to do with Hyperloop as Trains' news editor. That shows on News Wire where a quick search shows we've never done a story about, or even mentioned the Hyperloop, but have at least 18 stories that mention non-vacuum tube MagLev trains and 16 story mentions for little-loved monorails.

We mention those technologies so little because, well, they're not rail trains in the strict sense: vehicles with flanged wheels moving on rails. Yet, the monorails and maglevs and any moving file of two or more vehicles, animals, or people is a train. 

Of course, that also applies to wagon trains, trains of thought, and gear trains, none of which appear in the pages of Trains magazine.

So I'll ask you, between friends, is Hyperloop a train for you?

I spent a few days around Cincinnati earlier this month while I was in town for a presentation at the Cincinnati Railroad Club's monthly meeting. Here are a few trains I saw during my visit:

A northbound coal train cools its heels at KC Junction in Covington, Ky., just south of downtown Cincinnati. Here, former Chesapeake & Ohio and Louisville & Nashville lines converge to cross the Ohio River and access Queensgate Yard.

A northbound local with a GP40-2 slug set passes the former Baltimore & Ohio station in north suburban Glendale. The community was the subject of a Trains Hot Spots story in the March 2013 issue.

Glendale is 15 miles from downtown Cincinnati and the Ohio River and is a popular railfan spot. A parking lot downtown, behind the police department, includes a couple benches that are well suited for railfans.

A northbound auto rack train with a pair of classic EMDs rolls under the signal bridge at Glendale. Due to directional running on the north side of Cincinnati a majority of the trains through Glendale are northbound, but traffic includes a mix of Norfolk Southern traffic, too.

The next day included a look at the new Cincinnati streetcar, including car No. 1176 arriving at the new maintenance facility. The modern cars are numbered above the city's classic streetcar fleet that ended service in the early 1950s.

The train is in Kentucky, but I'm still in Cincinnati – Mount Echo Park to be exact. The city's western hills provide a great view across the Ohio River of the trestles that carry Norfolk Southern traffic above the community of Erlanger.

On Monday, the graphic artists who work on Trains and the editorial staff gathered in a ritual we call the “pin up.” It’s the one and only time when the entire feature well of a magazine is printed out and placed on the walls of a room. We lock ourselves in this chamber for an hour or so and review what we’re about to give you, the readers. We critique layouts, argue over headlines, adjust photos, and size up the timing and placement of stories. Sometimes we change the order of the stories in the interest of pacing and what we think is logical. It’s the chance to use the wisdom of the group to ferret out problems and seek absolute clarity for everyone who consumes our products.

The session this week was special – it was for our next special issue, Hot Spots, due out in early 2018. In magazine lingo we call one-offs like this SIPs, for special interest publications. That means it is a product that deviates from the usual role of a magazine – a smorgasbord of topics and treatments aimed at reaching the largest possible readership – and instead dills down on one topic, one theme. In this case, it’s great places to watch trains, the basics of being a fan, and advanced tutorials on reading signals (so that you know when trains are or are not coming) and train symbols (so you can figure out what train they’re referring to on the radio). The meat of this issue is the feature section about 75 places where you can visit famous locations, watch a lot of trains, or see them in scenic settings. The locations are coast-to-coast in the U.S. and Canada, and we all came away with the feeling that we’re providing a ton of great, useful info to both beginners and old pros about the train-watching hot spots in our amazing and diverse country. “I’d buy a copy,” said well traveled designer Drew Halverson, who hosts a show about railfanning called “Drew’s Trackside Adventures” on our sister web channel MR Video Plus. When I hear Drew say that, it gets my attention. And I agree. This is about the most useful 100 pages we’ve ever produced to help everyone and anyone who loves to watch and photograph trains gain more understanding and more enjoyment.

 As we were getting started with the pin up session, I remarked to the staff and graphic artists that I wonder if any of us have been to all of the 75 places we’ve listed. None of us think we have every last one, but I think most of us believe that as a group we’ve been to all 75 of our top places for watching trains. I would surely hope so. When the new issue is out in January, let us know how many of the places on our list that you’ve been to. I’d like to know. And have fun and be safe out there trackside!

 You can pre-order Hot spots at https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/vt-tr05180101-c

 Check out Model Railroader Video Plus here: http://mrv.trains.com/intro

Today’s debut of Clinchfield No. 800 in Huntington, W.Va., returned to its original gray and yellow paint scheme of 1948 thanks to CSX, is a welcomed sight. When it comes to locomotives, my pecking order is steam, cab unit, and Alcos, in that order. I have nothing against other locomotives. I like them all, but to me a streamlined cab unit is a special machine, a locomotive wrapped in a distinctive dress, a celebrity who is going some place special.

I’m especially happy to see this F-unit brought back to life in its original garb. I’ve known this particular F7 for almost 40 years. My introduction came in September 1978 when my mother took me to Marion, N.C., to ride a Clinchfield excursion up the loops, across the Appalachian Mountains, and down the Nolichucky Gorge into the CRR headquarters and shop town, Erwin, Tenn. It was advertised as a steam excursion with Clinchfield’s 1882 4-6-0 No. 1, so I was a surprised 17-year-old fan who showed up at the station that day to find No. 800 and FP7 No. 200 back to back on the point of the train. George and Ed Hatcher, the brothers who operated the locomotives on the Clinchfield’s excursions, were affable and explained that No. 1 would pilot the track back to Marion. I could accept that, and I also accepted their invitation before the trip left to visit No. 800’s cab, where I took a couple of snapshots out of the front window – my first time in the cab of an F-unit. I rode the first open window car behind the power, so I soaked up the sounds of the two cab units on the trip to Erwin.

By the time No. 800 and I crossed paths again, the Clinchfield was in the midst of a power shortage caused by a booming demand for Appalachian coal. In the summer of 1980, I found the engine repainted as a gray Family Lines unit on an ABBA pusher set for southbound trains out of Erwin to the eastern continental divide at Altapass, N.C. The railroad had abruptly stopped its steam excursions the year before, and was using its last four F-units in the best way it knew how: for their sheer muscle. No. 200 was still black, and the two B-units, which used to backup No. 1, were still Pullman green. No. 800 stood out in its new suit. A couple of years later, I returned to find the A-units both repainted and stored behind the shops as new power had begun to arrive, and the F-units were held for specials.

In 1984, they were back out again, this time as Seaboard System units, representing the short-lived interim railroad that encompassed all of the former Family Lines railroads as the “S” part of CSX. Seaboard renumbered No. 800 to No. 116, and No. 200 to No. 118. For the next few years, I’d see them often on office car special and excursions in and around the Carolinas.

My last mainline encounter with No. 800 was in May 1987 when it pulled an Operation Lifesaver special out of Columbia, S.C. By this time, it had taken on the CSX paint scheme as Chessie System and Seaboard System faded into history.

In 2014 for the Streamliners at Spencer event my good friend David Corbitt from the Potomac Eagle tourist railroad in West Virginia arranged for No. 800, by this time wearing Chesapeake & Ohio lettering and disguised as No. 8016, to visit. I got reacquainted with No. 800, but the C&O masquerade just didn’t cut it for me. I knew who this engine really was. So, over almost 40 years, I’ve come to know this engine in all of its multiple personalities. But I’ve never seen it as it was delivered. I am as eager as any of you to get that chance. I cannot wait to see Clinchfield No. 800 as it appeared 69 years ago as the railroad’s first diesel locomotive, when steam was dying, coal flowed freely from Appalachian mines, and these sleek machines barged into it all in a most colorful and dazzling way.