Monday Nov 20 2006
Railfan Weekend on the TSRR
My wife and I had a great time at the Texas State Railroad this past weekend, compliments of the wonderful staff and the Gulf Coast Chapter of the NRHS. I hope everyone’s efforts to obtain funding and/or find an operator for the state park for next year will be successful. Today’s post will be brief, and I will cover the weekend in more detail once I have the rest of the digital pictures and audio recordings processed.
I elected to not use my ticket and chase instead while my wife rode. Here is a view of the morning westbound steam-powered train out of Rusk as #300 crests one of the numerous hills at Cherokee County road 2103. The Katy caboose is along for a special charter, and two extra cars are on the rear for the NRHS group.
TSRR 2-8-0 #300 blew out the rod packing on the engineer’s side just before reaching Palestine, and parts were rushed over from Rusk by road to make a quick repair. The train was 30 minutes late out of Palestine for the afternoon return trip, and here we see it crossing Anderson County road 1232 in a tree-framed view.
Within minutes of this picture #300 blew out the packing again and stopped short of Jarvis. The re-engined RS2 #7 was on the afternoon train out of Rusk, and they had wisely brought along MRS1 #8 as an emergency replacement for #300. While #7 stayed with its train at the passing siding at Mewshaw, the #8 ran on ahead to Jarvis to pick up the #300 and its train to pull them the rest of the way back to Rusk. Here we see #8 running light through Jarvis to rescue the steam train.
I took my wife back to Palestine at this point so she could rest up. Once the #8 arrived back in Rusk with the #300 and its train, it was decided to go ahead and operate the railfan special to Maydelle, so the crew quickly put a train together with 2-6-0 #201 for power. Here we see the ex-T&P engine steaming at the Rusk platform just before departure.
A successful night photo session was held at Maydelle, and then the train returned to Rusk while I headed back to Palestine to have dinner with Judy.
