Ev happier than a tornado in a trailer park!
I had the good fortune of being able to spend the day with my good friend Ev yesterday as he joined me for another wild adventure on the high iron! Ev's report will no doubt appear shortly in due course. :-)
Change over at East Town.
521 with a couple of dinosaurs on the front.
Ev carried on south on 521, so after changing over and fond farewells I headed for home on 546.
I dont know what they are teaching those new boys down south, but there seems to be an abundance of Palmy LE's coming up with their heads full of rubbish that our GM powered locos are the master race and the 4 strokes are not worth a tin of Sh*t, but I make no bones about letting you all know my joy at getting off that jurassic piece of crap that was on the pointy end of my train on the way down last night. It had no dynamic brake, couldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding and vibrated 10 times worse than an adult toy store boxing day sale!!!
By contrast, I had 5068 and 5114 powering my 546, and with only 14 tanks to hold back the 6000hp I think I only skipped across the high spots on the way home, relishing in the gobs of control the dynamics provided on the downward slopes...
This of course came to a grinding halt at Patea, when train control held me for 40+ minutes while we waited for a rather late running 549 to leave Whareroa.
It was an absolutly stunningly clear and still night outside, with no wind (unheard of!) and no clouds, so while I was waiting I spent some time mucking around playing with light.....
I dont know what they are teaching those new boys down south, but there seems to be an abundance of Palmy LE's coming up with their heads full of rubbish that our GM powered locos are the master race and the 4 strokes are not worth a tin of Sh*t, but I make no bones about letting you all know my joy at getting off that jurassic piece of crap that was on the pointy end of my train on the way down last night. It had no dynamic brake, couldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding and vibrated 10 times worse than an adult toy store boxing day sale!!!
By contrast, I had 5068 and 5114 powering my 546, and with only 14 tanks to hold back the 6000hp I think I only skipped across the high spots on the way home, relishing in the gobs of control the dynamics provided on the downward slopes...
This of course came to a grinding halt at Patea, when train control held me for 40+ minutes while we waited for a rather late running 549 to leave Whareroa.
It was an absolutly stunningly clear and still night outside, with no wind (unheard of!) and no clouds, so while I was waiting I spent some time mucking around playing with light.....
Neon DX.
I was quite amazed at the glow induced on the Dx by the purple trailing points indicator, so before I pressed the stop button on the points control I grabbed the camera and grabbed a couple of shots...
After pressing stop, the loco looked very different in the bright red light...
After an absolute age, 549 finally broke the silence in the distance, so I set the camera on the nose of the Dx and got a shot of 549 coming into the loop while I did a "roll by" inspection. The result looks different, but I think the shutter speed was just a bit too slow.... something to try again another time when the time permits.
So I finally got to Whareroa about 90 minutes late, berthed 546 in the milk siding, tied down the locos in the yard and shuffled off home....
Looking forward to hearing Ev's recount of his big day out :-)
AH
Looking forward to hearing Ev's recount of his big day out :-)
AH
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