I made it out to IRM for a few hours on Sunday, just in time for the first snowfall of the season. Given the weather, I ended up just hanging around and didn't really get anything accomplished, I'm afraid. The big thing going, of course, was Happy Holiday Railway. Jamie and Jeron were the engineers while Phil was conductor and Jen and others were on the train staff. Ray and Richard were driving trolley buses.
IRM rail operations in the snow are as interesting as at night. A nighttime snow train takes the cake. Ahh, to remember the first North Shore abandonment celebration many years ago. I hope everyone had fun, and enjoyed the moment, even if the work was hard.
ReplyDeleteTo me, I personally love winter time operations because they have a special and almost magical atmosphere to it when there is snow on the ground. Plus you get to see equipment being use that is mostly kept in storage for most of the year from Snowplows, Snow Sweepers and even on occasion Rotaries. It would be nice to see all of IRM's snow fighting equipment out for demonstrations on how they are used for fun. (I know they did that once with the new Russel CGW Snowplow a few years ago) where they just made a snow pile and plowed some snow for fun.
ReplyDeleteI think someone wants to learn how to dig out switches and chip ice out of the flangeways....
ReplyDeleteR. W. Schauer
Winter operations sound fun until you step off the first car of the train to make the cut for the run around, realizing you've stepped into waist-deep snow.
ReplyDelete