The long awaited day finally arrived, Big Girl’s first train ride!! We got up bright and early, and grabbed the gear we had laid out last night. Only the essentials for rail travel. Radio, camera and food!
Twenty minutes later, we were standing in line, listening to the radio and waiting to get a glimpse of 261. A cloud of smoke on the horizon. Nope, it was only 2816 out for her morning jog. What a tease, the lighting and the chain link fence made picture taking worthless. A few minutes later another cloud of smoke, and 261 backed into the track along the fence. No pictures please, and we climbed aboard, along with about 400 other people.
All aboard! And we chose our seats in the second car, which was really about 400’ back from the engine because of all of the other equipment that made up the train.
As we waited for traffic to clear, the rails were incredibly busy this Friday morning, the car attendant came into our car and told us a little about the train. He advised that, if we wanted to stand in the vestibules, and look out the dutch doors, we should have eye protection, as 261 being coal fired, throws off a lot of cinders. He also said thet there were still a few sets of safety goggles for sale in the consession car.
I got lucky and managed to get the last ones available. Eye protection had never crossed my mind for this trip, but boy was I glad to have them. By the time I returned to our seats with the goggles, the train had managed to get into the traffic pattern, and we were slowly working our way out to the main. I sat there with Big Girl for a few minutes, and had a sandwich, as in our excitement we had run out of the house without even thinking about breakfast. As the train picked up speed, I figured it was time to try out the new goggles, and politely excused myself, leaving Big Girl with the radio. Here is a photo of Big Girl enjoying her first train ride.
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