My Pictures and Thoughts about Train Festival 2009

Greetings,

I had the chance to be a part of Train Festival 2009 in Owosso, Michigan. It was quite the event. Eight operating steam locomotives in one location. The three big steamers were the hometown favorite Pere Marquette #1225, Nickel Plate #765 which was recently rebuilt and getting to stretch its legs for the first time. And the long distance visitor the Southern Pacific #4449. Plus also visiting were the Little River #110 4-6-2, Little River #1 0-4-0T tank engine, Flagg Coal #75 0-4-0T, Viscoe #6 0-4-0T and the Leviathan #63 4-4-0 American. All of these steamers were under steam at various times throughout the event.

Myself and a friend left Milwaukee at 6am Thursday July 23 2009 on the Lake Express High Speed carferry to Muskegon. We had the pleasure of sharing the cruise with Jim Wrinn and Rob McGonigal from Trains magazine and Classic Trains magazine. The Lake Express moves across the lake at about 35mph, not sure what the would be in knots, but your moving. Weather was OK until about mid lake when it got real foggy. Then it cleared up in Muskegon.

Thursday we chased the inbound trip of the SP #4449 which was pulling the daily excursion. This trip was added due to the response to the #4449 Friday trip which sold out very quickly.

Friday we chased the northbound trip of the #4449. The excursions were about 50+miles one way from Owosso to Alma. In Alma the locomotive was turned on the wye. The line from Owosso to Alma is pretty straight and not real good for lighting, the train was always going in the wrong direction for good lighting. Friday afternoon we headed back to Owosso and did something a bit different. I got into a helicopter for the first time and we flew over the Train Festival. This was a small helicopter with NO DOORS. Pretty much like the helicopters seen on the MASH TV show. The pilot told me if I fell out I got my money back. We also wanted to catch the Little River #110 4-6-2 working the “hourly” train. We w

Keith - Good stuff! I was also there and thoroughly enjoyed the entire event. I didn’t ride - I do that all the time on the Adirondack. I preferred to watch the action from the ground.

One minor correction - the scale live steamers are 1.5":1’ (1/8 scale). There are apparently a couple of gauges, but it’s around 7.5". They’re still amazing.

Thanks for sharing![bow]

Great photos , I was there and truely enjoyed the event , I wish now after seeing your photos that I had done the night photos may be next time .

Thanks for the correction on the gauge. I think our Zoo has 15" gauge steamers that must have been stuck in my head. Yes they are amazing especially pulling several car loads of people around, powerful little critters.

Keith

Here are links to some videos. Don’t forget You Tube when someone post photos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOoV4fp6uGU

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Owosso+Train+Fest+2009&search_type=&aq=f

Rich

What cause 4449 to derail?

I think they just split a switch. Probably a bit more weight than the track is used to. The switch was spiked and ready for operation the next morning.

Keith

It’s fun to look at the videos and see if you can find yourself in someone else’s stuff. I have once already…

Nobody said anything about the rain on Saturday. It sure made the tents fill up quickly.[(-D]

The cool part was seeing the vapor on the sides of the boilers as the rain was turned to steam.

I was on the grounds Saturday for the couple of “showers” or downpours whichever you prefer. The tents filled up quickly, but the people in line for cab tours of #4449 and #1225 never got out of line. I ended up at the Milw #261 area of the tent both times. I helped move the headlight assembly and display table undercover so it would get ruined. I noticed alot of bags of wood shavings around to help soak up water in front of tables.

Keith

Downpour would be appropriate. They found all the leaks in the tents, too…

All things considered, the drainage wasn’t too bad, and they did bring in some pumps to take care of a couple of the lakes that formed.

I think it rained both Saturday and Sunday mornings, early, before things got started. Didn’t help the mud situation any.

I suspect that if and when they do it again, that’ll be one of their considerations…

I have uploaded a couple of videos shot during Train Festival 2009. The first is of Nickel Plate #765 showing off its two different steam whistles. I didn’t know #765 had two different whistles until then. Below is a link to the video on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INSC4EFRolE

The second is a bit longer and has several run-bys of the SP #4449 on both Thursday and Friday’s trips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h69vSbB8-IM

Keith Schmidt

Great job Kieth !!! thanks for shareing [8D]