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Mr. Schneider was never satisfied with anything less than perfection, insisting that the welding had to be exact and fit to an exacting proportion, which Harv, after trial and effort was able to accomplish.
When it was done they had another problem.
Just how on earth they were gonna get the monster out to the park!
Taking off the cellars back stairs and door frame, they asked a few of Harv’s “School chums” to come along and assist them in this endeavor. One of the boys had a tow truck and lift, and with gentle reserve they were able to get the beauty lifted onto the flat bed and driven over to the park.
I was told that Grandpa Bill very rarely showed any emotion during his long life. He wasn’t the kind of man to speak a lot or to make a fuss about anything, but that day he could barely control himself.
As the Engine was taken off the flat bed and mounted on the tracks, “Dad quietly took out an old engineer’s hat and lifted himself onto the seat. He drove that engine around the track for close to three hours, then got off of her with a tear in his eye, and walked back to my car.”
Paw Paw went on to explain to me that it was the last time he ever saw that train again, and for years they had no idea whatever happened with her…..
Yet the story goes on.
As many of you are probably well aware, I love to do scale plastic modeling, mostly cars and military vehicles. Sometimes this leads me to search for old pictures on the internet by which I can duplicate weathering, decaling, and other forms of special effects.
One day I was reviewing a hobby site which showed some tips on weathering various models, and one of the pictures showed an old Wabash railroad locomotive which a modeler airbrushed. I began to wonder how much this looked like the “real McCoy”, so I used my favorite search engine IXQuick and put in “Decatur Steam Engines” thinking Wabash and the Central were good places to start…..
The pictures which I found are the following:
They now have a nice model train park at the old Fairview and wouldn't you believe it, the pictures above taken in 2008 are of the actual train which Pappy and Grandpa Bill created from scratch 80 or so years ago!
They made a REAL working locomotive, one with the riveting and cast iron you would come to expect in an exacting scale model….
The 70 Year old Girl Lives On!
© 2016 Tiger1 Productions, Ltd.
