Hi from Georgia

[Jackpine]

Hi again Wil -

I like your avatar! And, to let you in on a little secret, I really like trains! especially the old steam trains that had engines like this one:


Janet and I rode the train that was pulled by this engine up from Durango, Colorado to Silverton, Colorado and back again through the Animas Canyon a couple of years ago. It's powered by coal and water, and has a "tractive effort" of 36,200# (that's a little like "torque") and it weighed 104 tons!

Think it might be fun to tune one of these monsters?

The Engineer in the picture is oiling the gears and he has to do this on every trip to keep it working right.

When it's fully fueled, it carries 9 1/2 tons of coal and 5,000 gals of water. Sort of makes the 30 gal gas tank in an f150 look kind of puny, doesn't it?

Hope you enjoyed the picture and learning a little bit about the Silverton Train! Here's a link to more information and pictures of it if you want to learn more: http://www.freewebs.com/drgwk36/index.htm

- Jack