The East Broad Top:
Fall Spectacular, 2000
I arrived late Saturday morning and had to leave before the evening trains,
1999 Fall Spectacular | Fortieth-anniversary celebration
so this is far from comprehensive coverage. Plus, most of the pictures that
turned out well seem to be of No. 12. Go figure. (Click here for excerpts
from a letter to a friend about the day's events, including a ride on the M-1.)
No. 16 had been coaxed from the enginehouse and spotted near Meadow Street,
wearing fresh paint on her cab roof and window frames.
No. 17 pulled the freight consist toward the Runks Road overpass late in the morning.
The day was chilly and clouds came and went, plunging some photos into darkness.
This is the freight consist rolling up on the long fill. 
Back in Orbisonia, No. 12 was pulled off the front end of a doubleheader and ran light
along the dual-gauge track heading into the wye.
Her fireman watches as No. 12 clears a switch by the coal tipple.
No. 12 developed some kind of leak on one of the morning doubleheaders that caused her
to sound like the trash trucks that growl through my neighborhood's alleys at dawn.
The noise stopped, but
apparently she had problems again on Sunday.
No. 14 and No. 15 in place for the whistle salute. Contrary to earlier reports,
No. 17's whistle is as ear-piercing as ever -- maybe worse.
After the salute, I caught a picnic-train consist out to Colgate Grove, in time to see No. 12
lead a doubleheader past with the passenger train. You can just see No. 15's headlight
in the branches.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket for an extra M-1 run added to the schedule in the afternoon.
No. 15 waiting at the Colgate Grove wye, as seen from a window in the M-1's freight compartment.
Alas, No. 15 developed lubricator troubles on the way back, stranding us at Colgate
while her crew stopped No. 15 several times en route to oil by hand.
M-1 operator Phil Glass was informative and entertaining.
The view into the M-1's engine compartment
A portrait of No. 15 waiting with the passenger consist.
My favorite picture of the day, a digital-telephoto shot of No. 14 leading the passenger train
along the long fill.
