The resultant blast of two longs, a short and a long brought uncounted numbers
of feathers, pigeon eggs, empty beer cans, and of more concern, old nuts and
bolts that slept undisturbed on the trusses and perlins under the old (1882)
roundhouse roof. Seems that over the years, as mechanical dept. people, when
working on top of an engine boiler or roof of a unit, would set bolts and nuts
on the roof bracing, intending to put them back where they were removed from in
reverse order. Railroaders, being what we are, often have short memories and
they probably forgot where they put them which I am sure was also the case with
the beer cans. I and several others were quite satified with the volume, tone
and force produced by the last surviving operating part of the old #902.
Several of the fellows wanted it, which included the roundhouse foreman but I
stuck to my guns and told them that the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden was
the correct resting place for this one-of-a-kind steam artifact, to which the
roundhouse foreman stated to the effect that he intended to double the number
of his "unannounced" nocturnal visits to Rice Yard in a redoubling of his
efforts to catch me "checking out the backside of your eyeballs." That morning
I made a detour to Golden on the way home from work (not looking forward to the
long, grueling climb over "Rocky Flats Pass" to Boulder. When i pulled into the
museum parking lot, there was Bob Richardson making his morning rounds around
the museum property, checking to ensure that no one had made off with an
RPO-Baggage car or the Manitou & Pikes Peak rack engine. He saw me pull in and
began to make his way towards me, muttering, grumbling and growling over
something. I had no idea what could have put him in such a bad humor as Bob was
usually unflappable and had a very calm demeanor. As it turned out, he had been
fielding telephone calls since the wee hours of the morning regarding the
unnanounced arrival of a "steam engine" in Denver earlier that morning! Seems
that nearly the entire rail enthusuast fraternity in Denver felt it incumbent
on themselves to call Bob, despite the hour, to inform him of this mystery
engine. Bob, I think, was just joking when he said the identity of the engine
suggested by the callers ranged from that of the Union Pacific #844 to that of
the UP "ghost engine" of Kiowa Creek. I then realized what had happened and to
mollify him, I asked him if he could guess what was in the trunk of my car? In
no mood to joke around, he said "the body of one of my 4:00 a.m. callers?"
which was quite uncharacteristic of Bob to say the least. All the while we were
standing there, the museum phone which at that time rang via an outdoor
speaker, was literally ringing itself to death. when Bob saw the whistle and
heard what had prompted the calls, he laughed and said that this was one for
the books, to which I replied he might hook the whistle up to the museum air
supply, and when the phone rang with yet another announcement of the arrival of
a "mystery" engine, he could give them a whistle blast or two via the Bell
system. Bob Munshower
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