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I suspect watching the 0-8-0s at the steel mill in Sterling was kind of bittersweet for the older guys on the list considering all the steamers cut up there. When I got to see them when I was a kid of 10 or so I got to watch them with sheer excitement. I don't know how dad found out about them (probably from somebody at his work) but one very cold weekend in the wintertime in the late '70s we took a weekend trip up to Sterling. When I was a kid usually one weekend during the wintertime we'd go away somewhere nearby to Morton, IL and spend a weekend at a hotel with an indoor pool (Galesburg's Holidome was a destination I remember - only time I saw the coal tower and was in the "real" station). Anyway, at some point dad and I went down to Avenue G. which I think was the overpass and stood on the sidewalk for what seemed hours watching the switchers go back and forth. I don't remember too much about it other than absolutely freezing! I, of course, didn't know that hundreds of steamers were cut up there. Those cut up old steamers are the reason that I got to see the 0-8-0s in revenue service that day and it remains a treasured memory! Mike Martin and the only other time I got to see steam hauling freight was the only day I ever was in Marion as a kid and the Crab Orchard & Egyptian was running with the 2-8-0 that day! Talk about luck... we spent the whole afternoon with dad, me, and my brother Jon foaming at the mouth and mom wondering if we were going to ever stop chasing the train! __._,_.___ Posted by: atsf3460@frontier.com __,_._,___ |