The Time Machine

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to open a window on time, and step right through it.  Such happened to me when I was sixteen, and recalling the event now is a dandy way to beat the heat, as you'll soon see.

The time machine in question was Union Pacific #8444 {nee 844}; "Uncle Pete's" last 4-8-4 steam locomotive.  She was active in both freight and passenger service since her construction by American Locomotive Company {ALCO} in 1944.  In 1962 she was assigned to "special service" {excursions, business trains, etc.} and remained very much active, often having 20 or 30 outings a year.  She had never been retired, making Union Pacific the very last North American railroad to roster and operate a mainline steam locomotive.


The setting for this time-warp was the Union Pacific's Sedalia Subdivision main line, specifically the western slope of Kirkwood Hill, very near the Museum of Transport in St. Louis, Missouri.  Uncle Pete inherited the route when it merged with Missouri Pacific in 1982; it was originally laid out as the Pacific Railroad in 1852, and became MoPac around 1870.  The stretch between Kirkwood west to Barrett Station was originally single-track, with two tunnels at Barretts.  The MoP double-tracked the line in 1944, bypassing both tunnels with a new cut about 50 feet south of the original right-of-way.  The original alignment - including both tunnels - became property of the new Transport Museum when the new line was opened.


I grew up in a subdivision that bordered this intriguing main line on the south; and the Transport Museum was less than 3/4 of a mile from my home, to boot.  My brother and I both became rabid railfans at an early age, spending a great deal of our time either on "the Hill," or wandering around the Museum, oftentimes both in  the same day.  Oh yes, to make things even more interesting, the St. Louis - San Fransisco {Frisco} main line to Springfiled Mo. was 1/4 mile to the south, and eventually was integrated into our stomping grounds as we got older.


By the time I was 16, I knew both the MoP's and the Frisco's complete history backwards and forwards {as did my brother}.  Ironically, by that time {1984} both roads had been merged; the Frisco went into Burlington Northern {now Burlington Northern Santa Fe} in 1980.  I missed both roads, but I got a real treat when I heard that the UP was sending #8444 to the Louisiana World's Fair - via St. Louis, over the Sedalia Sub!!  More than anything else, I wished I had been born about 20 years before I was; that way, I could have seen MoPac steam on The Hill.

Now all of a sudden, #8444 was going to give me a real taste of "the way it was."  My time machine was on its' way.  March 10, 1984 was a typical late-winter day for St. Louis.  We had had a 4'' snowfall the night before, which was enough to close my school - leaving me free to go time-tripping!  I lost no time putting on my hiking boots and parka, grabbing a camera, and hotfooting it down to the tracks.  I was struck by the beauty of the setting when I got there, and fired off a quick shot: 

The shot is looking west {downgrade}; the #8444 would be coming east, up the Hill.  The blue arrow I added in the brush to the right of the tracks is pointing at the mouth of East Barretts tunnel on the old alignment.  Just after grabbing the shot above, I heard the unmistakable sound of a deep steamboat whistle, accompanied by the sounds of a hard-working locomotive coming up the hill fast.  Simultaneously, a tornado of steam exhaust materialized on the horizon above the bridge in the distance.

I had just enough time to clear the tracks, wind the film, and hit the auto-flash, before my time-machine made her grand entrance:



Such was her speed, I barely had time for one more shot:

In the space of about 45 seconds, beginning to end, #8444 took Kirkwood Hill in stride, her 12-car train sailing along at about 45-50 mph {note the passenger/freight speed limit sign just ahead of 8444}.  However, she also transported me back in time a good four decades; in my mind's eye, I was seeing a MoPac 2101-series 4-8-4, rushing a troop train east as part of the buildup for the D-Day invasion of Europe!  All but forgotten was the snow and below-freezing temperature, and I got a second pleasant jolt as the aroma of 8444's rich "Bunker C" exhaust wafted down to my nostrils.

Thanks to the aroma, my mind's eye caught a glimpse of my Dad as a new high-school graduate, preparing to enter the Navy, and eventual assignment on transports, PT boats, and the odd minesweeper, during his tour of duty in WWII.  Bunker C oil was the fuel of choice then, and remained 8444's diet long enough to bridge the gap between my Dad in 1944, and me in 1984.  As the final cap to the festivities, this day in question {March 10} just happened to be my Dad's birthday!

The rest of that day passed very quickly; I took the film in to 1-Hour Foto at the mall that afternoon, and the shot of 8444 with the World's Fair '84 banner on her smoke-lifter was sitting by Dad's place at the dinner table when he got home that night, as an impromptu birthday present.  Dad was surprised and got quite a kick out of it.  "If I could have, I would have gone in late to work just to be able to see that engine with you, Chris."  I just shook my head and laughed; I didn't have the nerve to tell him he had been there {in a way}, thanks to my time-tripping, and #8444's magnificent sights, sounds, and smells.

It's been more winters than I care to count since that magical March day when I became a sixteen-year-old time-traveller.  Both the Union Pacific and the #844 are still with us, and going strong {she became #844 again in 1989, when the diesel that she had been renumbered for was retired}.  Dad left this world in 2002, but not before we had experienced five active steam locomotives together - including 844 again {the other four were Norfolk and Western #611, and 1218; Frisco #1522, and 844's big brother, UP #3985}.  Oh, and my brother is now a conductor on the BNSF.

No, despite conventional wisdom, you really can go time-travelling any time you want.  All you need is an active steam locomotive, a bit of historical knowledge, and a touch of imagination - the experience will do the rest, and you simply won't be the same when it's all over with.  I know; I've literally been there, and done that, as the saying goes.  And I can't wait until the next time I can do it again, too!!  Perhaps next time it'll snow just a bit more; sure beats these dog-days!!

A Steam time-trip is COOL, Boys and Girls.  I hope this tale was the same for y'all, as a way to briefly escape the dog-days.

More shortly............. 

Hot Enough For Ya (Slight Return)?

Heat got ya down?
Why not try a MANLY drink:

Hot Enough For Ya?

My local Good Humor man sure thinks so..........

Did Somebody Say "Passion?"

I've been thinking a lot about all manner of passion in my life lately, thanks to my newfound friendship described in the previous post.  No, not so much the fact that Aneet happens to be a beautiful woman {my favorite snack-passion}; it's more along the lines of my daily or near-daily passions, writing and music.  A couple other online conversations I've participated in recently also got me to thinking about what gets the old adrenaline going, and why.


My writing is the more complicated answer.  If it's a non-earnings piece like a blog or whatever, then pretty much anything goes with me, depending on the subject matter.  I'll always inject a healthy dose of the warped humor, even in a "serious" piece.  The trick in those instances is cloaking the humor as irony, sarcasm, or a Twilight Zone-esque twist out of left field {which usually comes across as black humor}.  Sometimes all three at once, again depending on the material.  


For the paying freelance stuff, I go by whatever guidelines are dictated in a fairly straightforward manner.  The humor still lurks though; I just have to be a bit more careful about how and when I employ it, if at all.  I mean, a misplaced one-liner can stand out like a banana on a Christmas tree; rather bad form in say, a medical treatment breakthrough-analysis article written for a hospital journal!  I tend to avoid "straight" journalism pieces, like old-school newspaper articles {think Joe Friday's "just the facts, ma'am,"}, as well.  They're just not appreciated - let alone even written - anymore; nowadays it's all politics, personal bias, or both.  Boring as hell, and rather self-serving, to boot.  Not my bag at all.


Common to both forms is the very medium employed - printed words on a page or a screen.  It's very difficult to really convey strong emotion in print, but I've acquired a rather large bag o' tricks over the decades - and this is precisely where the passion kicks in.  Those "tricks" are actually techniques I employ to bring the writing to life, make it reach out and grab a casual reader's attention.  If done properly, the reader's focus is also captured, hopefully with a positive feeling left in them at the end.  Even in something like the hypothetical medical journal article mentioned earlier, the right editing of a piece can make or break it, even if no silliness is employed.  This is simply passion for the craft of writing as a whole, in other words.


With music, well, it's much easier to convey emotion, capture focus, blow some minds, etc.  Music excites me and stirs the passions in far more dramatic ways, and on good plays I do my level best to broadcast that energy any way I possibly can.  I don't care if it's the thousandth time I've played a "moldie oldie," or the tenth time I've played a new song I've discovered; if it moves me in some way, that's all I need to take the ball and run like hell.  On good nights I can project this energy directly into my bandmates, get them as riled up as I am, and then we proceed to blow away the audience as a unit.  More often than not I'll get my passion jump-started by what the other cats are doing; once I pick up on their vibe or groove I lock it down tight, then go like a bat out of hell.


If I'm the engine of the band, then passion is my fuel - and I'm damn proud to be an unrepentant FUEL-HOG!!!  As perfect illustration, have a gander at this:




 
Now, one thing you must keep in mind - this vid was shot at a jam-session.  Oh sure, a lot of musicians wouldn't get so worked up over a "mere" jam - because they aren't passionate in that way. I bounce off of my colleagues here pretty much the same way I do at a regular concert, and I daresay the energy and emotion come across pretty clearly, no?  Watch carefully, and you'll see I don't go in for any sort of theatrics or stage-cliche`s at all; the music is doing all the  heavy lifting, as it should.  All it takes is some passion, and a little conviction.

Either writing or music, it's impossible for me to say which I love more, because the passion flows differently for each.  From a purely physical standpoint, the music is way out in front, for obvious reasons.  Adrenaline coupled with passion is like a match to gasoline - or even atomic fission, on just the right occasion!  I'd have to type something like 3,000 words per minute to work up even a fraction of the adrenaline that flows when I make music.  I guess the easiest way to look at it is to say writing represents the Dr. Jekyll side of me, and music is good old Mr. Hyde.  They can co-exist quite nicely, and even swap sides on occasion, but they're both aspects of the same thing - passion - and I don't ever want to be without either one. 


More shortly.............

Return to Blogging pt.2: Of Blogs, Burnout, Blues, and a Beauty.......

Okay, we're gonna start all over again.

How ya doing, boys and girls!?   Nice to see y'all once more.  Welcome to the re-launch of my modest blogging efforts.  Ironically, I seem to have come full circle in a way - the immediate predecessor to this blog launched in early 2006, before I split Blogspot to concentrate on MySpace.  Over the next five years, the MySpace thing took off on a pretty crazy ride; blowing my way back into music {both taking and leaving several wounds}; suffering along with everybody else as this country fell for the charms of a jumped-up snake-oil salesman; and not a little personal drama now and again to add spice and stir things up.


Regular followers of my MySpace chronicle will know the back story already, but for the newcomers it is strongly suggested you peruse the older blog archives to get you up to speed:

MySpace Blog

Yeah, I know five years is a lot of material to sift through, but the MS blog remains the best chronicle for the historical stuff.  And it does contain a handful of pieces I'm rather proud of - you might say writing, like music, is one of my passions.  However, things came to a head at the end of last year / beginning of this year and I pretty much abandoned any kind of social interaction, save for a half-hearted presence on Facebook.


Fed up with blogging the same old mess, and rather pissed off about MySpace's "re-launch" in October of last year - which destroyed all the best features of MS blogs - I threw in the towel and went off to lick my wounds.  My Mother's passing in January of this year made it much easier to up and split, but I really just needed a break from what had become more grind than fun.  It weren't that way in the beginning, and I needed some time to figure out why.

Now, a good six months later, things are sorted out for the most part - and the old passion is starting to make a comeback of sorts.  During my down time, I must have been subconsciously searching for a bit of understanding, because I eventually stumbled across another blog that contained many expressions of how I was feeling; better still, it is written by a rather charming lady - Anitra Ford, to be precise:  

  














If you're near to my age, and a fan of old-school daytime TV game-shows, you'll recall Anitra from The Price Is Right - she was one of the original "Barker's Beauties," and I had a heavy crush on her for many years as a lad.  She left the show in 1976, and slowly "faded away," or at least out of my ken.  Flash forward three and a half decades, and through the minor miracle of this Interwideweb-thingy, who should I stumble across online but the very same Beauty who had stolen my youthful heart?


Turns out she's had her own set of ups and downs that left her wondering about the "meaning of it all" much like I have been doing the first half of this year.  After a time chasing a career in the "Dream Factory," Anitra found other outlets for her creative talents; photography and poetry writing - which eventually led to trying her hand at blogging herself, so she could combine her two passions into one.  After quietly soaking her blog in for a time, I nerved myself and attempted to make contact.  Stone me if she didn't promptly give me a big welcome as a new Friend - on the strength of one or two little notes!  {She really does do wonderful photography and writing; check out her site, which is linked over there ----->  in my complete profile}.


LSS, thanks to Anitra's kindness and creative abilities, I'm once again exercising some of my own passion.  Oh, and did I mention that she's still a Beauty???  I never would have thought I'd meet a former model and actress in this way, but there you go - for me at least, life is consistently unconsistent, no matter how hard I might rail against it.  Anitra echoes a similar sentiment on her own blog, so I feel somewhat vindicated, if not totally mollified {which I'm not}.  Where things might go from here is anyone's guess, but it's a fairly safe bet I'll be here writing about it in some fashion {and having a good time with all my accustomed "blog SFX."}.  

So stick around and see how things might shake out.  Feedback is always welcome, so long as it's CIVIL.  I don't "discourse" any other way, dig?      Poke around in the MS archives, visit Anitra's site, or simply sit tight and wait for the next ping; just know that I really do appreciate all of you who read or follow these silly little ramblings of mine.   


Anyone up for sharing another roller-coaster ride? 
   

The Return to Blogging

This is a test to see if I still know how to drive this damn thing.  Please bear with me.

Background and layout, check; colors and text formats look good - now let's try a pic:






















Pic looks good, so I guess it's ready to go.  Sit tight - more to follow shortly............