…you know how it is. seeing them lined up on the shelf can get a mite bothersome and even though it’s hovering around 33F here most of the time, I was getting serious withdrawal symptoms from not running. Heck, it’s been at least a month since we had a steam-up, and THAT was in the shed, not on the newly-completed track.
Hauled out the Garratt, made sure that the r/c was all charged up [phew], struggled onto the track and then noticed that -
a. it was getting colder by the minute.
b. it was getting gloomy [er], also by the minute.
Ho hum, I thort, I’m here now and time’s a’wastin’.
GOW, fire her up, warm water around the gas tank and waited…almost twenty minutes passed before we had sufficient steam to blow the detritus out of the drain cocks and grudgingly move around the track in the gloon. Great steam plumes. in fact, magnificent steam plumes, more like a hard-working Shay on the Cass than a hardly-working Garratt on the VBR…
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. something wrong here, just does not want to go easily. We let her go around a few more times, but the gas was not flowing, in spite of all the good vibes, and after twenty minutes or so we called it a day.
Still, we proved the new track was operable, and the that r/c was working, and that, given a better day, all would be well[er].
Then I noticed
a. the darkness was almsot complete.
b. the outside temperature gauge was reading -5C
So…kudos to Mr AccuCraft for making a loco that will still operate, albeit grudgingly, at temps below zero.
It was STILL a great, if somewhat shorter run than usual. but heck, at least we DID it, eh?
tac
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