Also helped that I volunteered in the shop from 89 thru around 93 as I finished high school and tech college. So I have had some throttle time and spent a saturday in the spring degreasing and washing that unit, as well as the two SW1200s and its running mate. That pic is near the end of my time around the Central, thats either 1753 or 1753 trailing the 1751. Both where ex BN GP10 Paducah rebuilds that had the ox yoke style intake filters, 4 exhaust stacks. I also have the remains of the strobes from both 1751 and 1751, one fired and one smashed by tree branch. Then I have the huge amber Prime electronic beacon from the 1752, its fully functional, a grain loading hose removed it from the roof along with the units firecracker antenna, there insurance paid for them, and I got the beacon for helping around the shop. Learned how to start, run and somewhat maintain an early EMD there from the head mechanic. Toward the end even the lines president warmed up to me, trusting me to shift engines around in the shop on saturdays when needed. One weekend the big grainery on the north end of town called in an emergency run, the needed power was on 2 differnet tracks and burried behind other dead units. The president in shirt and tie changed tracks, while I ran the locomotives. I knew how to run EMDs, MU them up and run an air brake test before I had a drivers license! Those where the days, pre 9-11, just had to watch for the FRA, but they didnt come around much. Sometimes I got to ride with the crew over the road, and get a little throttle time then to, with the engineer standing behind me. Running light power is easy, but with 80 loads of grain on the drawbar, its a totaly differnt ball game! Cheers Mike
