It was the monthly meeting of the HSSLS and Dennis invited some of the HALS (7½" gauge) group to attend. Some of them have Ga 1 steamers in addition to the big stuff and Dennis has an oval of 7½" gauge track nearly 200 ft. long, in addition to his long oval of elevated Ga 1. So while most of us were firing up to run topside, Dennis and Maury Gibson were supervising the action on the ground. There were two flat cars for riding behind the diesel outline switch engine. While he had an audience Dennis showed us a few tricks to ballasting as well. Even had another engine - a free lance speeder show up to run on the ground-level track!

The big event with Charlie took place late in the afternoon when he answered a challenge about his recently completed 0-10-0 C&O switcher. This is a very powerful machine that Charlie is justly proud to show. He used a universal coupling device (formerly a coat hanger) and attached one of the 7½" gauge “riding cars”. Then with his son (also Charlie) riding, the engine was fired up (propane fuel); and, when steam was up - pulled that riding car up (including a slight grade) and down the track. He did this not just once but at least half-a-dozen times to great rounds of awe and applause. Charlie was grinning from ear to ear! He plans to build this fine looking (very prototypical), excellent running engine in “G” gauge. If anybody has a passion for the C&O they should check with Charlie because the rumor is he plans to build more than one. It won't be inexpensive but it will probably be the finest engine a person ever owned.

Charlie wasn’t the only “show stopper” either. One of our newest members John Thomson from Mesquite (that’s near Dallas folks) took the BAGRS project loco to the ends for which it was intended. John just found out about live steam in this scale/gauge about four months ago. After he built the kit from Potomac Steam he immediately started upgrading and modifying. First he replaced the sterno (“which took ten minutes to raise steam and had very little performance”) with a custom made 3-wick alcohol burner. Next he added almost four pounds of weight to give the engine traction. Now he had so much power he had to add a throttle ... the end result is a terrific little engine which hauls about 5 Northeast Narrow Gauge cars around the track for about 20 minutes. Way to go John! A lot of folks were impressed (Scotty should be getting some more calls.) We can’t wait for him to bring it to Diamondhead in January!

And we aren’t through yet. Although we complain about the heat occassionally (like when you can boil water without using fuel) we are able to run our trains year round. The next scheduled event will be the Sunday after Christmas at my home. We’ll be fine tuning our little engines for Diamondhead in January '99.

Keep the Steam up ... Jim Crabb