The "Past" is Bowled Over By the "Present" in New England

This past Friday evening the boys of the Friday Night Group descended upon Mr. Mueller's residence for a dose of good old model railroad fun and laughter and a healthy prescription of train running! It was also one of our last chances to enjoy the company of Wally, our "adopted cousin" from south of the border. You see, Wally will be moving back to the United States in a few short months and all Ottawa area train enthusiasts will miss his presence in the region.

Mike M. met Wally early on in Wally's stay in Ottawa. Wally came out to the Streetcar Restoration Group and was very interested to see the work the boys were doing on the 696 Ottawa streetcar. He and Mike struck up a close friendship, and through MIke, the rest of us were able to meet and get to know this knowledgeable railroad employee. Wally has spent his career working for the railroads, and he has worked as a diesel locomotive engineer in Colorado. Thanks Mike for sharing yours and Wally's friendship with the rest of the boys on Friday nights!

Let's talk about our session! I'm sure that Marty and Trevor will find this posting to be very interesting...as the activity on this evening was not going to be your typical New England fare!

Here we see Bill (with Jim outta da picture) working the mainline in town and their job on this evening was fraught with numerous challenges. You see, Mike had arranged the train orders to include a meet of a B&M train with the local crew in town. Easy enough, one would think...yet this was hardly the case on this evening! Bill's train size was the absolute maximum allowable for the siding. Well, suffice it to say, that after the blue air cleared in the room, Bill and Jim were ready to head home...except for a little surprise that awaited us all!

I had just turned to Mr. Mueller to say that we should beat an early and hasty exit as he and Rick were to awake at "the crack of dawn" the next morning to drive to Syracuse for the train show...but the Mueller Man had other plans in store! "Not yet, Mikey!" he said to me with a big grin. "I've got one last train and I want you to run it!" Mike handed me the train orders and they read... "Extra...Railfan Tour" "Mike Hamer, Commander" "Staging Track 2" "Station Stop Claremont Jct." "Station Stop Abbott Village" "Stop Claremont and park train on the Main".

So I took the throttle wondering what unusual surprise would be lurking in staging. I soon found my answer when I pulled the train out of staging track number 2 and its' snout exited the tunnel located close to the entrance to the room.

Whoa! Everyone drew a huge breath when this modern marvel of technology reared its face at the tunnel entrance! Typically we would expect a B&M train in care of an RS3 or a GP7...not something that came off the drawing board within the past couple of years! But, when you run trains at Mike Mueller's place...the "out of the ordinary" soon becomes the expected!

"What the H-E-"double hockey sticks" is that monstrosity!" someone was overheard whispering.

"Why, it looks like a bloody Road Runner!" another operator gasped.

"That thing looks like it should ply the rails in "New" Mexico, not "New" England, Hamer was heard to say.

"Precisely!" responded the Mueller Man with that great big grin of his. "It's not my train...it's Sandi's! She saw it while we were down in the southwest and she just had to buy it! I promised that I'd run it on the layout to shock...I mean...impress the boys! After all...after running 44 and 70-tonners around this joint all the time, I thought this'd add a bit of excitement on a Friday night!"

"Go ahead, Mike!" Mike said to me. "Take the train for a spin around Claremont and Concord.

"Only if I don't have to do any street running!" I laughed under my breath!

"Put her through her paces, Mikey!" I heard someone call out. So, I cranked up the throttle and she was through town in no time at all. By the time railfans had their cameras at the ready, there was no train to be seen...only the cars parked on the siding and the tracks in the street in the lower section of town.

The name "Rail Runner" was a very appropriate term for this "runaway creature". In no time at all I was past the junction and piercing the beautiful covered bridge. Now you can well imagine the looks on the faces of the locals who were used to seeing nothing but 44 or 70-tonners exit the narrow opening of the bridge!

The farmer whose land is bisected by the railroad tracks went running back into the farmhouse shouting to his wife something about the biggest "chicken" he had ever seen invading their property!

The train rounded the bend in the tracks out near the junction with the narrow gauge railroad and began to slow for its station stop at Abbot Village. In farm country, word spreads faster than you can spit yer tabacco and many came to the station at Abbot to see this monster of a farm hen.

"I see the narrow gauge boys are scrappin' a bunch of cars out in the field," farmer Rick was heard to say.

"Yeah...and what about them big diesels out there?" replied farmer Stan. "Looks like they'll be cut up for scrap. Hey, maybe the Claremont and Concord wants to make one of them there new fandangled fancy lookin' machines and paint it in their own colours!"

Moments before this modern gizmo of a train slowed for its approach into Abbot, a "barn-burner" of a pilot screamed down low over the platform scattering all the on-lookers like cockroaches to light!

Not a person was to be seen as they all ducked for cover! We've heard that all the toothpicks in the toothpick factory, the long white building in behind the station, were scattered by the millions all over the factory floor.

Yes, it is true...the residents of Claremont and Abbot have never experienced a day like this before. Indeed, it was a day to be remembered!

This story is dedicated to our good buddy, Wally Weart, who we will miss a great deal. Continued success in all your endeavours, Wally. Hey, when you are relocated in the Virginia area outside DC...let us know. Maybe you could host a Friday Night Session at your new place...and don't you worry, we'll be there! Much thanks to Mike M. for hosting and allowing the camera in.