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Hi Ed - Was reading your posts re: Colorado railfanning, and it sounds as if you had a tremendous time. My son and I did most of the Colorado 'narrow gauge circle' about a decade ago, and it was a wonderful trip. We strted out at the Colorado Railway Museum, did Boulder, Colorado Springs, Georgetown, and then headed for the high country. The ride over the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray thru to Silverton and to Durango was one scary white knuckler - esp traveling south, as the worst drop offs are on the right side heading south for a good stretch of the way. Saw an 18 wheel North American Van Lines long moving truck heading north, and we had to back up almost a quarter mile for him to negotiate around a certain section where part of the roadway had fallen away into the canyon. . .Either he wasn't a very experienced driver, or his dispatcher had it in for him, and routed him over that road! And we were in an overloaded Ford Explorer with Firestones, and a just broken rear swaybar mount, and couldn't see out the back window. When one looks at a map of this area - esp the Ouray - Red Mountain and Silverton area, you wonder why they just didn't go right on thru to Ouray from Silverton - not that they didn't try to several times. There was a proposed electrified and very steep gradient route that almost got underway, and it was probably the Silver Panic that ultimately turned the gas off on the back burner on that connection. And if you look at where Telluride is on the RGS route in relation to Silverton on the D&RGW, the same question comes up. Why? That is until you drive over what was once the old roadbed of both the RGS and the D&RGW, as well as the old toll roads that supplemented the railroads where they couldn't get thru. It is awesome and rugged country. Teffy - I live in Cherokee County just down the road from Tom. I need to get up to his place and see his layout one of these days. The RR he's modeling - Southern's Murphy Branch, interchanged with the L&N "Hook & Eye Line" in Murphy, NC. Sounds like he's going to have a nice railroad when it's completed. Funny you mention that your first engine was a Mantua 'Shifter' - so was mine, and I purchased another one for nostalgia at a train show a few years ago, for my original is long gone. It never ran very well because the nylon gear would have to be perfectly aligned, or it would tear itself up very quickly, and especially after I took the engine apart one too many times. I got mine in the early '50s and I instantly converted from my American Flyer S tinplate, and my Marx O27 tinplate, when I realized that HO was far more realistic. I had never heard of a real railroad named "American Flyer Lines" anyway, and that always bothered me. I drink coffee in the AM and often into the afternoon, switching to (hot) tea late in the evening. No wonder I exist - usually - on very little sleep. . .When I lived in Raleigh until recently, locals would look wierd at you if you drank coffee much after breakfast, and instantly branded you as a Yankee, and they don't like Yankees very much in Raleigh. The only place you could get a decent cup of coffee after noontime in Raleigh was either one of the couple of Waffle Houses, or in the single Dennys location they had. Now there's at least Starbucks and Cariboo Coffee for those coffee drinking Northerners that are cautiously coming out of hiding up there. Got to now go and get a little something accompolished downstairs. BILL
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