Notes: There was some question as to whether this one would make it upthe hill, he was sent through Plymouth as if he had enough power to make it
and it was not until he was at CH27 Beck Rd before everybody realized the
error. The Trainmaster had a brief conversation with the crew, and they
decided to go for it.
Now the weather at the time was not conductive to such an effort, brief
snow squalls threw powdery snow on the rails, and while a lot of it
immediately blew off, enough was present to make traction problematic.
For 5 miles he ground upgrade at 10mph at a steady pace, hardly wavering.
I could hear him over the roar of the wind from way off...
When he rounded the bend here the sunlight broke through the clouds and one
of those Winter God-Rays shone down from Heaven Itself. The snow on the
ground to the left of these GE's provided enough reflected light to
successfully pull off a shot into the sun with almost all of the train in
it's own shadow. I love winter photography.
Anyways, about a mile beyond this point the grade tops out and he cruised
on toward South Lyon and Brighton and points beyond. The crew rang up the
Trainmaster to let him know that they had made it, and he thanked the
engineer, whom he apparently knew personally. The engineer said: "Don't
thank me, we have a trainee today, his name is so-and-so".
Bet he made a good impression this day...
