Inaugural Steamup at Bill Crane's

by Richard Finlayson

Bill Crane's 460 feet of elevated LLagas Creek track was only outdone by his wife Cherron's hospitality. An extended weekend of steaming was had by people travelling from all quarters to break in Bill's recently completed double track mainline. The layout features an ingenious turntable steaming bay and sweeping curves with an unmatched view of the Chesapeake Bay.

A fast moving cold front attempted to scuttle the weekend steamup but good running was had by all with the fireman's skills at a premium. The highlight was Jerry Reshew's Aster T3, with the lowlight (!) being the complete derailment of Bill's Roundhouse #24 over the side when an entire rake of rolling stock blew off the track and took the head end power with it. No damage to report so all's well that ends well.

Here's Jerry with his Aster T3.

Here's the T3 with Aster's ingenieous water and alcohol tender car. Jerry repainted it to more closely match the livery colors and added detailing.

That's our host on the right, with his good friend C.R. working over the #24 that was soon to sprout wings.

Here's an ethereal view of the newly completed mainline.

>An extremely cool modification of Aster's early Mogul by Paul and Harry Quirk. This locomotive is 20 years old and runs like new.

Three experts and four hours later I finally got my Schools running like the champ that it is. 2+ years on the shelf had tried a few seals and gaskets out but she put in a supreme performance. Check out the scorched boiler...

Group shot!

Groupie shot!

My Wrightscale Porter's first real run and all went well. The burner is so quiet that with the wind I could hardly tell what the fire was doing.

We all had a great time, and Bill actually let us leave with our locomotives. What more could you ask for?!