Good Company

Always.  As it was before, as it must continue to be.


A beautiful old friend of mine returns to life.   The Skookum 2-4-4-2 Mallet, a true compound locomotive, was restored by Paul Pool and Sam Pool in 2010.  From that time well into 2011, I ran this engine and made many good memories on her.  Sadly, after a rather bad wreck in late 2011, she was silenced for an in-determinate time, and when Paul moved the Florida, the engine's future appeared in doubt.

The day I heard of the wreck, I had promised to return this engine to life and rekindle those beautiful memories of time spent with this engineering work of art.  On Friday, I voyaged up to find a crashed locomotive.  I began work at 9:00 AM, and by 2:00 PM I threw a fire into the firebox of what we had made into a steamable locomotive.  AMong other things were a repair to the smashed pilot truck suspension, and the re-soldering of a water pipe fitting that had been completely destroyed.

My dear friend Phil Christopher and I took charge for the weekend.  Thank you to Paul and Sam Pool for this opportunity and letting us spend the time to breathe new life into our big blue double-expansion friend.