Saturday, July 31, 2010

CWM Train shop


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The little machine to the right is the "little engine that could". It's name is Chappie and is a 1 man mule. That's what we used for pulling the flats out and putting them away- 1 by 1. Quite often when the brakes on the flat didn't hold we'd sail down the grade and the thing would jump the track. Frank would always carry a bucket of sand for traction. It was the flatcar riders (brakeman)job to sand the track for the next trip up the hill. You didn't have to spend money in the Dells to get a real thrill ride back then. A number of years prior the rain/river washed out the track at the bottom of the hill. Going down you were always praying that the brakes would hold before you went thru the chainlink fence at the bottom and ran out of track. Sometimes your prayers weren't answered.
Flint