@Nick Chillianis posted:Just to add to that, Jack,
I'm pretty sure the fireman on some of those runs was Darrell Cason, someone I believe you may know.
Sure do. We had Darrell, and one or two others from the early 819 crew, come with us on the 1984 New Orleans Worlds Fair Daylight (down in Texas), for training. Darrell is a good guy, but a bit difficult to understand. I remember that he was working at the big paper mill, there in the Pine Bluffs are, a learned quickly about steam locomotives.
He fired some for Steve Lee, mainly on the 3985. I seriously doubt that a no-nonsense guy like Steve Lee would let someone who didn't know what he was doing fire one of his charges.
Correct. Darrell did his best, even though 3985 was pretty difficult to fire, early on, after the oil burning conversion.
Darrel has moved from Arkansas to the Nashville area and is presently involved with the restoration effort on NC&StL 576.
That's good news. I had heard that Darrell had passed away, quite some years ago.
