I'm sorry, but I think I'm over "4014 madness". For the last week I have been watching one YouTube video after another, hoping to catch the engine making some racket. Instead I see the locomotive mostly drifting with the whistle being blown nearly constantly and nothing but siderods clanking away, in the very few moments when the whistle actually shuts up.
The titles and comments on these videos are laughable. Words like "Blasting", "Pounding", "Roaring" etc. accompany videos of the engine barely making any sound at all, no stack talk nothing. I swear the blower has to be on all the time because she sure as hell isn't creating much of a draft.
It's almost as if these people are seeing what they want to believe versus the reality of what they are actually seeing.
Maybe there will finally be something to see in October, when she takes on the 2.2% grades of Cajon and Cima, but I'm not holding my breath. For all I know they will throw 4 stinking GEVOs behind her and the incessant whistling and rod-clanking will be all there is to hear in the mountain passes.
Say what you want but Steve Lee and company let the old gals work and get some dirt on them.
Dickens appears not to want to muss the lady's hair.
I'm happy that I didn't waste my time and money to travel and chase after her. Maybe I'll drive over to Memphis to have a look, if and when they come this way.
