In the KC&G news:
The KC&G has sent SLSF #214 back to the Frisco at KC. The 214 had been used sparingly down on the Ozark Sub as a stand-in switch engine when needed. Rumor has it that the KC&G bean counters decided the lease fee wasn't worth it. Got to be as savin' as you can, 'ya know. After all, one of the favorite sayings of the KC&G's new CEO is: "Waste not, want not!" (Of course, bankruptcy will cause a feller to watch their spending more carefully!)
Anyways, it looks like the #214 made it to KC safe and sound. AND, it looks like the Frisco ran it through their shop and threw on a coat of new paint!
Here's a pic someone snapped of the Frisco #214 in KC:
However, there were even more changes, seems the #136 (one of the KC&G's NW2's), has been pulled as the switcher at Mountain Springs on the Ozark Sub, and now it, too, is back in KC where it started its career so many years ago.
Some rail nut up in KC snapped a picture of the #136 it shortly after its return to working in the KC area. Here's a pic from almost the same spot as the above pic of SLSF #214 was snapped:
Looks like life was hard for the #136 down on the Ozark Sub, for the front stack has had the snot knocked out of it and was bent by a low hanging limb or something. Cab awning looks a bit beat up, too.
Word has it that there's currently a strange engine being used at Mountain Springs. It's some kind of road switcher... but not one like is commonly seen on the Ozark Sub.
Maybe a pic will surface "one of these days" of whatever that engine is that's going to be up at Mountain Springs for a spell?
All fer now.
Update:
Well, when talking to Jimmy Don McCradden on the phone (Jimmy Don's my second cousin, likes trains, an' lives down there in KC&G Ozark Sub country near Ozarka), well, he wuz sayin' that new engine up at Mountain Springs don't sound like them "covered wagon" type engines... or those "geep" engines. Sort of a different sound. Knowin' Jimmy Don, he'll pester one of the KC&G's crew down there an' see if'n he can find out more. Or, better yet, he'll tromp over to the old roundhouse at Ozarka an' talk to ol' Jess. Jess'll know what it is, fer he'll have to be in on servicin' it as well as doing that inspection that needs to be done every few months. Next time my family and me go from KC down to the Ozarks to see our kin, maybe me an' Jimmy Don can go on over to the railroad, or better yet, git up to Mountain Springs and see it for ourselves... if'n its still there when I do git down that way. It's neato that we both like trains, and both of us like the KC&G. I git to see 'em up here in KC, an' Jimmy Don see's 'em down there in the Ozarks.
(Note to the sane: All of the above comes from my way over-active imagination.)
Andre
