Milwaukee Road The Energizer Bunny of Steam! 261

摘要

On June 25, 2006, the crew of Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 No. 261 had a problem. The Amtrak diesel supplying the excursion train with electricity blew a fuel line, and the train was stopped on Canadian Pacific's main line near Nashotah siding 25 miles west of Milwaukee. The sold-out round trip from Milwaukee to Wisconsin Dells, the first public excursions for 261 out of its "hometown" since restoration in 1993, was on the way back to Milwaukee on a sweltering summer day. The crew could wait for a new diesel to arrive or try and ran for it and hope to make it back before the cars got too hot for the passengers. The answer, of course, was to do what the locomotive's operator, the "Friends of the 261," always does: press on regardless.