During the last few days of January and first days of February, the Midwest Central Railroad's staff, the
Anderson Tooling Company's employees, and the
Georgetown Loop Railroad's staff, loaded, transported, and unloaded the MCRR's prize Class "C" three truck narrow gauge Shay locomotive.
Various newspaper articles have appeared in the Mount Pleasant IA (
here and
here),
Burlington IA, and
Denver CO newspapers. (You can search those websites for the articles.) The
Narrow Gauge Discussion forum has several threads regarding the 9's move to Colorado.
NOTE: The following collection of pictures are from various MCRR and
GLRR staff members.
The 9 had been partially disassembled over the early part of January. By late January, all that was left to do was load the 9 onto the trailer and start driving "west."
From the onset, the weather wasn't too cooperative. Many inches of snow and ice had blocked the tracks from the MCRR's shop to the South Station where the trailer was waiting.
MCRR staff clean the rails to prevent the 14 or 9 from derailing.
The diesel 14 pushes the 9 into the east end of the South Station.
A special "track" was built to hold the 9 while on the trailer. There was a special ramp built that would extend from the real track onto the trailer. The 14 had quite a challenge in pushing the 9 onto the trailer.
With the 9 and its tender loaded onto two trailers, the drive to Colorado was about to begin.
Near Des Moines, the caravan exited I-80. A Des Moines-based MCRR member met the trucks and took a few pictures of them entering and exiting the interstate highway.
The trucks are nearing their destination.
Unloading the tender.
Unloading the locomotive.
It looks like the GLRR staff couldn't wait to light a fire in our Shay! Hahahaha -- that is their smokey diesel switch engine, with its stack perfectly in line with our Shay's stack.
Here a few shots of the scenery which the 9 will be traveling. This beats the snot out of the little trestle at the north east end of McMillan Park!
-steam.airman
