As long as we're venturing from adjectives as nouns into steam
locomotives (locomotors? <vbg>), I'll have to put my two cents in.
When I lived in South Florida, I was quite active with the Gold Coast
Railroad, which operated several locomotives, including a steamer. For
about five years I operated a 4-6-2 light Pacific oil-burning steam
engine from 1913 for our weekend runabouts on the property. I enjoyed
it immensely and in due time got quite accustomed to the 120-degree heat
in the engine cab in the middle of August. The 95-degree warmth outside
absolutely felt like air-conditioning when you stepped down from the cab.
I also had the joy of being part of history: The museum owns and
maintains the U.S. Presidential Pullman, the "Ferdinand Magellan." In
1990, the Pentagon requested use of the car in Ogdensburg, New York for
the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Ogdensburg Agreement. This
is the joint US/Canadian defence agreement. The agreement was signed on
a sister car to the Magellan, however, that car was no longer
roadworthy. Of the seven cars in the original fleet, only two remained:
the Magellan and one sister. It was also appropriate that "U.S. No. 1"
be the car used for this auspicious occasion.
Since the car must be attended at all times if out on an exhibition
tour, three of us got to live aboard this armoured fortress for a month
while it went from Miami to upstate New York and back. Of course, we
slept in the crews quarters and in Stateroom A. Staterooms B & C were
*absolutely* off limits, though we did use the connecting shower, as we
weren't able to get the one in the crew quarters to work right. (Hadn't
been used since Kennedy administration.) The only real workout was in
NY, when the air pressure in the water tank had run out, and I got to
manually pump it up again for about an hour. (Imagine pumping an
over-sized bicycle pump for an hour!)
Thurlow
Lancaster OH
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