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Spent the day in Parrish Florida for the Manatee Live Steamers annual meet. There were about 35 engines w/bunches of cars to ride on a 1 to 1&1/2 mile rail trip thru heavy foliage & large tree's, creeks w/narrow bridges & a nice short tunnel. I took 118 pictures w/my digital camera & I will show some pictures later on this evening. They only had 1 major derailment & one log car flip over. They also had an engine that was to wide to fit in the tight spaces in the woods. We(2) were there for about 8 hrs. It's a 60 mile trip one way from my house. Had a great time & rode lots of trains.
This web site will give you an idea of what it will take to get in the hobby.
"Plum Cove Studios" I met the owner at the show & I checked out their very informative web site. Most of the guys & gals at this show were running his box cab diesels. There were 2- B23's being unloaded when we left. There was 1 already there & I think I missed taking a picture. I liked their real crude turntable for unloading engines & cars from pickups & trailers & it actually worked real good. They also had 2 hydraulic lift tables for real heavy engines that worked even better.
This was a Great experience to see what the other scales do. There were also 3 diff. oval tracks for live Steam & Diesel in O scale & G scale.
They also had some tracks for 7&1/4" rail & a 4" rail that was entwined w/the rest of the larger rails.
Most of the people were real friendly, but, then there were some that didn't want anyone to touch their equipment or take rides. People pretty much stayed away from them & their trains. there was a 12hp briggs powered SW1500 pulling those 35 freight cars & some of the coal cars were carrying real loads. When we went to eat lunch at 1 of the train barns most of the younger people walked, but us old fogies took a train. When we got there, there was only one engine w/cars, when we got ready to walk back to the site there were about 15 trains clogging up the walkways. We had to squeeze between 2 tank cars to get back to the path. Lots of FUN-FUN-FUN.
Went to the Manatee division of Live Steamers & got some more pictures today. Not many there because most of the Snowbirds went home this week. Still thinking about getting me an electric to run on their track. Like I need another scale to keep busy.
I use to be a member at the Largo Club a few years ago. I believe that they still run for the public the first full weekend of the month from 10am-4pm Sat and Sun. A great group of friendly guys.
