Woodland Park Memories #8

Woodland Park Memories #8

The kids in the park are great. They were the reason I had a job at the park. They were also the source of some 'issues' with the train operation.

For context, remember that the train run at Woodland park was not in a protected or fenced area. The only controlled or fenced area was the actual ride area around the amusement park, and the locked garage and tunnel area. The gates to the ride area were always open during operations. The tracks were outside of this fenced area. The tracks covered a pretty decent area, with most of the run out of sight from the staff at the amusement portion of the park. Some of the track was hidden from almost anyone as there were a fair number of trees and bushes all over. Also, the park itself, at the time I worked there, was open to the public, without any admittance charge, or security fences at all. This environment proved a temptation for more then a few of the little darlings from the neighborhood.

I was fortunate that the kids never realized that the most vulnerable portion of the track was the initial downhill curve just outside of the amusement area, past our lunch area picnic table and then towards the tunnel. The relative closeness to the busy park area, plus the coming and going of staff through the back gate into the park likely was a deterrent.

That downhill stretch had limited visibility (On a curve), and the spot that I most worried about was right at the bottom of the hill. I could use the vacuum brakes to stop the train, even going downhill, but the likelihood that I would be able to stop within my limited sight distance if I detected an obstruction on the track was iffy to say the least. I figured, if it was "me" trying to create a mishap, that I'd force a medium sized rock between the diverging rail of the trailing point switch near the bottom of the hill, and the train engine would be effectively derailed. I kept that knowledge pretty quiet.

Coming around the corner into the brief stretch of track that led thru the tunnel was the favorite spot for kids to create barricades. It was a very rare day that I did not have to at least once, stop the train and jog into the tunnel to remove something or other that the kids had placed on the rails. Some times, when there had been a windy period and larger branches had fallen in the park, the kids could make a pretty impressive roadblock in the tunnel. Other times, it would be smaller, but still troublesome rocks, coins or some other junk.

What the kids never understood was that the tunnel was by far the easiest place for me to see any obstruction on the track. As the train run was well used from daily operation, the tops of the rails didn't have any rust and were shiny. (And it didn't rain IN the tunnel). Light from the far opening of the tunnel made twin lines of glow as the light reflected off of the rail tops. In the tunnel, I could detect ANYTHING on the rails down to and including something as small as a penny. The kids were likely disappointed, but they never caught me not noticing anything left in the tunnel.

Now on to the next most popular area for the kids to have 'fun', the bridge. The bridge over the path to Lower Woodland was built much as a real bridge would be for full size trains. A second set of guard rails were present to protect against a serious accident. Well, the presence of that second set of rails, made it a favorite place for kids to jam rocks, tree branches, pop cans and other things between the main rails and the guard rails. Here I didn't have the advantage of the natural light detection system as I had in the tunnel. The area is in shade, the rails were dark, the weathered wood of the bridge was dark and I just didn't have a lot of contrast between the background color and the natural dark colors of the rocks and other debris. I was also navigating a couple of curves prior to the tunnel so didn't have a straight sight line along the rails there.

Most times, and fortunately for me, they would go way over board on piling junk in that area, no doubt hoping for a re-creation of the climactic scene from the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai". When they overdid it, it was easier for me to see the problem and once again, stop, jump out, clear the debris and look around for someone to scare a bit so they didn't do it again. When the kids were crafty, likely the junior high crowd, they did a pretty decent job of hiding the rock between the rails and they somehow figured out that a rock there would lift my engine's flanged wheel up over the track and, well, there was that movie scene as an inspiration. What gave them away, and saved my bacon on many a run was that the kids just had to stay and watch. And while they were watching, they were hiding, and talking and pointing and laughing together, all giving me clues that something was up. They never got me there either.

Where I did get tripped up was a place that was on my radar for a hazard, but that hazard was from the foot traffic on the trail that led from the south end of the Feline (Lions and Tigers) house, across my track at grade, and down under the afore mentioned bridge. The crossing here was constructed much as a 'real' crossing would have been. Parallel to the track planks were spiked down between the rails to provide a relatively flat surface for the crossing. The planks were made to be about level with the rails with a gap next to the inside of the rails for the flange ways of the train wheels.

Here, a very inventive little so and so, had jammed a piece of steel about 9 inches long, a quarter of an inch thick that tapered from about an inch to over three inches across. The fellow had jammed the steel vertically against the inside of a rail, with the planks as camouflage, and the far end of the steel butting against a rail joint bolt so that it wasn't pushed out of the way by the wheels. Sure enough, I was crossing this section and suddenly, my lead A engine, leading truck, was lifted just enough and then was thumping along on the ties rather then the rails. Fortunate for me, I was going slow, as required by the crossing and only lost that lead truck of the front engine of the G-16.

I announced to the passengers that I was sorry, but they would have to walk back to the station and amusement park. I also went back to the park, explained the situation to the boss and we formed a work team with large crow bars and auto type jacks to lift and reset the truck back on the rails where it belonged.

We caught the fellow and he had a long session with George, the boss. George likely scared him spit less, as George was pretty good at scaring all of US in his crew when he wanted to. I always looked pretty close at that area after that, but never had trouble there again.

Dad

Moran State Park Part 5

The branch snapped and the full force of the Earths gravity took over. The images flashed through my mind. I thought of Isaac Newton and how this was basically his fault. I took note of the amount of rice we had back at camp which was zero. The cellphone would not survive the fall. I reached down and clutched my pocket to hopefully save the keys while my other arm was flailing about in that way humans do when they fall off something, flapping their arms in a silly attempt to be the first homo-sapien to achieve flight. It never works. Anyway, I was going down into the lake. Then something grabbed my arm! I looked up, it was Brad! Who apparently can catch falling humans while displaying the confident demeanor of a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt appearing on Jeopardy.

"No problem" says Brad pulling me back up on the rock while simultaneously using his other arm to nurse a baby deer with a bottle of warm milk. "Whew" I gasped. That was a close one. In a split second things went from Indiana Jones to Hans Gruber.

We took one last look at the lake from atop the rock and decided to press on. There was still trail to discover and a strange looking green structure to check out. We hiked on. At this point we we're more then halfway around the lake with Brad now riding on an enormous buck with 10 point antlers! Another testament to the mysterious power of the beard and the force it displays on both land and sea. 

We reached the green structure and inspected. It was probably a shed. Or maybe that's just what they wanted you to think. Nope. Definitely just a shed. Onward to the next point of interest along the great trail. A spot of grass with a few structures and a boat launch. Could you rent boats here? Perhaps. But at what cost? We needed answers and a bathroom so we continued on. The trail opened up to a large grassy patch along the banks of Cascade Lake. Brad bid farewell to his newfound forest dwelling friends and we made our way across the grass to the boat launch to see about some canoes. 

 

The fleet was impressive. Canoes. Pedal Boats. Paddle Boards. Other boats I can't remember the name of. They were ready for a massive shift to boating as the primary means of transportation. Should we boat? Maybe later we both decided. There's food at camp but not on the boat. We made our way back to camp and immediately set fire to wood. Before long we were roasting and chowing down on more wieners then Takeru Kobayashi (if you look this up make sure Google is set to Images). With the dog supply empty, the night approaching quickly and a nice musty tent to sleep in, we eventually laid down to catch some Z's and prepare for what lies ahead...

 

I have this mental "bucket list" of things I think would be really cool to do. At the very top of that list is to see Whales in their natural environment. I loved the whale and dolphin shows at Marine World when we lived in California. I am amazed at their size and yet such graceful and smooth movements in the water. And - whales sing!! I think these are absolutely awesome animals and I love to watch them every chance I get. But to see them in the water in their own habitat - that would be so incredible.

Well, my wish came true a couple of weeks ago when Bradley, Dad and I went on a whale watching tour out of Anacortes. It was a spectacular day - blue sky and sunshine. Not so warm when the boat was going full speed but that wasn't going to deter me from standing outside searching the water for whales. The skipper of the boat knew right where to go and it wasn't long before he found 2 humpback whales in their feeding area. We followed them for about an hour. What a sight. First you look for the water that they blow out as they are coming to the surface. Then you see the fin on top. They just slither through the water without hardly making a splash. Three times they rise a little and then under the water. The final time they arch their back, go under the water and flip their tale up. That's the best part! I was really hoping one would come completely out of the water but they didn't feel like it that day. We had to stay 100 yards away at all times but even at that distance you could see how large they were.

We left that area looking for Minky Whales (never heard of those before this trip) but guess they had all gone home for the night. We also looked for Puffins but they were not out either.

We did see harbor seals, sea lions, and two bald eagles.

It was an absolutely  amazing trip. Thanks Bradley for putting that together!

Mom

My First Half Marathon Part 3

As I continued to push myself to move my legs I began looking forward to the little groups of spectators and cheerleaders more and more.  I found myself getting the energy that I needed to move to the next group from these strangers calling out to me (and the thousands of other people running).  As we turned up 43^rd Ave I felt like I was fighting a losing battle.  My mind continued to tell my legs to run at the pace they knew how to run at, yet they were rebelling. 

I quickly passed the 8 mile marker and told myself only 5 miles to go.  I can do five miles, not a problem.  The course took us through some residential neighborhoods and there were people on their lawns cheering so it felt easy.  I was going to do this.  I had found my second, well maybe third or fourth wind and I was going to be able to push through.  As we turned onto Lake Washington Blvd I thought that I really had a chance to run the entire way.

Then I hit mile marker number 9.  Only 4 more miles to go.  ONLY 4 MORE MILES TO GO.  What was I thinking?  I have already been out here for nearly 2 hours and I do not know how much longer I can take it.  My pace was down to a steady walk.  My legs were screaming at me to stop.  I didn’t know if I was actually going to finish or not.

This mile was specially set aside for the Wear Blue: Run to Remember group that honors fallen soldiers.  For almost the entire run near Lake Washington every 10 feet or so was another placard with the picture of a fallen soldier on it.  If I wasn’t so tired I would have paid more attention to it. 

As I kept moving forward the words of our Team World Vision leader came back into my head.  (You know the ones I am talking about.)  The ones where she prayed that we all hit a wall so hard that we are no longer able to complete our journey.  Well I was hitting that wall at full force. 

I knew that if I stopped I would never get going again.  I knew that if I took even a small break that would be it for me.  So I kept my legs moving and I prayed.  I prayed for the strength to keep them moving.  I knew I was in pain.  I knew I was going to be in more pain when I finished but I prayed to continue. 

I thought about why I was doing this run.  I thought about all of the money that people had donated in my name to help those kids.  I knew that they would keep walking to and from the ponds to get water for their family no matter how painful it was.  So I kept moving.  It wasn’t fast but it was forward.  When I felt like it I ran.  When I couldn’t run I walked.  Through it all I just kept my legs moving.

So now I came to this steep, narrow incline to put me onto I-90 right at the start of the tunnel.  Up into the tunnel.  Up the steady incline of the road.  On and on with no change in scenery and no end in sight.  I just kept moving my legs until I saw the end of the tunnel and the marker for mile 10. 

The tunnel sucked.  The sameness of the walls.  The echo of everybody panting.  The staleness of the air.  It was the most monotonous part of the entire race.  But, I kept my legs moving.  I kept plodding up the hill until finally I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. 

I had finally made it to the mile 10 marker.  I had crossed into double digits.  I was back outside and moving down the I-90 Expressway back towards Seattle.  I could see my destination in front of me, WAY in front of me but in front none the less. 

I crossed the 11 mile marker and new that for the most part it was a downhill race to the finish line.  2 more miles to go.  2 miles was easy.  I run 2 miles on the BPA trail in Federal Way like it is nothing.  A simple down and back.  This is going to be easy I thought.

On I trudged.  A rule of thumb that I have when running is to never walk down a hill.  Gravity is my friend and I am not going to waste an opportunity to have my friend help me.  So I picked up my pace a bit going down the hills and I slowed back to my trudge when I hit a flat. 

Mile marker 12 was right around the corner at the end of the I-90 Expressway.  I was so close to the finish line I could almost taste it.  Although at this point the only taste I had in my mouth was from all of those Gatorade energy chews that I was eating one after the other trying to squeeze every last drop of energy out of them. 

Off the Expressway and onto Seattle Blvd for just a second and then onto 4^th Ave.  This was it.  I could see the stadiums right next to me and it was virtually all downhill.  All I had to do was keep moving.  Then we got to S Royal Brougham Way.  I hate, let me repeat that, I hate what they did to the road by making you go up and around the other roads.  Couldn’t they have just opened up the roads on the ground and let us through or something? 

So up the ramp I go.  Left foot.  Right foot.  Left foot.  Right foot.  All the way up the ramp I go just praying that I do not fall and roll down the ramp.  As I come down the ramp I see the gather of all the cheering people lined up on either side of the road.  I turn onto Occidental Ave and I can see the finish line ahead.  I am moving my legs as fast as they will go.  I am scanning the crowd hoping for just a glimpse of mom, dad or Lukas.  Up ahead I see them all cheering and waving.  My final motivation to just make it to the finish line up ahead. 

I was almost all alone on the straight away as I saw the emcee now cheering me on to make it through the finish.  I have always told Lukas to finish strong so I was not going to wimp out on him.  I pushed my way through the finish line high fiving the emcee as I went by. 

I was done.  I had finished 13.1 miles.  I walked to the nice lady handing out the medals and let her place mine over my neck.  I made my way through the different food stations.  Getting water and Gatorade, protein bars, and other things to help.  I went and got my aluminum blanket to keep some body heat near me.  I got my “official” finisher picture taken with my medal around my neck.  Then I made my way to an open area to sit down with the family. 

I started this journey several months ago and now I had completed it.  I was able to raise money and awareness for a great cause.  I was able to show Lu that if you put your mind to something you can accomplish it.  I am proud of what I accomplished.  Was it a full 26.2 mile marathon?  No.  Someday I will hold that medal around my neck but for right now I am proud that I of what I did accomplish.

13.1 miles is a long distance.  Don’t believe me?  Join me next year.

My First Half Marathon Part 2

So now I finally get up to the starting gate and my heart is pumping with antici . . . . . pation.  My ipod is playing.  The music is playing over the loudspeakers.  The emcees are doing their best to get the final group pumped up. 

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Go.

We are all off in a cheering mass of humanity.  I have to tell myself to consciously take it slow in the beginning.  I know that I do not want to use this burst of adrenaline right out of the gate and hit my wall too soon.  After about the first mile I find my rhythm and a pace that feels good. 

At the first mile marker just under an overpass (around Aurora and Denny) we come across our first band.  I wish that I had stopped to take a picture of the band names and other groups along the way but I was too focused on just keeping my legs moving.  The band however sounded good, it had a very Seattle, grunge type sound to it. 

I continued my way up Aurora Ave turning slightly onto Battery St in order to make my way onto the Viaduct.  Interestingly this will be one of the final races that will take place on the Viaduct before they demolish it in favor of the tunnel that may or may not get finished.

The view from the Viaduct was amazing.  Running along the water and seeing all the shops as well as the ferris wheel was a pretty cool experience.  I hit my second mile on the Viaduct and continued my pace all the way to the turn-around point just near the stadiums.

This was the first of many opportunities the course designers took to lead everybody one way just to turn them around and back track.  This first time wasn’t that bad because there was still a fairly large pack running both directions and everybody’s spirit was still high.  A lot of cheering and high fives across the lines as we made our way either up or down the road.

I hit my three mile mark just before getting off the Viaduct at Seneca St and I was still going strong.  I was still steady with the pace that I had set for myself before starting this adventure.  Now the challenge of Seattle hills was in front of me.  I traveled up Seneca St and turned onto 2^nd Ave. 

Once again there was another local Seattle band keeping up everybody’s spirits but to be honest I barely heard what they were playing.  I was so focused on my own playlist that I was not really paying attention to those bands. 

While travelling down 2^nd Ave I hit my 4^th mile just after Main St.  So far so good.  I knew that my training was paying off because I still did not feel much of a burn yet.  I was making sure to eat my energy gummy’s along the way.  I also tried to get a little water at each of the stations I passed.  I knew that keeping my energy up and my hydration up was going to help me finish.

Further down 2^nd Ave and we turned onto 4^th Ave before making our way onto Dearborn St.  This was the part of the course I was looking forward to because I knew that Lukas would be waiting for me (along with mom and dad) somewhere on Dearborn. 

As I made my way up Dearborn I spotted the motley crew yelling and screaming for me along with a bunch of other Team World Vision people cheering.  I was able to low five Lukas and get a burst of energy to help me make it up the hill until I got to mile marker number 5 just before our turn onto Rainer Ave.

Incidentally it is amazing how much getting high fived by a bunch of high school cheerleaders will help raise your spirits when you are tired.  Travelling up Dearborn I spotted the good ol’ BHS Cougar logo with a bunch of girls waving blue pom-poms.  I high fived the young girls only to realize just how old and how far removed from high school I actually was.  None the less I did not have time to dwell on it because it was time to head down Rainer Ave. 

Rainer Ave was where I first found myself getting a bit tired.  Partly because the rain started to fall and partly because of how long we were on that same street with no end in sight.  We passed mile marker 6 and 7 before coming to Genesee St where we would finally turn off. 

There were more cheerleaders to high five and a band or two playing but by this time I was too focused on keeping on track.  I knew that if I allowed myself to slow down or take a break I was done for.  I needed to push on and stay focused on the goal of finishing before my brain could tell me to quit. 

Now I was more than half way done.  I was feeling tired and sore but I was still moving.  I knew that from this point forward it was all downhill, well downhill figuratively because I knew that there were still a few uphill battles in my future.  

My First Half Marathon Part 1

So this weekend I completed my first official half marathon by participating in the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon series.  I also had the opportunity to raise money and awareness for kids and families in Africa who do not have clean water.  As an individual (but mostly thanks to the generous people who donated) I was able to raise $495.00 which was added to Team World Vision Seattle’s total of just over $322,000. 

My training for the marathon (26.2 miles) started back in January.  I had a pretty good training schedule as well as a good bunch of people to run with on Saturday mornings.  As I progressed in my training I was feeling more and more comfortable about completing my goal.  I was leading the group (or at least close to the front) in all of our shorter runs.  For the first couple of months everything was going great.  My stamina was getting longer, I was becoming more relaxed during the longer runs and I was feeling more excited about doing the event. 

Then life seemed to throw a couple of curves at me.  I got a couple of minor injuries that caused me to miss some running days.  I had gained some extra duties with Lukas which took up some more days.  All and all I was not able to keep to the schedule that I had set up.  However I was bound and determined to make it to race day. 

I knew that in order to not keel over I would have to switch from the full marathon to the half marathon.  In the end I am glad that I switched because I may still be out there crawling if I had tried for the full.  I kept training whenever I could squeeze in the time between Lukas and work.  The training was sporadic but at least I was moving in the right direction.

So race day was finally upon me.  The night before I worked until 10:30 pm and then got up promptly at 4:00 am to get dressed and out the door by 4:30 am.  I made my way up to the light rail station and purchased my ticket for the trip to Seattle.  It was a pretty full train made up of almost entirely runners.  I found a wall to stand against and just listened to my music and tried to psych myself up for the long run that I had in front of me.

Once I got off the light rail at Westlake I started to make the walk to the Space Needle where it would begin.  Unfortunately I forgot to purchase my monorail tickets at the expo so I had to hoof to the start.  Not a big deal because it allowed me to stretch my legs and take in the moment of what I was about to do. 

Once I got to the Space Needle I followed some other runners who were with Team World Vision to a little rally that they were holding.  There was a lot of inspirational talk about why we were doing this run and how much fun we would have.  Then the lady in charge decided she would curse each of the runners.  She decided to pray that we all hit a wall that we cannot just run through.  A wall so hard that it would knock us on our butts.  She placed this upon us so that when we hit this wall we have no other choice but to ask for divine help to finish the race.  (Her wish came true but more about that later.)

After a few pictures it was time to head to the bag check area and find our starting spots.  Since I did not have a bag to check I walked around for a bit just listening to my music and drinking some water.  Then it was off to section 40 out of 40 sections.  That’s right I was placed in the very last section.

So the peppy race announcers kept trying to psych everybody up and get the race started on a high note.  Around 7:15 am the first group was sent on their merry way. Every 2 minutes another group was sent off cheering and screaming.  If you do the math you will see that it took an additional 80 minutes before my group was allowed to go.  We must have walked a good 2 miles to the starting point, none of which counted towards the actual marathon. 

Scott

August 17, 2017

Consider this the first of several notices to you to do whatever you can to reserved the week of the 13th to the 19 of August 2017, or at a minimum, 8/17/2017 for a total solar eclipse.

I'd like this to be a reprise of the Great American Adventures we have taken together. Rest assured though, that we won't get lost this time!

Quick Commercial Break

I'm slacking on wrapping up The Adventures of Moran State Park, but in the meantime here's a video of Yosemite! This was one of the highlights for both Brad and I. Might look a little low key on the video, a bit slow, but it was amazing and I wish I was there right now. Enjoy!

Speaking of National Parks this year is the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Park Service. Which is probably the best thing our government has ever done. Actually besides the Constitution and the Bill of Rights I'm sure it is. Washington has three National Parks and they're all great. Can anyone guess all three?

Break a Pattern

I've stalled writing this one, as I wanted some time to pass from a series of events that seem to be triggered by something I didn't do that was normally my pattern. Now I'm not superstitious, but I've been on the receiving end of some good fun comments on what I triggered.

Day zero started by a trip to the Winco grocery for a pretty major shopping trip. We got a fair amount of frozen and refrigerated foods. When we came out, Mom pretty much started walking towards Dick's that is just next door. I, in a foolish moment, declined to do our normal little lunch stop when we're in that part of town. This turned out to be the "Danger, Danger Will Robinson" moment. (Points if you know that reference)

Later that night I received a robot call to call back regarding a credit card. It wasn't specific so I figured it was a sales call. Dum-de-dum.

Saturday, (The next day) I got up and noticed the refrigerator seemed a but warm. I figured it may have had a door that didn't close all the way because we added  something that didn't fit. The next morning, the ice tray was a puddle and everything was getting warm. Dum-de-dum. Yep, the 2.5 year old refer was toast. A trip to 3 appliance stores was required to find a replacement that would fit.

The next Monday, we hooked up the camper and discovered the vandal damage I wrote out earlier. Dum-de-dum.

In addition, when I went to use a credit card for replacement parts, it was declined. When I called the place to ask what was up, they said my card was canceled as someone had hacked my number and tried, failed, but tried, to do a fraudulent charge to a phony charity. Dum-de-dum.

All (so some folks say) on account of not taking advantage of a Dick's stop a week earlier.

Dad

Woodland Park Memories #7

I want to congratulate anyone who has hung in there with all of this little history of mine when I was a teenager. Thanks for reading.
Dad
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The G-16 MTC trains had a vacuum throttle and braking system. Vacuum is created in a carburetor equipped gasoline engine, especially when the throttle was at idle or low power setting when the throttle valve prevented a free flow of air into the intake manifold. The engine pistons would try to fill with air during the intake cycle with the throttle body preventing this. There was a tube that took this vacuum from the intake manifold and led to a tank, resembling a fuel tank that would accumulate the vacuum and provide it to the two cab controls, one each for the throttles and for the braking system. The throttle controlled both engines, with no provision for individual (A or B) control.

It's been noted that at least some models of the MTC G-16 series had in addition to the manifold system, an auxiliary, engine belt driven vacuum pump, at least on the A unit. The Woodland Park engines did not have this appliance.

The cab had two gauges related to this system. There was a reservoir vacuum gauge telling me how much vacuum 'pressure' that I had stored in the tanks, and for the braking system an applied, or train (brake) pipe vacuum level. The gauges used Inches of Mercury (similar to a common Barometer). A high value was about 15-18 inches or about 6-8 lbs/Sq In of pressure. That was the maximum that I had available to control the train, especially braking.

As you moved the control levers, either brake or throttle the control ported some of that vacuum pressure to either the bake line that ran the length of the train or to the engine throttles. Both systems used a cylinder, about 4 inches in diameter that moved a plunger into the cylinder as the air pressure outside pressed against the lower pressure (vacuum) inside the cylinder.

The throttles, having a pretty short distance from the control lever to the cylinders, responded pretty quickly to my movement of the levers. The train brakes, due to the length of the train, as well as the volume of air that had to be sucked out of the system had a pretty noticeable delay, between control application and braking affect.

You could feel the brake action, depending on how level the track was as the cylinders took affect starting at the engines and working back along the train cars length. On a full application stop, if the brakes went from released to full, the cars would chatter a bit as the slack in the couplings allowed the back of the train to run in to the front cars and engine a bit. This was caused by the vacuum working on the front car brakes, but hadn't yet sucked out the air in the back cars.

The train was not new and we had a period where we were always having to do repair on the brake hose couplings between the cars. The hoses were connected between cars with a set of rubber caps, that in theory would form a seal and preserve the vacuum pressure between cars as well as allow the cars to be uncoupled if required. They chronically leaked.

We'd have the brakes on full application, with the engines idling (highest vacuum) while stopped at the station and walk back and listen between the cars for any air leaks. When we found one, we'd apply some plastic tape. Over time we'd build up quite a number of layers of tape trying to squelch the vacuum leaks. I had an idea and approached the boss about solving the problem by removing the stock rubber caps and replacing the inter-car vacuum connections with lengths of common automotive fuel line hosing. I figured it was so rare that we actually uncoupled the cars, that the extra time when we did to remove the hoses wouldn't be an issue. That solved that problem for good. Maybe I should have asked for a bonus?

There was a very brief period when the brakes failed nearly completely. I was not the operator this day but was aware of the situation. During this time, we'd station two of our biggest ride operators up by the station and the train engines would be cut off as it entered the station area, just past the Great Northern locomotive. They would grab the cars of the slowly coasting train and stop the train through muscle power. Clearly, such a situation would not be tolerated these days. 

Another chore I took up on a series of slower days was to adjust the brake shoe slack on each of the cars. I over did the adjustment the first time, as my next run, I had to use a lot of throttle, even on level ground, just to get around. I backed off the adjustments and made sure on release, there was some slack on all of the brake shoe sets.

Brakes were important at Woodland Park. As I've noted earlier, the park grounds were anything but level and the trackage  traversed one hill or slope after another with changes of grade from downhill to uphill happening several times on the run. Only now, after seeing other park train layouts that are mostly level, or on very slight grades, and thinking back do I realize how much attention was required on this run to go back and forth between power levels and braking effort to keep the train going at the proper speed, gain momentum for the Elephant Barn hill and remain under control on downgrades.

As I've said, best job I've ever had.

After hearing about cutting through a propane hose to disconnect the tank.

Recap

Hi All,

Brad, Mom and I had a fabulous time last weekend watching Humpback whales up near the San Juan islands. Mom is working on the pictures. I have heard that we took quite a few. It was a great day with some very impressive guides and skippers. Captain Josh really had a talent for knowing where the whales would reappear after they did their 4-7 minute feeding dive. Chelsea (aka Gilli-Gal) had lots of interesting information on all of the whales that transit our area. I did some humming of the theme song from Gilligan's island as we left the harbor.

We took the camper up to Tinkam campground up near Snoqualmie pass, but had some surprises first. Seems some idiots tried to steal my propane tank off of the camper while it was in the compound storage area. The brain surgeons couldn't figure out how to disconnect the propane hose, so they tried to cut through it. Ruined the hose. They loosened the clamps, but again, the rocket scientists couldn't figure them out. They did figure out, likely bu accident how to drain my tank.

So we had an unscheduled stop at McClendons hardware to buy the closest thing they had to what I needed, but with some extra adapters, were able to get things to work.

Nice couple days camping after that. It can get really dark up at Tinkam.

Dad

Alaska

The main surprise for me on my quick trip to Alaska is how everything seems about the same as a city between the size of Kirkland and Bellevue. Anchorage is the main population center in the state.

There are the usual fast food places and other stores like Barnes and Noble, Lowes, Fred Meyer etc. etc.

There were a few things different that I noticed.

• No Freeways really, but the highways were pretty empty. No rush hour traffic.
• The satellite dishes are really aimed low, reminds me that the earth is round. 
• Lot of Moose warning signs. So far haven't seen any.
• A good sized lake is totally a Sea Plane base. Sea planes all around the lake with little huts for each parking spot.
• Everything costs more.
• No Sales tax (Again, second week in a row)
• Very long daylight hours. (Sun stays up past 11 PM)

Other than that, pretty much the same as anywhere. To be fair to the beautiful state, I didn't have the chance to get out to the fishing towns, glaciers or other wonders.
Dad