Funny how things slowly come back from you’re past that you thought you had long forgot.....

Back when I was a preteen, early nineties. Ken was trying to presuede me to enjoy the mechanical complexiities that is steam. Being young and a Diesel guy, I sorta listened so I thought. Ken began telling me about compound Mallets and that it was pronounced “Malley” and how true mallets compounded steam in two or more stages, producing a locomotive that made more power but was fuel and water efficient.

Years later I had gotten an old Harley Davidson FXR running and decided to take it on a shake down run, from Palo Alto I rode east towards the Dumbarton. Things were going good so I headed towards NIles Canyon. Low and behold Clover Valley #4 had just been restored and was doing shake down runs of its own up and down the canyon. As I watched #4 steam by under the tell tales. All the stuff about Ken and how compound mallets worked came flashing back. At that moment I relized how important it was that Clover Valley #4 was running the rails again. And being older probably not wiser yet, I very much understood the magnificence of such a steam engine design, thanks to Ken.