You always remember the first one so they say. It was 1948 or at least pre-August 1949. My father was building a 1/2 inch scale GS 2. This was way before the Dunscomb, Wright and Church books. He needed to take some measurements of the running gear as these weren't clear on the prints he had. We took a ride over to San Francisco to what I called the Maraposa Street roundhouse. Actually it was the Mission Bay Roundhouse. But that's what I called it as that was the street we parked the car on and where the hole in the fence was we crawled through. We found some GS's on some service tracks. My father took the measurements he needed and recorded them on some paper. Then we walked over by the turntable and watched a 4300 roll out of the roundhouse and onto the turntable. As we were watching, a man walked over to us and we talked for awhile. He asked if we wanted to take a ride. I almost wet my pants as I asked, "could we?" I think I was about 10 or 11 at the time. He said sure and led us over to a 4400 (the exact number escapes me now. It was all black and had no skirts. It could have been a "War Baby" I don't know) which was on a track on the roundhouse side of the turntable. Up into the cab we climbed. To me, that thing was huge and it was hot in the cab. He put the reverse gear into forward, opened the throttle a few clicks, released the engine brakes and we crept onto the turntable where he stopped it. We took a ride on the turntable and moved onto the track that was selected. The next one was in 92 in the Newhall Yard in San Jose and Jack played switch engine with 4449 to place some newly arrived domes and a lounge in the consist for a trip to Sacramento the next day. I'll never forget those two days. Ever Well, actually a third day. I got to ride in Yes Dear to Sacramento and back to San Jose. Yep I was bitten in the late 40's and I still have the disease. God how I love steam.
Bill