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AL'S RAILINGS-

NEWS & NOTES ON RAILWAY PHILATELY

Volume 7 Number 8 ................ PRICE $1.50 (10 ISSUES FOR $12.00)............... May 1, 2002

Dear Fellow Rail Philatelist:

The older I get the less efficient I must be. Seems like it has taken me forever to get the OPQ and R lists together. Maybe it is just a hangover from the successful show trip to Helena, MT and San Francisco, CA plus a quick non-stamp trip to Omaha, NE. I really worked overtime to catch-up on things before I left and almost made it. Unfortunately I still had a few orders unfilled and some more new issues to mail out when I left. I also ended up taking the April newsletter with me. I stuffed envelopes in my Billings and Helena motel rooms, which explains the Montana postmarks I hope you all received. Now that this is finally completed, I have several orders and even more new issues to get out. Sorry for the delay! .

STAMPLIST DATABASE: The Microsoft Access database I use to create the alphabetical stamp lists has now grown to over 8000 records and 17+ megabytes. And the number of items offered in each monthly list has grown about 11% on average over the past year from a low of only 1% in the M list to 21% in the N list. This months OPQ list has 11% more items than the last issue while the R list only increased 5 %, probably because I had already listed almost everything Romania and Russia have issued. The actual new offerings are somewhat greater than that however for two reasons that I know are significant but I don't have the time to calculate in detail: (1) Some items are sold out and deleted while other items are added - I only tally the total number of lines offered. (2) Often "Mint" are added where only "Used" was previously listed (and vice versa) - this doesn't change the line count but does increase the offerings, especially for those of you who collect both Mint and Used copies of each item. This month's R list has 50 asterisked (*) items indicating they weren't on the previous list out of 286 items - i.e. 17% new offerings (and sometimes I forget to include the (*)). Consequently, I am quite pleased with the progress I'm making in offering you all the train stamps possible. Now, if I could just get the newsletters out on time and the orders filled faster! .

APRIL TRAVEL: Trying to get the new issues out resulted in a late start on my Big Sky Country - Bay Area trip. It was after noon when I got on the road. There wasn't much rail activity to report, just a couple coal trains waiting to go south in Denver and three manifests waiting to get east thru Cheyenne, WY where there was snow on the ground. Fortunately the roads were dry for the most part. I met a SB BNSF coal train just south of Casper, WY and crossed over an EB TOFC west of Sheridan, WY as a light snow started to fall. Saw the light of an EB on the old Northern Pacific line east of Billings just before I got to my motel at 11 PM. Stayed up a couple hours getting newsletters ready to mail, then crashed. After finding a post office Saturday morning, I had the senior omelet breakfast at Perkins - as good as the regular menu and not so overfilling - I guess I am getting old! As I left Perkins, I heard the dispatcher give a train permission to "Highball". I has happy to meet the EB manifest a few miles east of Laurel led by BNSF #5502, 5504, & 5503- it isn't often you see a consist with consecutive numbers. .

MONTANA RAIL LINK: My circuit of the Montana Rail Link Laurel Yard was rewarding too. There were a couple strings of empty welded rail cars and one partially loaded at the welded rail facility, about 15 BNSF locos in all paint schemes at the engine service facility, and both ends of the yard were being worked by MRL SW-1200s with a "Remote Control Caboose". The set on the west end was evidently having problems because I kept hearing a computer voice call "Brake test failed. Re-try using manual system." Or something like that. The east end set and another geep were both busy flat switching strings of cars. I met an EB BNSF manifest a few miles east of Livingston where I stopped to check out the train show and the Livingston Rebuild Center. There were about 50 SD-40-2s sitting idle near the LRC, most in Cascade Green but some in Heritage colors. There were also about eight LRC "U-Boat" lease units sitting idle. The MRL had a string of about 20 SD-45s sitting idle near their shop as well. In front of the beautiful former Northern Pacific station sat a string of five MRL flatcars loaded with all kinds of work equipment, four pieces per car. Almost as if they were a static display for the train show. My past trips to Montana have always been hectic - drive to Billings or Livingston on Friday, get up early Saturday to set up for the Livingston show, do the show, load the van, go to Mass, grab some dinner and drive to Helena. Get up early Sunday to set up for the Helena show, do the show, load the van, grab some dinner and drive back to Livingston, then on home on Monday. I decided that was too much wear and tear on my aging body, so this year I opted out of the Livingston show. I still enjoyed stopping in to visit some of the dealers I know but I didn't find anything to buy. I did get to finally see the excellent model railroad layout being built in the baggage room basement. Back on the road, I saw a Sperry Rail Car near the Bozeman depot (seems like it was there on one of my other trips too). Just west of Bozeman, I met an EB BNSF manifest and then caught up with a WB MRL manifest, followed shortly by a BNSF coal empty. That was it until Helena. Checked into my motel and unloaded the boxes of postal stationery I was taking to WESTPEX for my dealer friend Pat Dowling and the other stuff I didn't need for the train show, then headed for the Civic Center. Had everything unloaded and mostly setup when they closed the doors at 4:30 PM. That left me plenty of time to go to the rail yard where I saw an EB grain train departing and the arrival of the MRL manifest I had seen earlier and still get to Mass at the beautiful St Helena Cathedral at 5:15. After Mass the manifest was still sitting in the yard so I went to my motel to check with a dealer friend about dinner plans. Turns out they had dinner reservations at the Overland Express Steakhouse where 20 of us crowded around a big table in a small room. Had a great prime rib dinner and good fellowship, meeting several dealers I've seen before but never had the chance to talk with. After dinner, my friend from Gillette, WY and I spent a couple hours in my room discussing some business plans he had. Then I finished up the newsletters and got some sleep. .

HELENA RAILROAD FAIR: After a McDonald's "Big Breakfast", I got to the show about 8:30 AM and completed my table setup. Because of the WESTPEX stamp show, I had left most of my magazines at home, bringing only 10 of the 33 boxes but that didn't seem to make much difference. I was busy all day and had a good show. I didn't find much to buy, just a couple Milwaukee luggage stickers, some books and a BRIO train set for my granddaughter in Nova Scotia. My sales were twice what they were the last time I was there (three years ago) and were better than the combined Livingston-Helena sales of past years although 70 % of my sales were to other dealers, especially a couple from Spokane, WA. Loading out is always easier after a good show. Treated myself to the steak dinner special at JB's, then headed for the rail yard. Talk about using a sledgehammer on a pin! A WB manifest with six MRL SD-45s had pulled into the yard. About a half hour after I arrived, the six locos were uncoupled from the train and used to do some flat switching of several small strings of cars in the yard. That completed, they came back to the original train, pulled off the first 23 cars and set them in a yard track. Then they pulled about a dozen of the cars they had flat switched and tacked them onto the front of the remaining cars from the original train and waited for the air to come up so they could head west. About the time that was completed, a WB BNSF manifest pulled up to the station for a crew change. It departed about 10 minutes later and the MRL manifest left shortly afterward as I headed for my motel. A thoroughly satisfying, almost relaxing, visit to Montana!

ON TO SANDPOINT, ID: Checked out of my motel about 7 AM and headed for the rail yard where I found the four MRL helpers from an EB grain train heading for the "roundhouse"(there is still a turntable but no building at the engine service facilities). There was only one other loco there (usually there were 10 or more) and a set of four helpers sitting in front of the depot. I then headed for "Last Chance Gulch" (that's the street name) to find the post office and the US Bank. Mailed the rest of the April newsletters and found the bank didn't open until 9 AM (no drive thru). Since I was set on delaying breakfast until Cracker Barrel in Missoula, I decided I could probably find a US Bank there too. After gassing up, I headed west on US 12 deciding not to attempt the secondary (mostly dirt ?) road over Mullen Pass that follows the railroad. I didn't hear any radio chatter, so I don't think I missed anything. Didn't see anything except beautiful Big Sky Country until I-90 milepost 146 where I met an EB BNSF stackpack. Five minutes later I caught up with a WB manifest led by #4500 in faded Heritage colors as it accelerated after leaving the "hole". After breakfast in Missoula, I saw the train again as I headed for the bank. I also got to see the grand old Missoula station preserved as an office building by the corporate parent of MRL and saw the turntable and nine MRL locos nearby. At Superior, I passed a WB local led by MRL GP-9's 126 & 125 switching a couple wood chip cars. Shortly thereafter, I heard the MRL dispatcher giving a track warrant to "Paradise"! Montana that is. A few miles further on, I caught up with the BNSF grain train headed for "Paradise" with five flatcars of construction and farm equipment behind the locos. At St. Regis, I left I-90 to follow the MRL. About 7 miles north I noticed that the NB signal was one of the original Northern Pacific semaphores while the SB was a three position light. Six miles further north a bald eagle was sitting in its nest atop a truss bridge across the Clark Fork River. Paradise turned out to be just the point where the original NP main (now a branch from Nixon) joins the new main. There are a handful of houses, a siding for log loading and woodchips but no gas station or other activities - just a quiet, beautiful valley (maybe that is a definition of "paradise"). A few miles south of Thompson Falls, I was craning my neck obeying the sign warning "Watch for Big Horn Sheep Next 9 Miles" when I met the MRL gas local - two locos, a box car and a dozen empty white tank cars headed back to the refinery in Billings after being unloaded at the storage facility in East Thompson Falls where the train had just left a dozen loaded tank cars. Just east of Kootenai, ID, a MRL crane with boom tender flatcar and two road cranes were repairing an overpass on a side road. As I drove into Kootenai, the MRL was off to my left and another track appeared on my right. As I pondered whether it was the BNSF (former Great Northern) or the Union Pacific line to Canada (which it was), I thought I caught a glimpse of a passenger car between the houses to my left so I made a quick left turn at the next intersection and drove into the storage yard for the Montana Rail Tours fleet - four dome cars (one still in Wisconsin Southern Red and Silver), four coaches, a generator car, an empty shell, and an Iron Horse "Good Times" coach in Tuscan Red. As I completed my walking tour around the passenger cars, a worker stepped out of one of the cars and gave me the 2002 tour brochure. Looks interesting. .

SANDPOINT, ID: I evidently got to Sandpoint at railroad rush hour! As I started north on US 95/2, I noticed a train cross the overpass behind me led by three locos - maroon, red, and blue. Since I didn't recognize the railroad, I made a u-turn to investigate and noticed that the train had stopped. Then I saw a BNSF stackpack race by right to left on a bridge a little further south. Assuming the first train had stopped for a crossing with the second, I proceeded south until I passed under the second bridge with the stopped train in the trees to my right. At the first opportunity, I made a right turn and tried to work back to the crossing but got to a dead end in someone's driveway. So I retraced my path and headed for the motel hoping to find a city map to figure out the rail routes and how to get to the crossing. The telephone book map wasn't much good but it did show the crossing among four rail routes. I found my way to the west side of the crossing and drove into a cement plant so I could get close enough to the still stopped train to read the numbers - CEFX 105, Canadian Pacific 8945 and CEFX 1004 (the CEFXs are leased units, but by whom? Canadian Pacific or Union Pacific). Then I went about a mile straight west where I encountered a small BNSF yard with a SB manifest unmanned on the siding. As I headed back east, I caught the tail end of a TOFC going west from the crossing. Somewhat confused (probably my usual state), I finally figured out from the map that at the crossing with the UP, the BNSF (former Great Northern) mainline is actually reversed making a turn west before going northeast into Montana. Thus the stackpack going east was actually a WB and the TOFC was an EB. I found a good, safe place to park with a clear view of the crossing as the CEFX manifest headed south. When it cleared the crossing, I was surprised to see a little further east the "Paradise" grain train that I had seen three hours earlier stopped at the MRL/BNSF junction. After two EB stackpacks raced by, it headed west and was quickly replaced by the 4500 led manifest also seen earlier. When it cleared the crossing, an EB grain train came thru - nine trains in about an hour! The action slowed at that point so I got to leaf thru some of the seven train books I bought at the Helena show for almost an hour before the action picked up again with a WB TOFC, followed at roughly 15 minute intervals by a NB CEFX manifest, a SB CEFX grain train, a WB BNSF manifest from the MRL, a WB stackpack (Hyundai),an EB TOFC (all empty), WB stackpack, and an EB coal empty onto the MRL. There was lots of radio chatter from the UP dispatcher giving warrents to at least three trains approaching Sandpoint -led by CEFX122, Canadian Pacific 9519 and Union Pacific (?) respectively. When none of them had arrived by 7:30 PM, I gave up my spot and drove west to the BNSF yard where I found the train I'd seen four hours earlier still there. I then drove over to the small UP yard I had seen just before all the action started and found there were now four UP locos there where only one had been earlier but the same car strings seemed to be in place. After dinner at Pizza Hut, I went to my motel (the fanciest Motel 6 I've ever seen - better than most Comfort Inns I've stayed in) and worked on my memoirs. The only disappointment in Sandpoint was that both AMTRAK EMPIRE BUILDERs are scheduled thru well past my bed time! .

ON TO SPOKANE, WA. On my way out of Sandpoint, I noted that all four locos in the UP yard were working a string of empty lumber cars and in the BNSF yard, the three locos I had thought were on a SB train yesterday were also working a string of cars, again mostly empty lumber cars. As I passed near the former station (now Stimpson Lumber) in Newport, WA I saw a shiny red and black GP-10 working a string of cars so I pulled off to investigate. The POVA on #1745's side stands for the Pend Orielle Valley RR. Below the cab window was a logo "Hotshots since 1942" and the name "Old Blister" in script near the nose. Further on I saw a woodchip car being loaded but that was it for trains until I got to Spokane. After a senior's omelet at Perkins, I headed for the BNSF's Yardley Yard. An EB manifest was rolling thru as I arrived. On my drive by I had noticed some passenger cars behind a building north of the yard office, so I went to investigate. There were eleven passenger cars stored on three tracks: Great Northern smooth-side observation car #1196 "City of Spokane" and three other cars needing restoration on one track, a car in the two tone Northern Pacific green scheme and two stainless steel dome cars on the center track, NP stainless steel sleeper "Loch Ness", two more dome cars and a coach in NP green on the other track. That accomplished, I started to leave but found the Havana St. crossing blocked by four trains: an EB stackpack, a WB coal train, a WB manifest and an SD9 switching a long string of cars. I took another route around the yard and did a quick check of the UP yard where there seemed to be not much happening as I headed for I-90 west. All the state police in western Washington must have been working the lunchtime traffic on I-90 - there were three cars and two motorcycles with motorists stopped westbound on the hill just west of downtown and two more cars and two motorcycles eastbound giving tickets. Fortunately, they were all already busy so I didn't have a problem. Passed a couple more police a few miles later. Then the wind started really blowing - to the point that a plastic camper shell blew off a pickup truck about a 1000 yards ahead of me. Fortunately it was a cross wind so the shell didn't come too close.

PASCO, WA, HINKLE, OR & Onward: After leaving Spokane, I met an EB BNSF Autorack, followed shortly by an EB coal empty. Later I met an EB manifest just south of Eltopia, WA. But there weren't any signs of activity at the big BNSF Pasco yard. All three GP-38/slug sets were setting idle near the hump tower. The yard was filled with cars but I didn't see any indication of trains waiting to go either direction. I couldn't come that close to the UP's Hinkle yard without going east a few miles on I-84 to see it. There were about 50 locos in the refueling area including maroon CEFX 105 that was leading the first train I saw at Sandpoint yesterday. There didn't seem to be anything moving anywhere in the yard, so I decided to drive around to the north side to get to the east end. As I was making that move, I heard the scanner report, "The Umatilla subdivision is now open to traffic". As I looked toward the yard, I saw a red loco and a blue loco leading a train west, then turning north toward the grade crossing I had passed a few minutes earlier. I made a quick u-turn and raced back in time to see that the locos were indeed the CP and CEFX locos that had been the trailing units on the first Sandpoint train - evidently there isn't as much tonnage going north as coming south since they only needed two units NB. On my way west toward Portland, I passed two slow moving UP manifests (20 mph according to the defect detector) and an EB manifest plus I saw a BNSF stackpack in the loading process at the container facility across the Columbia River from Arlington, OR. Rather than go all the way to Portland and down I-5, I decided to try OR97 down the center of the state. After a slow 14-mile climb, I had a great view of Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson and not much else for the first 100 miles. I did see what looked like a long abandoned railroad bed for a couple miles near the Watrous county border. Otherwise, the country was pretty barren unless it was irrigated - I saw several workers in fields connecting the pipes for sprinkler systems now that the seeds were starting to sprout. Just south of Madras I heard part of a defect detector report and saw a NB manifest about a mile to the west. The first I actually saw the rail line was when we crossed the deep Crooked River gorge on parallel bridges. As I entered Terrebonne, I saw a "dinner train" sign just in time to look east and see four orange and red passenger cars but no locomotive. I lost track of the rail line in the second or third growth conifer forest south of Bend, OR.

KLAMATH FALLS, OR: Again, I hadn't done my homework or I would have realized that the railroad line that came in from the west at Chemult, OR was the old Southern Pacific Shasta line and not the line I had seen further north. Consequently, I was somewhat surprised to hear a dispatcher talking to "AMTRAK 117". It didn't really make sense until I got to my Klamath Falls motel room at 9:25 PM and saw the AMTRAK tracks on the phone book map. A quick check of my COAST STARLIGHT schedule showed the southbound was scheduled into town at 9:35 PM. I briefly thought about going to find the downtown station but decided I would just wait and see the northbound STARLIGHT in the 8:25 AM daylight! Woke about 6 AM and headed for the station at 7 after checking my email. There were two NB UP manifests near the station, one with five locos, the other with nine! The modest stone station didn't open until 7:30 AM so I decided to have breakfast at the Denny's I had passed on the way while I waited for AMTRAK. Listening to the scanner while consuming my "Triple Play", I heard both manifests get clearance to move and also enough on AMTRAK to realize it wasn't running too late. Back at the station, several passengers were checking in and I heard the station agent say the train was due in at 8:55 AM. It was a crisp morning with a cool breeze but there was a nice bench outside in the sun so I made myself at home and watched a car man remove the "FRED" from a SB manifest that had pulled into the yard while I was gone. About 8:35 I heard train horns from the north and was surprised to see a SB BNSF manifest roll slowly thru, stopping with its last car just south of the station. At 8:50, the NB COAST STARLIGHT rolled in: Genesis #118 & 119 still in the old paint scheme, baggage car #1154 followed by Superliners Transition Sleeper #39024, Sleeper #32071 "Arizona", Sleeper #32118 (Unnamed), Sleeper #32081 "Illinois", Pacific Parlor #39970, Diner #38055, Sightseer Lounge #33028 and coaches #34113, 34510, 34077 and 34117 and NO Freight Cars! There was a scurry of activity as passengers got off and on, baggage was unloaded and loaded, water was replenished in the diner and papers were delivered to the Pacific Parlor. With two toots of the horn at 9 AM, the train departed almost as silently as it arrived. I made a circuit of the yards as I left town noting some switching activity and a five unit manifest ready to go north from the BNSF Bieber Junction yard, a NB manifest led by two maroon CEFX locos and a Canadian Pacific was pulling into the UP yard and a BNSF local was working west of the UP yard. Snow-covered Mts. Shasta and Shastina dominated the horizon as I headed south on OR97, meeting a NB UP manifest just south of Midland, OR and that was it until I got to Roseville, CA about 300 miles later.

ROSEVILLE, CA: An Autorack and a manifest were waiting to go west through Sacramento as I drove to my motel. My tour of the yard showed the string of sale/scrap locos still in the "Rockpile", a pair of blue Morrison-Knudson (?) switchers working the east end of the classification yard, the locomotive repair shops and service tracks were busy but nothing unusual except all the flangers were back. A pair of Denver & Rio Grande geeps with new UP numbers were switching a string of cars in the "City" yard just south of the station and service facilities. There was an EB manifest in the arrival yard and an EB and a WB in the departure yard as well as a CEFX loco and two Canadian Pacifics sitting light at the west end of track 305. The hump trains were doing their thing as I pulled into my northside position at 3:35 PM so I wasn't really prepared for AMTRAK's WB CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR to race by at 3:42 : Genesis #178,182, 203, a baggage, eight Superliners and only two Express Boxcars. There wasn't much going on after that so I got a lot of reading done. California AMTRAK #2009 did come by pushing five bilevel cars at 5:48 and there were several light loco movements, an EB manifest into the yard and a WB manifest from the "Rockpile" in between. When the WB manifest left the departure yard essentially empty at 6:20 PM I decided to go get dinner at Olive Garden. Another manifest was heading west from the "Rockpile" as I completed my circuit of the yard for the night. Things were a little slow at the yard Thursday morning too so I worked on the schedule for my "Farewell to AMTRAK Tour" - more on that the next couple months. I did see a few trains and locomotive movements before AMTRAK #6, the EB CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR came thru on time shortly after noon, same consist as yesterday's WB except six Express cars! I made a final tour of the yard and caught up with AMTRAK just leaving the Roseville station, then headed west for San Francisco.

WESTPEX: Traffic wasn't bad except for the usual I-80 bottleneck at Emeryville so I got to the Cathedral Hill Hotel about 3 PM. Since setup wasn't until 6 PM, I had some time to go to the Schyler-Rumsey auction office and get a catalog. There were about 20 lots of interest that I would have to look at, but first I went across the street for a late lunch-early dinner at Tommy's Joynt. Instead of the usual tasty Buffalo Stew, I opted for a delicious lamb shank dinner and a large piece of carrot cake. Thus fortified, I went back to the auction room and viewed the lots of interest. Since the opening bids were already too high on some of the lots, my bid list was reduced to 10 lots. I spent the remainder of the time talking with several of the dealers milling around waiting for setup time. It took five trips up and down the elevator from the parking garage to my booth, but I wasn't in a rush so things went smoothly. After getting everything in place and covering the tables, I made a circuit of the three show rooms and mezzanine to see the other dealers. John Van Alstyne already had his booth set up so I spent some time there going thru his P-R boxes looking for items for the enclosed lists. At 9 PM I called it quits and headed for my motel in South San Francisco about 12 miles away. Even though the WESTPEX committee gives a $40.00 per night credit toward next year's booth fee, I've found it better to stay elsewhere. The Cathedral Hill Hotel is a little past its prime and the single rooms are really small and cramped. At $133 or more per night plus $17.00 per day for parking there versus $59 per night and free parking at a newly remodeled Motel 6 with large rooms and queen sized beds and only $8.00 per day show parking, I still come out $43 ahead each day foregoing the $40.00 kick-back. Saw four Caltrain commuter trains while having breakfast at Lyons Friday morning - two each way, loco pulling five or six bi-level cars southbound, pushing northbound. There was also a "Graniterock" string of loaded hoppers on the siding. Got to the show about 8:30 AM and completed my booth set-up, then talked with Roger Riga, dba RIGASTAMPS, about his experiences selling on eBay. I also gave auction agent Sherry Straley my bids on the 10 lots to handle since I couldn't be sure I'd be able to be there when the lots came up. I've known her for years, back when she was dba "Tops in Topicals", but this was the first time I've ever used an agent. We'll see how it works out. When the show opened at 10 AM, it was like a feeding frenzy in the Amazon River. I was busier than a one-armed paperhanger. Five good mail order customers camped out at my table for large parts of the day and many other collectors stopped by to ask questions or make small purchases. It may well have been the best sales day I've ever had at a stamp show. Sales almost equaled my total for all three days last year. That may mean I won't have any business left for the next two days since I've seen almost all the customers I expected to see already. Pat Dowling, dba 20th Century Classics, and I took a cab to the Empress of China in Chinatown. A great meal as always there: Egg Rolls, Seafood Soup, Sweet and Sour Codfish and Four Season Lamb. We also had a good view of the harbor where we watched a couple container ships float by. Got back to the show hotel about 8:30 PM and checked in on the auction. They were only on lot #500 and several of the lots I was interested in were in the high 500's so I decided to hang around and watch the action. Either the estimates were too high for the western express covers, or they were going begging. Most lots seemed to be selling for half the estimate with only one or two bids. I did see Sherry win one lot for me. Then I headed for some much needed rest. Got to the show a little early Saturday morning, so I plugged in the laptop in the hotel lobby and typed the above until I could get into the show. Then I scurried to a few favorite dealers and made some purchases but nothing spectacular. Saturday turned out to be better than expected with some repeat sales to a couple of yesterday's customers and several other good sales. In fact Saturday's sales were excellent compared to most shows I do, but were still less than a third of Friday's. Looks like I'll more than break even for a change! Had an excellent dinner with Bill Senkus and friends at "Estampa" across the street from the hotel: a "croilla(?)" soup and seafood pieta. Good food and great company! Checked in on the auction for a few minutes which was again running at a snails pace before heading for my motel. Saw a SB Caltrain Sunday morning as I left church and headed north to the show hotel. I was early again so I got some more typing done before I went shopping. I didn't make any major purchases but I did have another great day selling! Overall, my sales were more than twice last years and rate as my best stamp show ever in terms of sales at the show. After the show, I got the Previa loaded, then went up to the auction to see what happened on the last lot I had a bid on. I didn't win it, but I did pick up and pay for the two lot's Sherry had won for me, an express cover with a Wells Fargo label showing a train and a lot containing 18 early Route Agent covers and advertising covers showing trains. For just a 2% fee, using an Agent worked well. Some of the covers are offered in this month's "Specials". .

RAIL FACTS AND FEATS: According to RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT, the shortest railroad in the USA was the one-mile Valley Railroad in Westline, PA with a connection to the Pennsylvania RR 15 miles away at Kinzua, PA. Now under water from the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River, I walked the tracks and roadbed as a child, not knowing its claim to fame until I recently read about it in Robert W. Richardson's fascinating book CHASING TRAINS - THE LIFETIME STORY OF THE FOUNDER OF THE COLORADO RAILROAD MUSEUM. Incidentally, Bob was a lifelong stamp collector and the editor of LINN'S STAMP NEWS from 1937-1941. .

RAIL THOUGHT OF THE MONTH: "Why 'chase' trains?...Why we select a particular interest as a hobby is something that is indeed an enigma and baffling to explain." I certainly agree with Robert W. Richardson's observation in the Introduction to his CHASING TRAINS. I certainly can't explain my passion for trains. Can you, yours?

STAMP OF THE MONTH: Portugal #1512-5 has always been one of my favorite sets. They all have nice clean locomotive images and the colors are vibrant! The silver and green ALCO (American Locomotive Co.) RSD-2 diesel locomotive particularly stands out. It is my all-time favorite early diesel loco design.

May all your signals be green,

 

AL PETERSON

AL PETERSON

THE RAIL PHILATELIST

P. O. BOX 25505

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO 80936

1-800-807-RAIL access code RR or 719-591-2341

http://www.railphilatelist.com/ or e-mail railphilatelist@aol.com

JOIN THE CASEY JONES RAILROAD UNIT OF THE AMERICAN TOPICAL ASSOCIATION

Dues $10.00. Contact Contact Bill Senkus @ CJRRU-ATA P.O.Box 4584, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-4584