The 1522 traveled to Springfield on May 14th for a BN sponsored Operation Lifesaver event. It returned to St Louis bright and early on May 17th under cloudy and rainy skies. In several locations the 1522 has her ears pinned backed and has 'em stretched tight.
I did not get to catch-up with the 1522 very often, but it was always a pleasure to experience the handiwork of Baldwin and the StLSTA. By the this time the Musuem placard that graced the pilot beam had somehow become "lost", and on this occasion the white extra flags did not sport a BN logo as was often the case. There was only one other occasion that I witnessed the 1522 really running fast. I rode and chased the "Orange Blossom Special" south from Springfield. South of Hoxie, the crew gave the ol' girl her head, and we had a hard time keeping up. Those were indeed the days.
I don't know if it's my computer or not, but the video seems kinda jerky in spots, speeds up in a couple spots and hesitates frequently. I downloaded it OK. Anybody else notice this?
I think that it's an affectation of the wmv file. I cut back on the quality to limit the file size. I have also noticed that a difference quality varies with regard to the movie making software. I made this with microsoft's movie maker.
WOW! Now that is a thing of unexcelled beauty! What a rush even just watching it. Don/Karl, I noticed an almost imperceptible jerkiness but might have overlooked it.
Just saw this for the first time. NICE! Especially as it got darker, running with a nice clear stack and her ears really pinned back. Well done, Karl, and of course well done Don and the whole SLSTA crew. Gordon
Thanks for the comments. The inclement weather did much to enhance the movie. Nothing improves steam like rainy weather or even better....cold weather. We used my brother's VW hatchback, and propped the hatch open. The camera was on a "collapsed" tri-pod. Given that it was a dead-head move, there weren't too many chasers, and we were able to get some good pacing shots. Unfortunately the original digital images didn't translate well to wmv format. While playing the the movie in a better piece of software I was able to time the driver rotation and cipher-up the train speed...the best I found was 68 mph. The 1522 is a fine locomotive.
And here it's cold and still nowadays in St. Louis...........what a shame. Thanks for sharing the file with us.
I missed this earlier. (It was in the time frame that I had moved to St L. and was without a computer for a time.) Thanks for restoring it, thanks for running it, thanks for filming it, thanks for sharing it. Impressive...
