Before the escalating series of consolidations which eventually produced the four mega systems which constitute the lion's share of American railroading these days there was the Pennsylvania Railroad: Standard of the World; the largest in the United States prior to the mid sixties. A lot of my family worked for them in the renowned city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, including my Dad until the war gathered him in.

Dad and others worked in the Juniata Shops where the Pennsy made many of their own locomotives and this is a big part of family lore. One of these was a passenger engine classified the K-4. Not innovative but solid and dependable. To the west of Altoona was a major climb over the Alleghenies and in this territory is the famed Horseshoe Curve. A K-4, number 1361, was displayed there for many years until, when there seemed to be a big push to restore some steam engines in the 1970's, it was taken to Juniata to be worked on and run again. There were problems, and after a few trips it has been dormant, run past more by rumors than the wind of track speed.

The technical society mailed their latest magazine the other day and in an article on the current status of the K-4 put blame on many people. Why, even the fabled shops made the boiler too thin in getting the 1361, in its revenue days, out on the road and off someone's check sheet. Legends are dropping these days: In our local news the area's NBA team looks to be taking a fall, a university has been disgraced with a jock strap booster scandal, the Gulf grows messier as does my finances of my employer, state and city. Now although there will inevitably be rebuttals in this most thorough of railroad technical society publications, here's something else to chew on or be masticated by.

But time to tend to our own boilers and running orders.