The river crossing is on a scratchbuilt tres- tle, above, but the tour train’s progress is suddenly stopped when the front truck on No. 45 derails. It will take a while, but the crew will get things back in order. Later, the train played peek-a-boo through the open air shed at Valley Portland Cement Company.
“Does the ‘Infinity’ in the road’s name refer to a city or the concept?” “Yes,” Mr. Hoover replied with un- characteristic ambiguity. Then he smiled and explained, “As you know, our railroad was constructed slightly later than many of our competitors, and we didn’t want to be just another something and Pacific’ railroad, so the founders included ‘Infinity’ in the name to represent the ultimate of any desti- nation we might seek. Then the state decided to locate the university up the line, and the university board liked the RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
educated-sounding name, and they founded the City of Infinity. So, the real answer to your question is ‘both.’ The combination really helps us capitalize on our Infinity Route slogan.” Mr. Hoover requested his assistant
Clyde to be our guide, and he was in- valuable during the tour. We descend- ed the steps to the platform level, where we found a caboose train waiting for us. It contained a flat car with benches and three different styles of ca- booses. Clyde explained that for indus- trial switching and crew protection the
road once used old wood cabooses re- tired from road service. The one on our train, borrowed from a nearby muse- um, was an example. The engine crews complained about the lack of visibility when the caboose was coupled behind the locomotive, so the road fashioned a transfer caboose from a flatcar and cab of a retired four-wheel caboose. The idea was good but still required mount- ing and dismounting a freight car; in its latest order of modern cabooses from the Atlas Car Co. the U&I requested a purpose-built transfer caboose, which has proven to be popular and efficient. The group clambered on board and Mr. Hoover himself gave the “highball.” With two toots we were under way, curving under the depot and around the enginehouse and crossing the Katherine River on a wood trestle be- low the dam and powerhouse. The busy city freighthouse was on our left, as was Ole & Lena’s Cafe, to which we would return later. We passed a pro- duce company and cold storage ware- house, which received perishables and provisions to feed the city. Clyde ex- plained that the U&I makes as many as four switches daily to handle the in- coming loads and remove empties, part of the fast car turnaround and utiliza- tion we heard about earlier.
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