ABOVE: Green Mountain RS1 No. 405 pushes cars up the line to a talc mine at Gassetts as the action is observed from the cupola of the mixed train. KEN HOJNACKI PHOTO LEFT: The crew of a Boston & Maine freight studies their train orders on the back platform of a freshly painted caboose on the Connecticut River bridge at Bellows Falls. PAUL STRAUSS PHOTO
Nelson Blount’s last run the day before, he climbed into his single-engine air- plane and took off, never to arrive at his destination. No one yet knew what had happened and the crew was keeping tabs on the search. We took turns riding the engine and, while enjoying the verdant Vermont landscape and the humorous use of highway stop signs to halt trains in- stead of cars at rural crossings, the thrill and exhilaration of the experi- ence were tempered by the events of the day. Arriving in Rutland about
noontime, we all retired to the nearby beanery and the crew accepted us as sympathizers in their tragedy. With switching completed at the Ver-
mont Railway interchange, we headed back to Bellows Falls. Sometime short- ly after leaving Rutland, we got the word that the wreckage of the plane had been found and that F. Nelson Blount was dead.
That night spent watching Dr. Zhivago at a local drive-in theatre and the next day riding the cab with Clyde Sessions somehow failed to live up to
the expectations we nurtured. We caught a Grand Trunk freight getting orders at the Bellows Falls depot and a northbound B&M freight with Minute- man F7 4265, a B-unit and a GP7 ap- proaching the Connecticut River bridge, then searched out the Bellows Falls tunnel. A lot of railroading passed before our eyes in those three days but the experience was bittersweet. Over 40 years later, Steamtown has become a national park in Pennsylva- nia, No. 89 is back in service at Stras- burg, N&W 1218 was resurrected to run dozens of fantrips then retired again, old friends are far afield and F. Nelson Blount is remembered as a pio- neer of the steam revival. Looking at that photo of his last run,
I can only be thankful for Nelson Blount’s foresight and the opportunity to have met him for a few moments, of grabbing a photo of his last run on his beloved steam locomotive and the memories of the saddest freight train I have ever known.
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