LOCOMOTIVES, WINGS, AND WHEELS Owosso Train Expo BY STEVE BARRY/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR T
HE STEAM EVENT OF THE YEAR WAS held in Owosso, Mich., on June 19-22, 2014. Located on the site of
the old Ann Arbor Railroad’s steam shops and roundhouse in Owosso, the Steam Railroading Institute offers visi- tors a firsthand look at the intricacies of working steam locomotives and the equipment that operated with them. No fewer than eight operating locomo- tives gathered at the Steam Railroad- ing Institute’s campus for Train Expo 2014, an event that also featured vin- tage automobiles and aircraft. The star of the show was once again
SRI’s own Lima-built Berkshire, Pere Marquette 1225. It was joined by Lima sister Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 from the Fort Wayne Railroad Histori- cal Society. John and Barney Gramling brought in their two traveling tank en- gines, 0-4-0T No. 75 from Flagg Coal
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and 0-6-0T No. 126 from Lehigh Valley Coal, both built by Vulcan. Scott Symans had his own 0-4-0T locomotive present as well, Viscose Company No. 6 built by Baldwin. The nearby Little River Railroad sent its two operating steam locomotives, 4-6-2 No. 110 (the smallest standard gauge Pacific ever built) and 0-4-0T No. 1 (which has a cloudy background as it seems to have been kitbashed from a variety of other locomotives; the frame dates to 1908). The last locomotive of the group was 4- 4-0 No. 63 Leviathan, an 1860s style engine built new by Kloke Locomotive Works in 2009. The eight locomotives split duties
during the event, with 1225 and 765 taking turns powering long trips to Al- ma, while the 110 and the Gramling tank engines worked short one-hour trips out of the SRI grounds. The other
locomotives kept plenty of steam around the main display area for visi- tors to check out. The Alma trips also offered a photo runby in the town park at Ithaca. From a photography standpoint, the highlight was probably three night photo sessions conducted by Lerro Pro- ductions and Pete Lerro. The sessions were broken into two segments, with a large crowd shooting large scenes until just before midnight each night. A smaller group then got up close and personal with the locomotives and some actors until the wee hours of the morning. Each night started with the “money shot” of the locomotives around the SRI turntable, followed by scenes with one of the big engines on the turntable. The small scenes included inside the turntable “house” and in lo- comotive cabs. Actors (and actresses)
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