Its amazing what a great patina just a little playa dust will give something, isn’t it?
So my brother came by and picked up Karine and I today and we headed over to the state capital to see something that you just don’t get to see every day.
There’s this fellow named R.J. Corman… he started a railroad sometime back and has done pretty well for himself and those who work for him. His company does a lot of recovery work and track repair. They also own a good bit of the rail lines in central Kentucky, many of which are on long term lease to CSX.
Well, Mr. Corman is known around here for having some pretty cool things with which to have fun and generate public relations buzz for the company. What we saw today was the latest addition to the collection, and probably the most wonderful in my opinion… but first I’ve got to give little back story.
China‘s railroads, up until a few years ago, relied very heavily on steam engines for keeping things moving. Many are still in use there today on some of the tributary lines, but they are being phased out as they age and no factories remain that produce steam locomotives. The old engines just get scrapped and melted into something else, most certainly with much less character.
So Mr. Corman, it seems, found one that was ready to be cut up, and instead of letting her go the way of so many other fine creations, he saw fit to buy her out of her fate, have her completely refurbished, and ship her over here. Her job is now to work for the RJ Corman Railroad. Today was her inaugural run from Louisville to Lexington, pulling six brand new gondola cars for the railroad company, each filled with sand. This was not just a symbolic run, however, but actual work. This sand was to be delivered to a concrete plant in Lexington and the new cars to Corman’s railyard in Nicholasville where they will be incorporated into the rest of the system.
The guys we talked to with the company said that after this run, she’ll be doing P.R. work and keep steam available to be seen to people who’ve never had the chance to see it. One of the coolest things, I thought, was that the engineer was probably in his mid-late twenties. Good to see it being handed down.
Kudos to Mr. Corman.
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Here she is after crossing the bridge into downtown Frankfort:
And just after coming to a stop:
Side shot, showing the engine and tender:
And the manufacturers plate, in Chinese, showing date of creation. Its hard to read in the photo, due to glare, and the 8 looks like a 3, but it says 1986.
With this being a locally owned engine, I hope to be seeing more of her around. Corman also owns the
Old Kentucky Dinner Trainin Bardstown, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she might find work pulling the dinner cars along the route now and again, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. Either way, its nice to see a new steamer on the rails.
The New and Improved Black Cat... now with 25% more blather
