On or about 2 July 2010 Voiture 217 of the 40&8 will take the Texas III to Philadelphia Pa. for the 4 of July Parade. It will be pulling it's boxcar Mademoiselle Scarlet O'Hara. It will take I85 from Atlanta. If you have never seen it try and make it this time. I will try and post a time for leaving later. The Texas can easly run 70mph or track speed. They will stop to rest one night. I will try to find out where. This is the longest trip they have made in years with it. They have took it to California but that was in the 70s. The train crew is getting a bit old. So if you don't get to see them this time there might not be another. I understand they will return on 5 July.
I forgot they will take there cannon so as to fight of Yankee's. I'm sure they will fire a few for effect as they go north. Got to make sure it not jammed before crossing the Mason Dixon Line. When they get there they plan on singing Dixie for all the good people of the city. They say it was Abe Lincolns favorite song so you can never tell other Yankees might like it to. The crew is from the Confederate Train Extra Board.
The train will leave College Park at 7am the morning of 30 June 2010. Will take I85 north to I85. Will stop outside Washington DC that night for rest. The morning of 1 July will drive into Washington and do a stop or two. Then on to Philadelphia. The day 2 July will do the tourist thing in Philadelphia. The morning of 3 July to the parade. After the parade will head back to I95 to I85. Plans are to stop for the night around the North Carolina and Virginia line. The morning of the 4 of July will go on into Atlanta and to College Park it home Terminal. I expect the next run will be to the Old Soldiers Parade in August.
Hi, lwjabo,
I'm not sure what kind of train you're writing about, but I'm assuming it's some type of historic equipment that will be traveling by truck to Fourth of July festivities. Would you provide some details for those people who aren't familiar with Texas III?
First of all it's the 40&8 Voiture 217. It's and honor society of Veterans. They get there them form the Soldiers experience in World War One. The troops road to the front in box cars stenciled 40Hommes and Cheavus. Now understand the dark humor of those who served in the military. They did not clean out between loads. Each Voiture or local has a train. Some are rather simple. A few or not. Most consider the one from Fulton County to be among the best. There is another in Michigan that is rather nice according to those who have seen it. The Machine moves on it own power. It has rubber tires. On trips it is not unusual for the police to pull us over just to ask what it is. You can look up 40&8 to learn more about it. It's worth taking the time to see it. If I get my scanner working I will try to load some pictures for those who might not get the chance to see it. By the way I'm not kidding it has a cannon. In a parade in Atlanta they fired it one time. Many people fell to the ground. It even broke a few windows. That might be one of the reason it does not get invited to to many parades in Atlanta any more.
For some reason guess my poor typing skils I left out the 8 as in 40 Hommes and 8 Cheavux.
I would guess any rail buff at least in the South East would know the Locomotive General? They should know the Locomotive Texas. It over took the General and it the Texas was running backward. The Texas II was the first train they made and took the name from the first. It burned in a fire. So they rebuilt it and made improvements. That was about 1955. That's the Texas III we have today. As we go down the highway folks run off the road looking at it or trying to get on the phone to tell others what they saw. No doubt they are then grouped with those who get captured by little green men or those who saw big foot. That's why they want a picture of it.
Great trip. Hope you got to see us. Hundreds of folks took pictures of us as we sent up I85 to I95. Some even slowed down to take more pictures. We had a great time and the good people of Springfield were very nice. For a bunch of old men we did pretty good. We did fire the Cannon several times in the parade. I hope this will let you see the train.
Story:
Train is a-comin’ to Clifton (with Video)
SPRINGFIELD — Thousands of vehicles zoom through Springfield via Baltimore
Pike each day.
Most zip (or crawl) unnoticed among the bustle that accompanies the strip malls
that line the road. A few glitzy others might momentarily catch the eye of a
curious onlooker, but even most of them don't leave lasting impact.
For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2010/07/02/life/doc4c2d54495fe81983686455.txt
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