A Weekend on the Central Coast

August is always the Narrow Gauge Meet at Bitter Creek Western Railroad in Arroyo Grande. The weather is just a bit cooler there than on the High Desert and really is a central meeting point for most of the California Live Steamers to congregate. This last weekend was no exception to the great time that can be had at Karl's. All the usual suspects and a few new ones and a few that we haven't seen in a while made the weekend.

RGS 41 was down from Salinas, all the Burn's boys and Kim Beard was in attendance too. Bill and Holly Boller had the Bumble Bee 268 out, Ron Schmidt and Peter Moseley had the Durango Switcher 268 in their truck. Allan  and Lynn Ratliff with their GE 47 tonner as was Gary and Margret Stites'. Allan debuted his recently completed Westside Caboose #4, plenty of memory card was dedicated to documenting that occasion, Paul and Celeste Lavacot had RGS Goose 6 in the back of their truck for the weekend. I got an exemption to run my American just in case Gene Allen could make it up from Goleta to take it for a run; there is an 2 1/2" coupler on the tender so I was pulling narrow gauge cars.
 
A first time engine out was Ray and Becky Bjeerum's newly completed 2-8-0. A beauty beyond words and it seemed to run quite well on top of the looking fine. Great job on a long time project. Also out for the first time was Steve Nelson's C-21 Consolidation. A first time on the track it seemed to run better and better as it got a little more broke in as it ran many an hour over the weekend. Great job Steve.

As for the engines we haven't seen in a while , that distinction goes to Dave Rohrer's Sandy River & Rangley Lakes #5. The Sandy River two footer and it's string of gondolas with caboose make a beautiful consist and it is a dream to run. At almost 1/3 size it is a big model of a small engine.

I know I have forgotten a few and sorry for that. Below is a couple of links to pictures so you can see the fun we all had.
www.bcwrr.org is the website for Bittercreek, it is worthy of saving somehow. The site has won many an award in live steam circles for it well put together format. Check out the pictures from last weekend and once inside will be Curtis Ferrington's pictures as well

http://mikemassee.com/gallery/v/livesteam/Bitter_Creek_Western_Railroad/BCWRR_NG2014/ is the link to Mike Massee's site and always has a great selection of shots from the weekend.

If you are really bored I have a few pictures on my Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/Ratsgarage/BittercreekWesternNarrowGaugeMeet814?authuser=0&feat=directlink

It was a great weekend playing trains and enjoying some great company. Looking forward to the next time already.