HOBO GETS HIS OWN RAILROAD

Also, I enjoy giving rides to children. I steamed it up about
six times this year and all I have to do is blow the whistle and
children come from everywhere. All get a free ride.

I also have two steam tractors, one a Case and the other a
Nichols and Shephard.

As for the locomotive, I bought it in the spring of 1965 from
the railroad that operates between Seward and Fairbanks, Alaska. I
had it brought to Vancouver, B.C. on a steamship, then taken to
Everett where a Great Northern crew put it in first class condition
and brought it up to Interstate Commerce Commission standards. The
engine even has new iron tires on it.

With a regular locomotive engineer in the cab, the 100-foot long
engine was dead headed to Moses Lake over various railroads and
finally parked on the 900 foot siding at Holm’s place of
business. I later added a Great Northern caboose to the rolling
stock.

During the Grant County Fair last August, with a railroad
engineer in charge, I gave free rides up and down the siding to
more than 3,500 children. ‘The older kids up to 80’ helped
to handle the crowd.

Recently a contest was held whereby names were submitted to name
my railroad. There were about 300 entries from several states and
many from outside the U.S. were received. The name submitted that
won the contest was ‘Mon-Road’. The name was submitted by
Carla Burress of Westlake. She won a $50. savings bond as first
prize. Carla is a sixth grader at Pennisula Elementary school.

The Mon-Road letterhead lists 60 vice presidents, including
major generals, ministers and bank presidents and scattered from
Denver and Salt Lake City to Seattle. Each vice president is in
charge of ‘plumbing, tunnels, hog production’ or some other
important phase of railroad operation.