When I first volunteered at the Toledo Train Day in 2012 I met Steven Rathke who was presenting the Operation Lifesaver program and I found out one of NS’s hotshot engineers. We became friends over the years and I was lucky to be a small part in his railway and family life. I got to sit the cab of the NS 911 Emergency Responders SD70 at the Train Show in 2016.
This year Steve was chosen to train many of the NS engineers in the workings of Positive Train Control PTC. NS put together an awesome trailer and in April was moved to Toledo Ohio. I was very fortunate to be invited to visit it at the Toledo NS crew change facility.
Even better was to run an army train with 2 SD70’s through Utah on the full size simulator in the trailer.
Sat there for an hour just rolling along. Stalled once on a hill and back up. Had to do everything like in a real one of the the train would stop. Thanks Steve.
Planning on a trip next month if the weather holds.