July 1st- Steam come to the Sue Line

Post date: Jul 05, 2010 9:29:24 PM

Thanks to Rob Robbins, steam has made its first official appearance on the Sue Line Railroad. Rob's joy was short lived as Jim Willis commondered the steam loco for work in Alexandria Yard.

There was still work to be done on the third district, as Rodney Dixon (below,left, in back), Paul Harwell (below, left, front), David Colvin (Below,center), Ken Ellison (below, right,red shirt) and Jim Willis (below, right, in back) discuss the new track plan for the third district.

Meanwhile upstairs, some minor fixes were still being made by John Arnold (below).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, here here are a couple thousand words about Charlie DeVillbiss at work in Sue City....

Danny Garland as the Shreveport Yardmaster...

Mose Crews as the Maryville Operator...

JIm Willis as the Alexandria Yard Operator...

Paul Harwell switching in Maryville...

Rodney Dixon switching in Keithville...

John Arnold switching in Alexandria Yard...

Ken Ellison switching in Robinson...

and Rob Robbins running a train on the mainline behind Keithville...

Presiding over all the fun was the dispatcher, David Colvin...

Near the end of the evening, everyone was trying to document the events of the day...

And now for a more serious note...

Update on Gilbert Freitag

Never underestimate the power of prayers!  Gilbert is living proof.

We’ve been home a week now and things are moving rather smoothly, considering this is a new ballgame for the both of us.  Of course our children have still been tremendous.  Whatever I mention I need or would be nice to have, plus things they notice without me even saying anything somehow magically appears.

Our son has worked a miracle.  He transformed what had become a fairly packed storage closet into a ¾ bath complete with commode, roll-in shower and roll-under lavatory.  One of his uncles, Gilbert’s youngest brother, was a big help to him.  Boy was Gilbert surprised when I rolled him back there to see it when we got home.

When we built our house as newlyweds, we thought “why do two people need two baths?”

So we roughed in the plumbing and put a carpet remnant on the floor.  This turned out to be a blessing since the original plans called for a regular shower and lavatory.

Gilbert still has the feeding tube, but is only receiving his meds through it.  This will continue until his swallowing is completely back to normal. His drinks need to be thickened to nectar consistency and his food chopped/soft, but he eats well and feeds himself.  He gets around in a

wheelchair,  but his physical therapist is concentrating on getting him on his feet.

Communication is still frustrating at times, but is progressing.  Hopefully with the aid of speech therapy, this too will come back.

All in all he is still making forward progress.

Once again, my request for you to continue to keep him in your prayers still holds.

Visitors are welcome…you may want to call first to be sure he doesn’t have a therapy planned at the time you wish to come.

Love and thanks for your continued support….

Virginia