Richard Cook takes an autumn spin
Today was a great warm fall day in the SF area.

I had a number of chores to do so why not do them on my Chang? She gave me 50 miles of pleasure and amused folks wherever I stopped.

The first stop was to inspect the new hydrogen powered shuttle I wrote the original grant for. Today a number of mechanics were training on theory and operation. I stopped to get a few shots and all the mechanics gathered around the Chang for a while to find out if it was a BMW or “Chinese copy” as one guy put it.

After that a run over to a place started by a Yankee that has moved over here to CA. He is selling lobster rolls and potato chips for eighteen bucks hand over fist. Folks loved the Chang parked out front.

Then down to the port of Redwood City to measure a couple of cars for the Christmas train. I took a lot of interior shots of the Pullman we are going to use and just an exterior of the Virginia City since Wade (the owner) was not around today. Most of these guys have at least two rail cars and Ralph even has his own engine. The next time your wife gets on your case for Changs show her these pictures. These things are 85 feet long and you would not believe how much trouble Ralph has already gone to on the Pullman with the vestibule I’m parked in front of. He cut the last third of the car off and started over. Now this would not be so big a job if it was not made of nearly inch thick steel, and he had to use bolt heads to simulate rivets. Would you believe the floors are a mixture of concrete and steel? Nobody was shooting through these suckers on the plains unless they hit a window.