Lads see Big Boy in Denver

I managed to get enough of the blokes on the tour interested in a visit to the Forney Museum of Transportation on the outskirts of Denver. Then Nick, (our tour manager) arranged taxis' for us to get there. My motivation was to see one of the surviving examples of a Big Boy steam locomotive, and I had to try to get the others to feel as enthusiastic as myself. Things didn't start well when neither of the two taxi drivers allocated knew where the place was, and upon arrival it turned out to be a drab building on an industrial estate and we were the day's first visitors! The lady selling admission tickets seemed surprised anyone had come and made us feel welcome by practically frisking us for any bags we might have been carrying before letting us in.  Actually, the unpromising exterior contained a collection of real gems from the realms of motorcycling, automobile history and, of course, the aforementioned Big Boy.  This is one of the largest and most powerful railway engines ever built, weighing over 500 tons and capable of about 8000 horsepower. There are still no modern diesel or electric locos of quite this capacity, the machines having been introduced by the Union Pacific Railroad during world war two to pull bigger faster trains on the congested sections between the California coast and Chicago. Because I had instigated the trip I felt I ought to act as a bit of a guide to my companions and I told them as much as I could  about what made these engines special while trying not to bore them. Luckily, they got the idea and became quite excited about the whole thing.  The engine is a huge piece of engineering, but surprisingly elegant and quite beautiful in parts.
Generally,  Forney is a superb collection very poorly presented, which is a pity because the place deserves to be better known.  I fear that unless something is done to make it more attractive it will remain one of Denver's best kept secrets!  Alan

We had all arranged to meet up at the Cheesecake Factory at the top of  16th Street for Lunch. The men folk were a little late because they had as much trouble with the taxis' coming back as they had going. we all sat at a large table and ordered different degrees of lunch. Alan and I had a light lunch with a huge piece of Cheesecake to share. They have 30 different choices of CC and they are all delicious.