Boyne City Railroad lettering.

If you look closely you can still see the BCRR lettering on 18's tender!!

You can also see, if not in this photo, a few of the orange remnants of the so-called "circus-style" Arcade & Attica lettering. I wonder if they still plan to re-letter the tender to reflect the Boyne City RR, as Pat had suggested. Whether or not they do, I hope that the tender is eventually repainted and re-lettered. I so dislike the current font used and the off-center positioning of the name of the railroad.

While we're on the topic of the way old No. 18 used to look, I happened upon some 'vintage' (terrible to think of the 90s as 'vintage') YouTube footage of No. 18 and the train from 1991, only 3 years after the 'demise' of No. 14. In these two videos you can see that the footboard in front of the smokebox has been removed, that odd thing atop the bell is still there, and that 18 still bears her old wooden pilot. Whomever the fireman was, he played the bell like a musical instrument. This footage reminds me that I really do prefer 18's smokebox in black as opposed to silver or grey...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyA1SOtyYkk&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pjryt-ZaRk&NR=1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the second movie catches a very young Pat Connors riding the locomotive's pilot at Curriers.

And correct me if I'm wrong, once again, but I also think I'm hearing a different whistle that the one we're all familiar with. Could it be that 18 still had her original whistle at this stage?

Yes, it's definitely a different whistle, I now see, as evidenced by the comments beneath the video frame on YouTube.

Wow. I wonder if the A&A would ever consider switching the whistle again. It would be interesting to hear it 'live'. I'm sure I've never heard this whistle before. During the late 80s and early 90s I lived out of state, so I missed-out on hearing this whistle. The whistle they're using now is the one I've always heard, and used to be on No. 14.

And that's definitely a young Pat riding the pilot.