Hey Friends,

I'm super excited to share this footage from our Van Brocklin Meet at Waushakum this year. If you haven't heard the name Billy Van Brocklin, here's a quick bio: Billy was an incredibly innovative designer, builder, and supplier of live steam equipment over his many years in the hobby. Billy built an insane amount of horsepower, 37 locomotives to be exact, with four more in progress upon his passing... Not to mention his countless pumps, injectors, trucks, riding cars, and locomotive parts sold individually. He also helped countless members restore equipment to running condition, and worked the kinks out of many friends' new locomotives for them along the way. Billy had a heavy hand in keeping the live steam hobby strong in his day, so once a year we gather in his honor. This year, I was lucky enough to finally acquire Billy's #31 from a good friend, and feel incredibly honored to be her new caretaker. 31 was rebuilt from Billy's beautiful D&SERR #22, a former Jubilee 4-4-4 type locomotive, his first Jubilee and his first loco with roller bearings everywhere imaginable. He ran famous speed tests with this loco before disassembling the engine, after her first and only season, to be rebuilt to a 4-8-0 type also #22. Billy hung onto his famous "Speed Queen" leftover frame, wheels, and parts with roller bearings for a rainy day project. Eventually, Billy finally got around to resurrecting this green beautiful Frankenstein of a polished new Speed Queen, with all of the parts that didn't satisfy him either being left out or vastly improved (superheaters, trailing truck, etc). Feel free to google Billy Van Brocklin for his IBLS history page, such an interesting guy and a fantastic craftsman. Huge thanks to Joe C and everybody at the club for their support, what a special opportunity this is to own a living piece of this hobby's history.

Thanks so much for checking out the video as always!! If you like what you see & you'd like to check out some more Live Steam content, be sure to subscribe to my channel, or at least take a peek through some videos while you've got a sec! Also, feel free to drop a like and a comment to let me know what you think.

Lastly, be sure to subscribe to the Instagram accounts to keep up with progress on my flagship loco 311, what's going on in the shop, and some beautiful Live Steam projects from around the country!

@NickelPlateRoad311
@FoxIslandLocomotiveWorks
@LiveSteamNation

Cheers, see you down the line!!