After long delays, The Highland finally got its steam program together and began testing. Watch as we explain the operating plan and then follow the trains as they run along the line. 
 

I've always heard that during the steam age, trains typically traveled about 100 miles between engine & crew changes. That kind of makes sense for locals or perhaps mountain segments, but what about long distance passenger and freight trains on the prairie? That seems a little short to me: If you are moving at an average of 30 miles an hour with no setouts/pickups, you change engines and crews every 3 hours? Or is it more of a case that the engine needs to re-coal every 100 miles but it can keep going if the crew hasn't hour-lawed out?

So, I am in the middle of a brass painting odyssey with a Sunset Great Northern O-8 Mikado and a number of other locomotives and things are going fairly well. I did have a few questions for the experts.