The International Steam Pages |
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Steamy Java 2008 Tour People |
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This page serves as a very small thank you to all the people who helped make the steamy Java 2008 tour such a great success. Firstly to those twenty people who invested their money with us, some of whom are seen in the picture below and also to the people in the sugar mills who went out of their way to make us welcome. It was not a 'one man operation', my wife Yuehong and John Raby worked very hard with me before, especially during and then after the tour. They are seen below at Olean with loco crews, together with my son Yiran and old friend Peter Nettleship. We deliberately gave old friend Lie Tjeng Chiao an easy ride this year, but as always he was around when we needed some help. I have lost count of my visits to Java since I first went in 1975. In the 33 years since then, I have missed just 7 years, all but one in the 1980s. I led tours for others in 1983, 1984 and 1988. Between 1991 and 2008, I organised tours every year except in 1992 and 2007, sometimes two. I have taken over 200 people round Java, many of them more than once. My first reaction after 2008 was 'enough is enough', but a number of factor have come together to make me decide to make a more relaxed offering for 2009 - the Java Experience 2009. In the event it failed to get off the ground, but like an aging rock band, we did mount one last final tour in 2010 and while it's mainly about stationary steam, my tour blog has some lovely pictures of Java. After the group went home, we had three extra days at Olean to relax and unwind. We were joined by David Longman and partner Jacqui. As regular visitors to these pages will realise, I have known the crews at Olean for well over 20 years. So when we let our hair down to celebrate a very special occasion on 4th August 2008 they were perfectly understanding and very co-operative. They have watched (all) my children grow up, we are treated as distant members of the family who make regular but well spread visits. Tammy and Chris have, of course, long since flown the nest but this was Yiran on the dress rehearsal day. And everything went well on the big day. The following scene was also recorded on video, only masochists should view the YouTube clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwo0ul7ijKA. Two bottles of champagne were on ice in the evening: It was quite a banquet.... It all vanished very quickly (including Yiran's champagne!) including the birthday cake. Things will have returned to normal the next day at Olean. But both both mill and its visitors are creaking with age more and more and soon it will be time to close the book... Click here for the main Java 2008 reports. |
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Rob and Yuehong Dickinson
Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk