Inside the Portage County line By GENE KEMMETER of The Gazette WHISTLE STOP: For the first time in two years, Portage County residents got an up-close look at Engine 2713, the steam engine with the peeling paint sitting in the park area in the 1700 block of Monroe Street on Saturday, Aug. 18. Billed as "2001 A Train Odyssey," John Kedrowski of the Friends of 2713 and a former 5th Ward alderman, put together an open house to let people inside the fence to climb up the steps to sit in the engineer's and firemen's seat. The train was put in service in 191l and retired in 1955, coming to the city of Stevens Point later that year. Many of the inner working parts of the train have been dismantled, leaving the shell, but Kedrowski and others were on hand to explain the function of the remaining parts. He hooked up the train's whistle to an air compressor of the Stevens Point Street Department so the whistle could blow. Some children found blowing the whistle to be a thrill, while others felt the whistle was too loud and didn't want to climb the stairs to blow it themselves. Kedrowski was pleased with the turnout, which slowed down later in the day because of the overcast and rainy weather. "All in all, I'm really pleased with the event," he said. The crowd may have been less than two years ago when the event was a fund-raiser, he said, but he felt it raised awareness of the engine and was helped by the Brews, Brats and Bands going on a few blocks away at Brewery Park. "I think it showed the community is interested in it," he said, adding that his goal is to have the event every two years. "My goal is to make it (the engine) more than just a train in the park." The event had an added attraction. A Wisconsin Central train in the yard derailed along with several cars early Saturday morning, drawing spectators to view work on getting the train back on the tracks. "That was a nice touch," Kedrowski said, adding that he wasn't responsible for the derailment. "Rumor has it someone put a penny on the tracks," he said. * * * UNUSUAL TWINS: Tina Marie Smart gave birth to an unusual set of twins last week at St. Michael's Hospital - they were born on different days. The first, Rebecca Jean, was born Thursday, Aug. 16, at two minutes to midnight. The second, Rachel Susan, was born at 12:35 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 17. "It was exciting," Tina said, adding that the twins were part of a lot of unusual events that occurred on Thursday. Tina and her husband, Charles, help at the Catholic Worker House and were there with Joe "Rusty" and Wendy Mitch on Thursday for the meal. The Mitches had twins for their fifth and sixth children, and Tina was expecting twins for her fifth and sixth, so they talked about that, Tina said. "Everyone was saying we were going to have the babies soon, but I didn't think so," Tina said. When they returned home from the Catholic Worker House, Tina said they found a statue of the Virgin Mary that had been stolen from their yard some time before had been returned and was now sitting in the front yard. Charles picked up the statue, which weighs more than 100 pounds and carried it to the back yard. About 10:15 p.m. she went into labor, she said, and they got to the hospital about 10:45 p.m. "It was a quick labor," she said, explaining that she was waiting in her bed when her labor progressed rapidly. So rapidly, she said, a nurse had to deliver the first baby, Rebecca, because the doctor was still a few steps away. She was expecting the other baby, Rachel, to be born in the next three or four minutes, because literature indicated that was the usual situation. The wait for the second baby was still pleasurable, Tina said. "I got to sit back and bond with the first one." When she left the hospital, she said, she sent a note to the "nurse with the catcher's mitt" for helping with the delivery.