Take a ride on a train they said.....It will be fun they said.....

I think this one might be in breach of EPA regulations....

 

These guys are Aussies from Port Kembla....simple joys of getting a loco going.

and the Brits having a go with the 'old girl'
.

 

Did the Indian Pacific a few years ago, well worth the experience. Due to a booking anomaly we ended up with The Chairman’s Carriage mostly to ourselves for the entire journey. Quite nice given the facilities and lack of unwashed masses in with us !!!! Only downside was a 5hrs delay in Cook out on the Nullarbor waiting on the RFDS to land and take away a passenger who had suffered a heart attack.

 

Growing up as a kid we had tracks just at the end of the street and listened to trains night and day often played in the tracks and hunted critters .
Mom took us to see our grand parents across country twice and it was fun .
In those days kids could walk the cars and no one made a big deal of it, now its a different world .
I am surprised that they would knowingly over load trains and take unnecessary risks with their equipment. but I guess if it wern't for stupidity I wouldn't have had a job fixing stuff. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

I was lucky enough to get the chance of a lifetime and ride "The Freedom Train" through Oregon. And a few years later we rode the Daylight Express ( same train repainted) from Portland to Redding Ca.
Looking forward to a ride behind 4014X the "BIG BOY" Hopefully this summer if they get her done in time! I got connections for tickets. LOL!
Ya havnt lived untill you ride behind a steam locomotives, its a whole different journey!

 

We once rode the train from Louisiana to Missouri and back,I was very young and no longer remember much of the trip.
If I get back up to Anchorage I think there's a train one could take to see the mountains.

 

When I was probably 4 my Grandfather was babysitting me and asked me what i wanted to do, I told him go down to the station and look at trains - so we went. A 2-4-2 hauling freight was there and I told Pop that I wanted to see the inside of the engine, don't know what he said or did but a pair of dirty gloves reached down and picked me up and I was in the cab of a steam locomotive, I even got the engineer to move the train forward about 6' which freaked out a few people, then I got handed back down, remember it as if were yesterday and it was, about 25000 yesterdays ago. That was when doing something like that wouldn't get you arrested for something or other.

 

What was that train ........near Fort Bragg or there about's can't recall I'm thinking skunk train ?

 

I was very young... lived in the bay area sort of... one day I heard this really strange sound... kinda a roaring, explosive, thunder...

can't really describe it... it was one of those ya had to be there and hear it things... a WOW kinda thing I guess...

ran inside and ask my Mom about it... she said it was one of the last OLD steam locomotives that was touring America...

before they shut em down... dang those things were loud!

 

We have the Thresher's Reunion every labor day in Mt. Pleasant. Last time I was there I got a ride on a plug drawn by a steam loco. Don't remember what it was. Was fun. And then all the steam tractors parade too.

 

In my youth we would jump on the train and hang on into town (3 miles or so), mess around in town then hop another back to our crossing. Guys on the train never seemed to care. My family has all worked for Southern Railway at some point but I broke the chain.