Train Day in Portola!

  A few Christmas' ago my daughters bought me an opportunity to operate a real diesel locomotive. Being a train "enthusiast", that sounded like a lot of fun. Today Patsy and I made it to Portola to the Train Museum there, and I got the chance to operate a GP-9 Road engine. So did Patsy!
  Charlie was assigned to be our babysitter. We went through the pre-trip inspection, and soon we started the engine up and let it idle to build up air pressure for the brakes and a few other mechanical devices on the engine.
  They let you rent the train for an hour, and you get to operate it over 1/4 mile of rail. There's straight track, curved track, and a crossing, so you really do get to have some fun blowing the horn, ringing the bell and controlling your speed.
   Here's a few pix just for fun:

The Engine is a Southern Pacific EMD GP-9

It's powered by a HUGE 16 cylinder engine

Part of the pre-trip inspection is opening every door around the engine and checking the oil in a number of places, then you do a walk-around to check the brake shoes and a few other things. Charlie did the checking and I pretended I knew what he was doing...

  Once we had it running, and everything was checked, it was time to ROLL! In the 5 minute school they give you, you learn to remember to change the headlightswitch so the headlights are lit to point  the direction you are going, to operate the bell and horn at the crossing, to operate the horn when changing direction, and try to stay on the track! Also, a lot of technical "How to make it go and stop" stuff...
   So, the pic above is me looking like I know what I'm doing.....

  Here's Patsy looking like she knows what she's doing.....The guy who was babysitting us is really a great guy. He had been with the museum  for 9 years. He said he knew nothing about trains when he joined up with them.

   This sign names the place we started and finished our trip. I think it's aptly named....

Here's the view out the passenger door of the Engine. This is the point of your operation where you'd stop and reverse direction. See the train in front? If you mess up, you hit it! Lucky for the museum we were able to avoid a collision.....

 
Here's me!

Here's Patsy and Sassi!

Lastly, here's Charlie and me. It was a fun way to spend an hour.

Tomorrow we're going back to see the rest of the museum. They have a LOT of rolling stock there!

C-Ya,