I Got to Play With A Real Electric Train!!
Well it was really a diesel-electric engine, and no cars were attached.
For my birthday last year, lapislaz gave me the Engineer for a 1/2 hour at the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum in Campo. (South east San Diego county.) They run historic trains every weekend along the San Diego and Arizona Railway.
We left home and headed out east on I-8 to the town of Boulevard to visit the Wisteria Candy Cottage for some sugar free chocolates. They have been making chocolates since 1921. The cottage did close recently due to financial reasons, but reopened again a few months ago.
We then headed down the 94 west to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum's train station in Campo. We did not get there in time to ride the train to the Mexican Border, so we walked over the the carbarn and hung out there till the train returned.
Then we got to climb in and after the crew decoupled the two passenger cars, I was trained how to operate the locomotive by Don Getz. First was to learn the singles from the brakemen. Two cars, one cars, 1/2 car, stop and going too fast. (The two cars and one cars are distance measurements.)
Then I was shown how to operate the engine and did so for 30 minutes. The crew said I did a great job and asked if I wanted to be a volunteer engineer and crew for the museum. After my time was up, Don let us stay in the cab we got to watched as they pulled this locomotive out of the barn and park it on one of the side tracks. Then we got off and headed back to our car.
I have to say this was one of the best birthday gifts I have ever had.
For my birthday last year, lapislaz gave me the Engineer for a 1/2 hour at the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum in Campo. (South east San Diego county.) They run historic trains every weekend along the San Diego and Arizona Railway.
We left home and headed out east on I-8 to the town of Boulevard to visit the Wisteria Candy Cottage for some sugar free chocolates. They have been making chocolates since 1921. The cottage did close recently due to financial reasons, but reopened again a few months ago.
We then headed down the 94 west to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum's train station in Campo. We did not get there in time to ride the train to the Mexican Border, so we walked over the the carbarn and hung out there till the train returned.
Then we got to climb in and after the crew decoupled the two passenger cars, I was trained how to operate the locomotive by Don Getz. First was to learn the singles from the brakemen. Two cars, one cars, 1/2 car, stop and going too fast. (The two cars and one cars are distance measurements.)
Then I was shown how to operate the engine and did so for 30 minutes. The crew said I did a great job and asked if I wanted to be a volunteer engineer and crew for the museum. After my time was up, Don let us stay in the cab we got to watched as they pulled this locomotive out of the barn and park it on one of the side tracks. Then we got off and headed back to our car.
I have to say this was one of the best birthday gifts I have ever had.