Steam Locomotive

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a great time the other day taking our first ride on a train powered by a steam locomotive.  This is not something that was preplanned, it was a spontaneous thing that made it all the more fun.

We were on our way to Queenstown when we saw a small railroad station.  I said I wanted to photograph it so Chuck pulled over.

Little did I know that we would be back at this station in a little over an hour.

We came to a small town and saw a sign for the railroad station.  We followed it and guess what?  There was a wonderful old steam locomotive - steaming away waiting to load.

 

We bought tickets and hoped aboard.

 The cars on the train were quite old and still had a lot of the original equipment.  Here is Chuck pointing to a gas powered light fixture. Also notice the tin ceiling.

The woodwork was in great condition.

Here is the inside of our car.  We had it to ourselves. The seats had been reupholstered.

Here is Chuck enjoying riding on the back of the train.

When we arrived at the train station I pictured earlier, we got off the train while the engineer got the locomotive engine at the other end of the train for our return trip.

The also added water to the engine by putting buckets of water in on top.

I was able to take a picture of the inside of the engine. 

And here is our engineer.

The best part about our return trip was seeing people at the railroad crossing waiting to see the train and give a big wave.

When we set out that morning our only plan was to drive to Queenstown.  What a fun addition to our day.

Love,
Nancy