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"Tuolumne Heisler"

Built by the Strearns Manufacturing Company of Erie Pennsylvania in 1899, the world's oldest operation Heisler steam locomotive.

 

The train! CHooooo choooooo. It actually makes that sound. What you see here is the train getting ready to depart. The train engineer is preparing to feed the boiler live humans (the ones u see in front of you).
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Here is the same man filling up the boiler with load of water. According to them, a single trip will use 600 gallons of water. This water is collected from the mountain itself thus saving them tons of money.
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The beast roars and growls, sending sulfurous fumes all over the place. As it hisses, the pitiful human scurries out of the way.
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For those mechanical buffs, here a closeup of the engine. I cannot explain any of it to you since I am not a experienced train engineer. All I know is that the engine runs on oil, heats the water and the steam pressure (600 PSI) runs the pistons.
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Train controls. Lots of levers, gauges, pipes, cranks and what ever mechanical controls they have. This train is more than a century old. It is mantained every night just to make sure it will work the next day. Cool huh?
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Say hello to the train engineer. There is a program that cost US95 where you get to be an engineer for a day. You will report to the supervisor to get ur cap and bandana, then polishes the brass, oild the engine and get a briefing on the internal workings of a steam locomotive. Later, you get to ride in the cab for the day's scheduled trips.

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All aboard. Here we are boarding the train. The train leaves at 1100am. Quite a number of people came (around 30). All brought their nice cameras and video cameras:). Must be a hell of a ride.
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The water tank for the boiler.
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