Orange Empire Rail Museum Steam Day 4-28-2007
John took Alyssa and Matt to the OERM to meet with Uncle Erik.
The Prairie 2-6-2 was particularly interesting. According to the museum's information, this locomotive was built in 1922 and ran lumber up in Washington state for 20 years.
During WWII, the Prairie 2-6-2 was up working at the supply base at Port Hueneme, CA.
It was really neat to be able to walk up and touch a locomotive that wasn't part of an amusement park. It wasn't a smaller scale one, but a full size. The engineers take meticulous care of it, checking the oil and water levels. The passenger cars were pretty old as well.
As the locomotive was pulling the cars, the fire managed to go out. Of course, the boiler began to loose pressure and they stopped the train. The engineers worked for several minute to get things going again. Finally, the engine got back up to pressure and continued on it's way down the track.