Oregon Steam Train

When we went to Oregon, I was excited to see there was a steam train that ran through Rockaway Beach, because the children have always wanted to see a working steam locomotive! The Heber Valley Railway was fun, but its steam locomotive isn't running right now, and they were quite disappointed about that. I wanted them to ride this one so much that I specifically made sure we were staying through a weekend because the train only runs on Saturdays and Sundays (this time of year, anyway). It's a pretty short train ride, it just goes down the coast for a few miles and then back up, about an hour and a half total. But it's beautiful and even if it hadn't been, we were riding a train! Automatic fun.

We made sure to get there early so we could look the train over and see all the pistons and cylinders up close. We heard the train whistle from our cottage as the train came by, and I've never seen the kids get their shoes on and ready to go so fast! They were so excited.

The fireman was so nice! He saw how interested all the kids were in the train, and let them come up into the cab and look around at all the valves and pipes. We could feel the heat, and see the fire glowing yellow in the firebox! This steam locomotive runs on oil, the man told us.

Junie got all sooty in the cab, which seemed right somehow.

We walked through the indoor car, but decided we'd rather sit outside in the roofless car. It was cloudy and kind of misty, but not cold.

When the train started up, it was so loud and exciting! Whooshing and hissing and clouds of steam everywhere.

Such pretty scenery along the coast! I could never get tired of it.

At Garibaldi you can get off and look around at some of the other old trains. There's a little playground to play on, and boats in a harbor.

These little ones were always picking daisies and buttercups, everywhere we went!

Daisy was very impressed by the conductor and asked me to take her picture with him.

Marigold enjoyed the ride SO much! Lots of cars and people waved at the train as it went by, and Goldie just waved and waved back at them grandly, like she was royalty.

Every time the steam whistle blew, she laughed and laughed and laughed, and she loved the wind blowing through her hair (fuzz). She seemed to think everything had been arranged specifically for her personal enjoyment. It was so cute!

We just loved watching the steam drift up over the beautiful green forests. Oregon is such a great place!

Freight Trains; Specialty Trains

This cool picture shows Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world. How trains are sorted and assembled is a question we'd never even thought to ask, but we loved learning about it!

This shows how the "hump" helps to separate and sort train cars

More sorting action

We also really liked looking through these pictures of types of freight cars.

We talked about some specialized trains like cable cars (we've always loved cable cars!) and trams (we've always loved trams!). Trams and Cable Cars are basically the same thing, in fact (though aerial trams can't usually ungrip from their cable), which is why aerial trams are sometimes called "cable cars" (like the one that goes across the Thames) . . . and streetcars are sometimes called "trams." See here, here, and here.

Just to keep things interesting, there is also the term "funicular"---a train which works the same as a cable car, except there are two cars that counterbalance each other as they go up and down a slope. Here are some beautiful pictures of a very steep funicular railway.

A video about how cable cars work

A video showing the cable car museum in San Francisco where the big motors are housed (we didn't get to go here when we visited SF, unfortunately---next time for sure!)

Rack-and-pinion railways, also called "cog railways," are different still (they are also used for steep slopes, though)---here's a video about rack-and-pinions.
And some beautiful pictures.

Golden Spike National Historic Site field trip (and the Transcontinental Railroad)

I've always felt like we were kind of special because we lived in Utah, where the two sides of the Transcontinental Railroad met. But I'd never actually been to Promontory Summit where the last spike was driven. So I was happy to have this opportunity to finally visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site!

We postponed our trip for what was supposed to be a warm(er) day, but when the day came, it was cold and windy! As it was our last free day for some time, we decided to brave the elements and go anyway. The last half hour of the drive was beautiful, through rocky, desert-y country like this:

It was interesting to think about how wild and untameable it must have seemed to people crossing it for the first time by rail! The picture above shows a cutting near Promontory Summit---you can see the chisel marks in the rock, and the stacks of cut rock on top of the hill.

Here you can see a huge embankment the railroad workers built up to cross a low-lying area. First, they tried a (hastily and badly-built) trestle to cross the area, but it was a hazard, and they eventually replaced it with this fill instead. It must have been an enormous undertaking!

Because it is not the summer season, the locomotives (replicas of the original Jupiter and 119 locomotives) were being worked on in the engine house. Starting in May, there are re-enactments of the Golden Spike ceremony and they run the steam locomotives, which we would like to see sometime. But we enjoyed being able to look at everything up close in the engine house, and being there off-season meant we had everything to ourselves (a private tour!) so we quite liked it anyway. It was fascinating to see all the workings of the engines up close. Everything looks so powerful---even when it's not running!

We enjoyed turning this little model and watching how the steam pushes the pistons, which push the driving rods and turn the wheels.

The details are beautifully done on the locomotives---the 119 had these lovely little pictures on its corners

Huge driving wheels

Seb was really fascinated with this enormous piston

The park ranger that gave us the Engine House tour was really nice, and back at the Visitor's Center (the Engine House is just across a field from it) they had some good movies for us to watch, including Thomas Edison's "The Great Train Robbery." There's also a small museum area, which we liked.

Coupling pin

This display showed all the steps involved in making the railroad, from surveying to hammering in the ties.

Outside, we stood on this section of original rail while almost getting blown away. It was REALLY windy! (Look at Daisy's hair!) Junie, immediately upon setting foot outside the door, felt the strong wind and started crying. She thought she was going to blow away.

It gave us quite a thrill to see the spot, the very spot, where this photograph was taken---the meeting point of the two rail lines.

We re-enacted the historic handshake.

You can see the telegraph lines where they sent the message to the nation that the railroad was finally complete!

The golden spikes, of course, were never left on the rails in the first place, and the special laurelwood tie had to be removed and replaced also. But you can see the gouges (above) in many of the surrounding ties, where people hacked out souvenirs to take home from the ceremony.

And Sebby presents . . . the Transcontinental Railroad!

On our way out of the area, we drove on a couple of scenic routes to see some cuttings and embankments done nearby. We also stopped at the "Chinese Arch," which is named for the Chinese Railroad Workers. It's a naturally-formed arch, but it doesn't look like it with that squared-off underside! Very interesting.

We really liked this field trip in spite of the cold and windy day, and in spite of all of us forgetting it was St. Patrick's Day and realizing to our horror that none of us had worn green! *gasp* That has never happened before. We had to eat our picnic lunch in the car, but luckily we found a great place to do it, on the main road just a half mile past where you turn to get to Golden Spike National Monument. It was something we never expected to see out there in the middle of nowhere . . . but it will have to wait for another post! :)

Heber Valley Railroad Field Trip

When I was young I rode the "Heber Creeper" on a school field trip, so I thought I'd check to see if it was still around. They've updated everything (it's "Heber Valley Railroad" now) but it's still around! They even have a steam train that runs in the summer months. It's not cheap, although Monday nights they have a "family night" price that isn't too bad. We didn't want to go at night because the evenings were still dark enough, in March, that we wouldn't have been able to see any of the scenery! But it would be a fun thing to do in the summer.

We got there early so we could look around at the old train cars. The children were all so excited to see things we'd learned about in person!

Like fishplates! Hooray!

And flanges! Hooray!

There's an old caboose and a tender full of coal, but best of all. . . 

An old steam locomotive! They are working on restoring this to working order, I think. They have another one that already runs (but only in summer).

It's so cool to see this up close! We loved being able to see all the gears and rods and pistons.

We looked at the other diesel-electric locomotives too (which we weren't supposed to climb on, apparently, but how should we have known?)

We rode the Deer Creek Express, which was an hour and a half trip---just right. It's a lovely view of Deer Creek Reservoir from the opposite (north) side.

Goldie got passed around a lot. She likes that.

There were some "train robbers" which gave out these "gold coin" chocolates. The children were slightly baffled. Daisy kept saying, "Robbers aren't supposed to give money to US!" They were nice and gentle so the kids weren't scared, just puzzled.

We were lucky to have a beautiful day, so we opened our windows and enjoyed the warm sun!