Mister Choo Choo
I stumbled into the Train Museum in Portola, Ca., Pictures ensued
This is where the engineer sits in the cab of the engine that is in the first picture. They must have gotten a great deal on the green paint, many of the cars and engine had it on the interior. Not you know what some trains have in common with older hospitals.
The Train Museum didn't have a tour guide the day I was there. Their rule is a simple one "go ahead and clime on the train cars. if a door is unlocked, open it and go inside." Some of the cars & locomotives were in pretty poor condition, while others they will let you drive yourself (for a fee and an appointment), but it is still massive fun. But there was no one to explain what this hand wheel is for.... a brake?
It seems like the railroad liked to use the green paint for areas that were just for members of the crew... You'd have to pay me to spend all day inside that color.
Did I say "Members of the crew?" excuse me, it looks like they are called "trainmen". This notice is posted in one of the the cabooses (cabeese?) where there is the cupola with seats and windows for the trainmen to look out of. Careful... Trainmen only!
This is a nice heavy-duty boxcar hinge that has seen a lot of service. A number if the cars in the museums collection are from the Feather River line and they seemed to like this bright orangey-mustard color.
And here is the boxcar door upon which the heavy-duty hinge was used. More orange paint and well-weathered wood
OK, where there is iron and steel there is rust of varying degrees. This was in a car that also held a rail-mounted crane. a very cool thing... but it was tough to get an angle on it.
I'm guessing this is the corner of a Scraper from the Western Wheeled Scraper Co.. Pretty heavy stuff. Those rivets are the size of your thumb.... if you have big thumbs.
This is the interior of a Diner Car... Long and Narrow... snacks?
Remember that hinge, a few pictures up? A bur forward on that car there are these two bits. I suppose the once reddish one which reads "Defect Cards" was added later.
These are a pair of sinks with rough and ready plumbing. I'm guessing something this brilliantly crude and functional was for the trainmen, not the paying customers. It looks like originally there was a barrier between the sinks.
A cab of a different locomotive. the company that made this engine didn't get the great deal on green paint so they stuck with grey.
A different freight car... The wood is so weathered that you can no longer read this sign.
Need to get to the top of the freight car? A set of these rungs will bring you all of the way to the top!
On the side of one of the old steel box cars hinting at some of the goods you might find inside.
Yes... old steel boxcars left out in the elements will, eventually rust.
I really like how this rust grew... like the annular rings of a tree, it looks like each year the rust crept under the paint a bit more, leaving a record of each years expansion.
Looking more like a lunar crater or volcanic cone, it seems the modification to the side of this train car failed at some point.
I'm guessing that this was a sticker that wasn't completely removed before they painted over it.... kinda cool.
They used beige on the inside of this locomotive cab. Watch that speed!
And so we leave the train museum behind and head off down the rails to our next destination.
Mister Choo Choo