and rehabilitation processes. Towards end the day we operated their diesel lo- comotive and rode in the cab of a loco- motive, at one point having to flag a four-lane highway.
The next day, Thursday, was our first day at the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway (MRSR). Upon our arrival, the first thing we did was go under a steam locomotive so we could see how exten- sive its on-going restoration effort truly is. It seemed they were rebuilding it al- most from scratch. After the insight on their restoration work, we helped an MRSR crew clean Baldwin steam loco- motive No. 70 and prepare it for opera- tion. I was in the cab when they fired the oil-burning engine and was shocked at how fast the cold and humidity in the cab seemed to disappear due to the heat of the fire.
During the preparation of the loco- motive, I helped clean and fill the sand
domes, as well as clean several dirty, gritty oil cans. I also flushed water out of the boiler in an attempt to even up the water temperature.
After we prepared the engine suffi- ciently, we learned how to replace a stretch of rail, which must be done by pulling up all the spikes attached to the rail and removing the anchor on each end, using tongs to pull out the rail. The steps in replacing the new piece of rail were explained, but unfortunately the
replacement rail had been expanded by the heat of the sun and was therefore too long, and the job could not be com- pleted. By the time the track work was completed, the boiler pressure in Baldwin 70 was high enough for safe operation, so to end the day each camper received the unforgettable and rare experience of operating a steam locomotive. On Friday, we returned to Sno- qualmie, but this time it was to work a public trip for NRM that ran from Sno-
RIGHT: Hands-on experience is an important part of RailCamp. Kevin Phalon and James Haley get into some grunt work lifting a replacement tie on the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. BELOW: Stathi Pappas goes over steam locomotive basics to the RailCamp group. The bonus? The Campers get to run the locomotive (under supervision, of course).
46 MARCH 2014 •
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