(Article was written by Chris Amico and appeared on Insidebayarea.com on September 2)
SUNOL, California — Steam engines are alive, says Ronald Vale.
“It sits there and it hisses at you. You hear the whine of the turbo generator. … The air pump will pump. It’s just more alive than a diesel (locomotive) with this dull rumble going on,” Vale said, as a restored Pacific steam locomotive idled on a track nearby, exhaling white plumes as passengers climb on cars behind it. “It seems alive to me. It’s just something very different.”
At the tiny station in this town east of Fremont, a few hundred people parked their cars and boarded the old train, pulled by a steam locomotive. The classic engine, burning recycled motor oil and belching black smoke and white steam as it chugged through Niles Canyon, took passengers on a leisurely ride to Niles and back Monday.
The Pacific Locomotive Association and Golden Gate Railroad Museum last ran this train on this route over Memorial Day weekend, and the short trip proved popular. Vale, the museum’s treasurer, said the groups hope to hold similar events a few times a year.
Built in 1921, this engine — with the “4-6-2” designation referring to six big driving wheels — ran until 1956. Its last assignment was on the San Francisco peninsula, pulling commuter trains.
Since being restored in 1990, the locomotive’s longest trip was down to Los Angeles in 1992. In 1996, a main bearing failure on one of the main drivers took it out of service until 2001. In 2003, a massive project to rebuild the engine’s boiler began and took five years.
When they were part of the state’s transportation infrastructure, California steam engines burned oil, originally crude, drawing on the state’s own wells. It was the cheapest fuel at the time, Vane said.
This locomotive burns recycled motor oil, costing about $1.15 a gallon, Vane said. He wouldn’t say how much the steam engine burned on each trip.
Events like Monday’s cost the sponsoring groups a few thousand dollars. They try to take in about $5,000 each time. Most of that money will go toward $300,000 spent rebuilding the locomotive’s boiler.
“This is the kind of locomotive that was pulling commute trains when I was a kid back in the ’50s,” Vale said. “I used to go down to the tracks and take pictures of the trains with a box camera. I took excursions on steam trains with my father, so steam trains are very special to me. I’ve been a rail fan all my life.”
Lawrence Chew, from San Ramon, builds model railroads at home. He took his wife and two children along Monday to check out the train.
“It’s just that they’re so old, and they’re still working today,” he said. “I think that’s quite an achievement.”
Mike Dugoni teaches fourth grade at Forest Park School in Fremont. Monday was his first time on this train, but he hopes to bring his students next time.
“I was hoping I could talk them into opening this train up during the school year for field trips,” he said. Dugoni used to take classes down to the Roaring Camp railroad in the Santa Cruz mountains, but buses there now cost around $700, he said.
Railroads are a major topic in fourth-grade social studies, which focuses on California history. Although train travel in many parts of the United States fades further into history, Dugoni said trains are not at all alien for many of his students.
“A huge percentage of our students are from India, where they probably do have a lot of train travel,” he said, “so maybe it’s not so strange to them after all.”