During the last two summers, Judy has been taking LB on "Summer adventures" on Thursdays, which include things like going to museums, the Huntington and the like. Today she had a surprise for him, and since I'm in vacation, I was able to join them. She didn't tell him where we were going, but if you know LB, you'll see pretty quickly why we knew he'd be thrilled with this one:


This is LB with the Santa Fe 3751, a 4-8-4 steam locomotive (total weight with tender about 850,000 pounds, with 8 80" drive wheels, which you can see next to him.) This engine has been lovingly restored by the San Bernadino Railroad Historical Society and lives at Amtrak's maintnance depot just south of downtown LA. This is, without question, LB's favorite engine (not counting Thomas) and when he's playing at being a train, he almost always declares that he is the 3751. He has a set of DVDs and he's watched the one with the 3751 dozens of times all the way through. Needless to say he was really excited once he realized where we were and what was there. Of course, it being a working rail yard, there were trains going by while we were there and there's really nothing better than seeing the train nut little boy, sitting in the engineer's seat of his favorite engine, watching a diesel freight roll by.




 Judy and LB(sitting in the firemans seat) look at a book about the history of the 3751. Judy showed him pictures from the same run that's covered by the DVD.


LB sits in the engineer's seat, hand on the throttle.


Judy and LB watch a freight go by.


LB stands on top of the tender, looking tiny.


LB watches another freight go by.


LB makes a coupler with his and and connects up to the SBRHS' tool car. They take this car whenever they take the 3751 out, since most places don't have the tools to work on her.


Another shot for a sense of scale.


Judy and LB sit in the Engineer's seat and look out.


Bob K. from the SBRHS teaches LB about the controls. He arranged our visit and was very gracious and clearly loves the engine and teaching about it. He spent part of the time we were there meeting with a production company about a film role for the engine.


More lessons on the controls


LB gets to look into the firebox. When the engine's under steam, the firebox is about 2500 degrees. The bricks you can see inside the door are part of the insulation that keeps the fire from melting the engine or frying the crew.


Even after two hours of climbing around and learning about the 3751, LB was still excited every time another train would roll by. The picture doesn't really do justice to just how filthy he was by this point. Fortunately, it all washes off.