naveenrajan posted:Thanks for the leads on the historical equipment. Before moving to America, I grew up riding electric & diesel trains, in India & I have always liked modern trains. I even visited the Henry Ford museum in 2007 & looked at the steam locomotive(s), stored indoors, but it didn’t motivate me to get to know them better. But based on the replies to my original post, there appears to be more opportunities to get closer to historical equipment, than to contemporary trains. My daughter, unlike me, seems to like all trains. So, I might pay another visit to the Henry Ford museum, later this year, if she wants to see trains again.
Thanks,
Naveen
No problem. I can't say there aren't opportunities to see class 1 and other modern equipment out there, but I don't know of any up close and personal opportunities like the festival you mentioned. A friend of mine does a lot of rail fanning in the Detroit area, but I've never really done anything like that around here. Unfortunately I can't really give you a good direction on where to go for that.
The Henry Ford Museum (and it's outdoor portion, Greenfield Village, where I work) have a lot of opportunities to be up close to things. Obviously you saw everything in the museum, where you can climb in the cab of C&O Allegheny 1601, but in the village you can ride behind one of our three operating locomotives, check out our roundhouse where we maintain them, and take a peek underneath a 100 ton 1902 ALCO 4-4-2 from the Michigan Central railroad.
If you come in October, our 1873 Mason 0-6-4T "Torch Lake" is scheduled to be pulling trains to finish out our operating season for 2017. It's unofficially the oldest operating steam locomotive in the country (I can't find any older ones running at this time) and is one of only two Mason built locomotives left in the world. Obviously this is subject to change if any mechanical issues arise.
