Age of Steam Railroad Museum

[roryglasgow]

My wife and I took our son, Bryan, to see Thomas the Tank Engine at one of the Day Out with Thomas events at the Age of Steam Railroad Museum in Dallas, TX the other week.

We had a few minutes before our turn to ride Thomas' train, so we went exploring around the museum. They had a lot of interesting stuff! Here are a few of the engines that they had on display.

This only scratches the surface of their collection. I recommend the museum to anyone who is in the Dallas area! The link above has contact and location information.

I'd never seen a UP Big Boy in person before. These are truely massive machines! Bryan, who just turned 5, is 46.5" tall...to give you some perspect. Here he is running alongside the tender...

 

[roryglasgow]

Here is Bryan standing in front of one of the Big Boy's 68 inch driving wheels.

 

[roryglasgow]

Another giant: DDA40X "Centennial" 6913. It is located back-to-back with the Big Boy.

 

[roryglasgow]

Here's a Santa Fe Doodlebug. The little boy running across the tracks to the right is my Doodlebug!

 

[roryglasgow]

PRR GG1 4903. <-- That looks like some kind of secret code.

 

[roryglasgow]

Kristi and Bryan standing in front of an 0-6-0 that belonged to the Port Bolivar Iron Ore Railway. The line was created to provide a link between Ore City, Texas and the Santa Fe line that ran to Port Bolivar on the Texas Gulf Coast. For more information, click here.

 

[roryglasgow]

A Santa Fe FP45 passenger locomotive. These locomotives were put into freight service when Amtrak started in 1971. I think that the Branson Scenic Railway uses one of these... ???

 

[roryglasgow]

A Fairbanks-Morse locomotive of some kind. We were in a rush (and it was raining), so I didn't have enough time to take good notes. But I do remember that this locomotive has one of those opposed-piston diesel engines.

 

[roryglasgow]

A little UP switcher. Isn't it cuuute?

 

[roryglasgow]

Here is a fully restored Missouri-Kansas-Texas dining car.

 

[roryglasgow]

And, finally...Thomas! That big dopey looking guy next to Bryan is me.

 

[60103]

Rory:
Do you know what the Thomas engine was originally?
For modelling purposes, can you get Bryan to wear clothes with alternating foot wide black and white stripes? It makes scaling the photographs so much easier.

 

[cidchase]

Thanx for those pix, Rory!! I get over that way once in a great
while and that's goin' on my to-do list!!!

 

[PennRailRoads]

Those driving wheels on the UP Big Boy are about the same height as me, I'm 5'5" and I know those wheels are huge (not to mention the whole loco). If I ever go to "Steamtown" I'm gonna check out the 4012 Big Boy that's on display there. I've always wondered how the hell they ever got that thing to Scranton cause it would've gone through a few or more tunnels to get there, not to mention tight curves and all?