PREPARING A STEAM LOCOMOTIV

A good whistle, and the train starts! It sounds very simple, but it takes a lot of know-how and long hours to get there.

Preparations begin several hours before the scheduled departure. The days of the Train 1900 volunteers therefore begin early in the morning. First of all, they had to put together the train that would be running, and above all, they had to clean the locomotive’s firebox, which had been left to cool down from the previous time. Then, the machine must be supplied with water, wood and coal to be able to proceed with the lighting, always with matches and never with a lighter as Romain likes to say. A very important step is to oil all the small moving parts of the machine and to check all the fixings (screws, bolts and nuts); a small passage under the machine is necessary. After nearly 4 hours, the machine is now almost ready, so we can do the braking tests and especially refuel the machinists during a meal with the rest of the team.