Another shout out for great photos. Towards the end of 734's service time, before the 15 year inspection, WMSR was offering hands on the throttle opportunities. This was a fund-raising effort to help with the restoration of #1309. My wife and I each did that, great experience. Sessions were scheduled for 30 minutes, which I did. My wife got 45 minutes!
We operated the throttle, Johnson bar, and Independent. We operated across the bridge from the Cumberland Station but before the track started to go uphill, going back and forth. There were no cars attached. The real engineer stood right behind us, thank goodness. The fireman took care of the coal and water, and a 3rd crew member crawled to the top of the tender to be the eyes looking ahead when we were going in reverse.
