I just got back from Disney World and took the behind the trains steam tour. It was great to see the engines up close and the rail yard.
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Thanks for the photos. I wonder what that strange thing is on the steam line to the air compressor. Is that the governor?
If you really want to know what it's like to fire/run a Disney engine, a computer simulator is going to be available in a couple days:
Great photos 
I took the tour back in 2008 with my Dad. Even though he is not into trains he still really enjoyed it I would love to take the tour again sometime.
That simulator looks slick. If not high priced I will probably buy.
We did it years back.... worth every penny, even tho you have to get up in the dark to get there!
I was impressed to see what it looks like in the park with no one there!
Lots of good info on the tour too. We found out that you can tell how many people are in the park based on the number of trains running on the loop. Great stories about the history of the trains and the people involved in buying and re-doing them.
smd4 posted:Thanks for the photos. I wonder what that strange thing is on the steam line to the air compressor. Is that the governor?
I was staring at that as well. It's certainly in the position that a governor is usually mounted, but it definitely isn't your traditional governor. It looks like it probably works in a similar way, but is more exposed.
Those are great pictures!!! Thanks for sharing!
Very nice photos I took that tour and as was said earlier worth the price.
Nice pics! I've done the tour twice I liked it so much. It's quite a cool thing to see when they fire up the engine by basically tossing a ball of fire into the firebox to get it going. The people doing that have nerves of steel as far as I am concerned, fire proof gloves or not! 
Did the guides happen to mention what all the plastic was up in the engine house for? That wasn't like that either time I took the tour (I don't think). Maybe they were painting or renovating something?
-Dave
Interesting. We're doing Disney for Christmas next year, maybe I can take my oldest on this tour.
ETA: have to be ten or older. Bummer.
Dave45681 posted:It's quite a cool thing to see when they fire up the engine by basically tossing a ball of fire into the firebox to get it going. The people doing that have nerves of steel as far as I am concerned, fire proof gloves or not!
It's really a piece of cake if you take the proper precautions i.e., make sure you run the blower for a bit so that all the volatile gasses are eliminated. This will help in keeping your eyebrows intact.
