I know I started a thread on this subject awhile back when I had just finished the application to be a volunteer on a local tourist railroad (Greenfield Village). I've already worked 6 days so far and have put in well over 60 hours in that time. I started pre-season cleaning and polishing the steam locomotive that would be doing the first runs of the season. From there I observed for another day while the other crew members worked on some small parts for another locomotive restoration. I took a couple weeks off for family commitments and went back last weekend, the first of our three Day out with Thomas events with the live steam Thomas the Tank engine from Strasburg. I spent the first Saturday cleaning and polishing up our 1873 Mason Bogie "Torch Lake" (I felt bad that it was still filthy when her sister was out running and shiny), doing some maintenance on our early 1900's armstrong turntable from the Pere Marquette, as well as some other small tasks. Sunday I assisted with firing up the 4-4-0 "Edison" for the normal weekday trains and ended the day assisting with some switching moves with our 1942 USN GE 50 tonner.
Jumping up to this past weekend, I spent Saturday morning applying a new coating of graphite and linseed oil to the smokebox of the 4-4-0 and wiped her brass clean again. They let me take a cab ride on Thomas which was a bit interesting. Sunday, once again was spent working mostly on the 4-4-0. I cleaned the cinders out of the smokebox, cleaned off the grates and did the fire up mostly on my own (the guys came out and checked on my progress every so often and assisted with starting up the appliances). The guy I work with moved her onto the turntable and over to the ash dump and water column, where I watered her up for the night, then we moved her back to the wash rack and banked the fire so she'd be ready to run today.
I didn't realize I could learn so much in 6 days, and still have a ton to learn. The guys have been great at showing me what to do and answering my questions. I'm working on memorizing the rule book right now to be ready for the upcoming test (hand signals and stuff like that). I also received a steam locomotive operation and maintenance book to browse through. Today I also received an email from my coworker saying the boss gave the OK to let them teach me how to fire as soon as Thomas goes away for the year.
Firing up our 1932 4-4-0 "Edison" last Sunday
Riding along on the GE 50 tonner
Our 1873 0-6-4T Mason Bogie "Torch Lake" pre and post cleaning (the brass got polished by us a day after I took the cleaned up photo)
A shot taken by one of my fellow train club members while I was firing up this weekend.
The current restoration project, D&LN #7. An 1897 Baldwin 4-4-0 that's been under restoration since 2008. The guys are hoping to have her up and running by Henry Ford's 150th birthday in July (she was his baby when he owned the DT&I), but are having some issues with the injectors that are being worked out. She was restored for museum display in the 1930's and hasn't run since the late 1920's. Many of the parts were installed brand new, but still need to be machined which ended up causing some unexpected delays.