Houston Area Live Steamers

September 18, 2021

We took the boys to HALS for our first visit in more than a year. This was Noah's 5th or 6th visit and Nathan's first.

Before we left, I fed Nathan a bottle and watched an old railroad video while chatting with some railroad friends on Slack about this video.
 

Noah told me that he wants to work at HALS when he's older. I told him that it was a club and these guys do it as a hobby. Everything is hand-made. His eyes lit up and... apparently... when he's older we'll be joining the club.

The ride they give to the public is a bit more than a mile and takes 15 minutes, but there's more track out there that members get to use. I'd guess 2.5 miles total. All of it built by hand. These may be "toys", but these guys ain't playin'. There's real work involved in this hobby.

Hobo-gator

BNSF gave us our ride this day.

Noah is a pro at this. He's been on at least a dozen rides here over the years.

This coal tipple reminds me of my other home...

This is the layout for "live steam" engines. Noah really wanted to go see them, but it was raining when we got back to the Depot.

It was harder than you'd think to get all four of us in the shot.

Aptly named

Those storm clouds were legit. It was sprinkling at this point, raining when we got to the Depot, and pouring when we got to the truck.