Handcar Regatta

The gentlefolk “down under” have, I noticed of late, been rummaging about our humble Regatta site in surprising numbers. Not being one to miss a fond glance or two headed my way, I decided a bit of poking about was due in the Aether of the great country of Australia.

None to my surprise, the “Aussies” are sweethearts to their many working steam locomotives. A few of such beauties are listed thusly:

• Puffing Billy
• Pichi Pichi Railway home including:
  

  Afghan Express
  Pichi Richi Explorer
  the winsome Coffee Pot
  Wizards Explorer

If you are residing across the mighty globe from The Great Handcar Regatta, consider embarking upon a journey into the past upon the civilized rails of yesteryear!

Any news and Huzzahs! from the goodly chaps and lasses “down under” are gladly welcomed to dispatch an electro-telegraphic communiqué at your convenience!

Everything old is new again! Steam power is, ahem, gaining steam nowadays as seen by such ambitious projects as the built-from-scratch and full-scale “Tornado” by the Britain’s A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.

Nowadays, in Santa Rosa, CA, steam is being revived in miniature by the Redwood Empire Live Steamers’ “Santa Rosa Southwestern“.

TO WIT! A large oval track is laid in the park with an engine and three cars both kids and adults can ride. The kids, of course, wiggle in excitement to ride a toy-like miniature train of their dreams. Ask any kid to draw a train and it will look like a steam locomotive of old with a boiler cylinder and a chimney belching smoke.

The grown-ups too can indulge a few memories of their early fantasies in train travel as well as ponder how these engines might be adapted to alternative power needs today.

Perhaps there’s something to these old engines and we’ll be seeing a bit more of them again with oil becoming the latest dinosaur…