PARRISH - Plumes of thick, black smoke shoot from the top of Flagg Coal Co. No. 75 as the fireman stokes coal into the steam tank engine.
It’s a moderate coal, exhaling a deep, rich smoke that’s not too overwhelming, mined in either West Virginia or Virginia.
“I like a big smoke every now and then,” said overalls-clad and soot-soaked Byron “Barney” Gramling, co-owner of this 77-year-old machine.
The 40-ton steam engine takes off slowly, chugging forward and backward before gaining speed. The smoke and smell of burning coal wafts through surrounding vegetation and pasture.
It’s not a scene from the the late 1800s, rather a slice of life that’s come to Parrish’s Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum for its Month of Steam.
The steam engine, built in 1930 by Vulcan Iron Works in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was brought to the museum from Owosso, Mich., last week. The steam train will be running trips at the museum throughout February, as one of only 150 such engines still operating nationwide.
Gramling and his father, John, spent 10 years overhauling the engine at the latter’s home in Ashley, Ind.
During the summer, the engine runs at the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, where Byron Gramling works. In the off-season, the father-son team rent it for the public’s use.
“It was one of the most trying, most frustrating things,” Byron Gramling said. “But it has been the most gratifying and most rewarding thing.”
Visitors can ride the steam train every weekend in February, starting Saturday and ending Feb. 25. Rides are at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and cost $16.
About 1½ tons of coal would be used each day the steam engine carries visitors along the museum’s historic track, built in 1903, museum officials said.
On the first and third weekends, however, look out for the Hole in the Head Gang reenacting train robberies. During the second weekend of the month, antique farm equipment and hay rides will be at the museum. On the last Saturday of the month, antique fire equipment will be displayed.
The steam engine is the museum’s first since 1995 and prior to that, dating back to the 1950s, said Jim Herron, museum volunteer and chair of February’s Steam Month effort.
Michael Meksraitis, director of the museum, said 750 tickets have been sold so far, but more were expected.
Meksraitis has long had an interest in train operations, spending two summers working on steam-engine commuter trains in Poland.
He likened working a steam locomotive to sailing a sailboat.
Source: bradenton.com
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