The Leviathan

I didn't blog this morning because I was waiting until we got back from the Illinois Railway Museum. This weekend, they had a special guest: a working steam engine. The Leviathan 63 is a replica of a steam engine built in 1868. This engine is much more recent; you can read more about it here. Here are some pictures of it:


We got to ride the Leviathan--well, behind it in a coach. It wasn't as noisy or as rocky as I thought it would be, but we did see water get splattered on the window from the engine. We were actually in the second coach, so that was even more impressive. I also saw rainbows outside the window, and of course smoke.

While we were at the museum, the engine had to take a couple of water breaks. The trip is only a few miles back and forth; I'm not sure how many miles it can go between water stops, but it must not be much. It's amazing how much this inefficient engine was able to accomplish in its day.