Live Steamers will fire up museum

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Special to the Spectator


By Susannah Schmidt
Special to The Hamilton Spectator(Sep 30, 2006)
If you like wind, fire and sweat, meet Tom Stewart.

He's a builder of mini-trains. He started the hobby at age 40 when he was a firefighter. Now he's retired. The first locomotive took him four years to build.

Tomorrow, he and the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers bring their mini-engines to the Museum of Steam and Technology on Woodward Avenue.

The trains smell, run and click-clack like real coal-fired and electric trains, but they're small.

"It has a boiler on it. At the end is a big firebox. You heat coal in there," he said.

Yes, you can ride one, for free or by donation. (There is a charge to go into the steam museum.)

It's your last chance this season.

Since the engines don't like the cold, Sunday is the steamers' "blow-down meet." That's when the hobbyists blow down all the water in the steam engines to give them a rest until next season.

There are about 50 steamer enthusiasts in the Golden Horseshoe chapter. They share their locomotives for special occasions at Hamilton's steam museum, one place they laid track.

The steamers take passengers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Stewart said if the weather looks good on Sunday, they'll run. If it's rainy, call ahead to check.

The museum is at 900 Woodward Ave. near the QEW.

Phone 905-546-4797, or go online at www.hamilton.ca/museums.
Photo- The Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers will take passengers aboard mini-trains tomorrow.
 
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