My son recently landed the job of his dreams at Roaring Camp, a site in Santa Cruz County, CA, that features steam locomotive trips up into an old growth Redwood forest in open train passenger cars. The site was a logging camp back in the 1800s and quite famous. He switches off as switch man, brakeman, conductor, and fireman on this train.
Last week they had a wedding party on his train. They brought the party to the top of the mountain where they were married in the majestic Redwood forest. As they were getting ready to return to the station for the reception, they got a radio call that there was a forest fire below them. They were at the end of their track, and could not wait it out since the fire would come up the mountain to them. They hustled the wedding party on board and got them all laying under the benches in the cars. They then ran full speed down the mountain through the fire. He was told that they passed through temperatures as high as 800 degrees.
At the bottom of the mountain there is a wooden trestle with a sharp curve just outside the station. The train could not take that curve at speed, so as they neared the curve the brakes were slammed. The party and crew were all slid along the flood to the front of the cars and to the side as they hit the curve. They managed to get the bunch safely to the station, with the bride, groom, wedding party, and guests covered in floor dirt, gum from under the benches, and soot from the fire. They all adjourned to the dance hall and had the greatest reception in the history of train weddings, and added a heck of a story to the tour portfolio at Roaring Camp.
The crew is now required to make an end-of-day fire walk from the mountain top to the station. The picture below is my son on that curved wooden trestle, making the Fire Walk with a shovel over his shoulder. If you look closely, he is grinning ear to ear, but not for the photographer. He just loves his job.
