Originally intended to document my experience of DeLorean ownership, focus is often radical and strange, boring and obtuse.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Steam Trains & DeLoreans: BTTF 3!

It's BTTF 3 all over again.

On Canada Day 2012 I travelled through time. Right back to 1883. It was "the Coolest vehicle of the 1980s meets the coolest vehicle of the 1880s" in Tottenham, north of Toronto.

Our car club, which includes one Time Machine DeLorean, gathered at the South Simcoe Railway and rode the only functioning steam powered train in Ontario: Canadian Pacific engine 136. It is among a very small handful of steam trains still operational in Canada.

The boiler was warmed up the night before, and the engineer began stoking the fire around 6 a.m. Four hours later the DeLoreans began rolling in. We admired the engine, built in 1883, as crowds gathered around our cars beneath clouds of steam and smoke.

A sight to behold, everyone loved the combination of cars and trains. But a battle was brewing as the Time Machine silently faced off against the steam train. It was the power of the future vs. the power of the past, as Mr. Fusion's supreme efficiency taunted the coal-fed locomotive. Black tears rolled down the front of #136 as she pulled away from the station.

All this action really gave me a yearning to watch Back to the Future 3 again.

This hobby really is amazing. The people I've met are so interesting and fun. It's not just car-guys - the steam train is a perfect example of that. The South Simcoe Railway is run by volunteers who are doing essentially the exact same thing I am doing. They are preserving a piece of history, a piece of beautiful technology from the past. And they're doing it because they love it.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I guess you thought if you went to the wild west era you would find yourself a Clara Clayton. And when are you upgrading to the flying version?

7:48:00 AM

 
Blogger Martini said...

Hover conversions should be available in 2015!

6:48:00 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is making me want watch the Back-to-the-Future movies again; haven't seen them in ages, and I don't even remember #3 that well.

9:23:00 AM

 
Blogger Martini said...

Although I have never liked Westerns, I really like BTTF 3 a lot. It has a lot of really great moments. The ZZ Top dance is one of my favourites and I always wished that scene was longer.

7:57:00 AM

 

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