My Day with 'The Empress' by Robby ~ Part 1

My dad came to tell me (morning of July 5/12) that instead of going to my Nana's with my sister for the day, I will be coming to work with him and my mum at Chinook & Hobby West, our hobby store.

I usually only get to go to the store to help my parents on Fridays so I was super excited to get an extra day at the store.

This is me and my Dad testing a locomotive

On our way to the store Daddy and I stopped at Walmart where he bought me a pair of steel toed work boots." I was very confused and asked him where we were going that I needed these boots? He said 'Its a surprise, you have to wait until 3:30 this afternoon'.

I am 9 years old I am not good at waiting for surprises; back at the store I asked my mum "where is Daddy taking me today?", and mum said 'I'm not sure, Daddy has a surprise for you', aaahhhhh this is driving me crazy.

After I had my crazy moment I went to go help Dad and Jesse sort out Diecast cars for the North and South stores.  After sorting, I had lunch and after lunch Daddy said 'Do you want to know where we're going today - just you and me?' I said "yes, yes, yes please!"

He said 'We're going to the CP Rail Yards to see #2816 and that's all I'm going to tell you right now'.  I was so excited I nearly exploded!  Then we talked again about what time we were going and Jesse was eavesdropping on what Daddy was telling me, Jesse said "So where are you going?" and Dad said "Well, we kinda got an invitation to see 'The Empress' at the CP Rail Yards." And Jesse said how lucky we are and asked if we could take him. Dad said the invitation was just for Dad and me only, not even my mum could come.  Daddy commented on how ticked off Jesse was that he couldn't come.

We finally arrived at the yard parking lot, and Dad called John, the engineer of 2816, and let him know we were there so he could bring our hard hats, safety goggles and safety vests.

John and Robby & Daddy's thumb

Safety Gear - check!

After meeting John, he took Daddy and I to see 'The Empress' (2816). John asked me 'Do you know how a steam engine works?'. And I said, " Yes, I do know how a steam locomotive works!" Then I started explaining it all to him and you could see on his face he was really surprised with how much I knew! His mouth came open!

Then John said it was time to check out the cab of the locomotive. He showed me how to climb in. You had to put your foot on a high bottom step, then hold the side bars tightly and climb up the ladder into the cab.

Then when we got into the cab it was bigger than I thought it would be (to be fair I've only seen cabs in my DVD movies and on my model trains).  Next John told Jim how much I knew about steam locomotives and then Jim said "He can't know what our jobs are?" and I said "As a matter of fact, I think I do".

I said to Jim you apply the brakes and watch for things on the track, and John drives the train forwards and backwards with that steering wheel thingy" (it does look like a small sized car wheel), Jim looked surprised.

Jim looking out of the cab

John at the 'steering wheel thingy'

In Part 2 I will go over some of the things I learnt about the inside of the cab.  See you next week!