NORTH JUDSON, Ind. — As a kid at the controls of my Lionel electric train set, I dreamed of someday being at the throttle of a real train.
Decades would pass, but eventually my dream came true only a couple of hours from my parents’ Chicago-area home and the basement where a red-and-white locomotive would pull freight cars around an oval track for hours on end.
“Pull that three times real quick,” engineer Elmer Mannen instructed. As I sat at the controls, Mannen standing watchfully by, I tugged on a cord above my head. Three times. Real quick.
The train’s whistle sounded three short, very loud blasts.
“Now give it some throttle,” he urged.
“Pull that out,” he added, pointing to the lever that controlled the bell.
With the clanging of the bell and a puff of black smoke, the gray-and-yellow Erie Lackawanna No. 310 diesel locomotive began to move, albeit slowly, through the village of North Judson.
It takes nine months of training to become an engineer at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum. But as a participant in the museum’s unique Guest Engineer program, within a few minutes of climbing into the cab I was putting the train in gear and applying the brakes. Admittedly, there were a few unpolished lurches, proof than an amateur was operating the well-worn brass throttle and brake handles.
“It’s a little different than driving a car,” Mannen said with a sly grin as the locomotive, freight car and caboose pulled away from the North Judson depot that houses the museum. A childhood fantasy was becoming reality.
“We have lots of women buy (the Guest Engineer experience) for their husbands for birthday presents, anniversary presents and Father’s Day presents,” noted Doug Kosloske, museum vice president.
“We’ve had some husbands buy for their wives too,” he added quickly.
For $70, anyone 18 or older with a valid driver’s license can spend part of a summer Saturday as a guest engineer. The price includes the opportunity to bring a friend or family member along to observe.
As we approached a crossing, Mannen helped me bring the train to a halt, as Kosloske, working as the conductor, hopped off and trotted toward the street to flag down an approaching pickup truck.
“There are a few things we have to do differently when you’re in the seat,” he later explained. “We have to stop and flag the crossing. It’s called ‘protect the crossing.’ Normally we wouldn’t do that with a qualified engineer.”
“You have the engineer dividing his attention between you and the track,” Fred Boyer, another volunteer, pointed out. With a rookie at the controls, there’s obviously greater risk of driver error.
For safety’s sake and due to the museum operators’ good sense, passengers wouldn’t board till after the Guest Engineer session. Boyer took over as engineer as I got into a flatcar for a scenic ride through the northwest Indiana farmland. Three trips are offered each Saturday from May 4 through Oct. 26.
About 55 passengers were on board as No. 310 rolled out of the station.
“The engine was built in 1947, the same year I was built,” guide Randall Downs observed while leaning heavily on his silver cane. “It’s holding up much better. It has spare parts.”
There are plenty of birds and wildflowers to see as the train moves slowly through the countryside, passing over a couple of creeks before reaching the Kankakee River just below where the Yellow River joins it. A 45-minute journey to English Lake — a 10-mile round trip — takes place twice each Saturday. A 20-mile ride to LaCrosse, Ind., and back, lasting two hours, is offered as the final trip of the day.
Scott Van Vlymen, a pharmacist from Hebron, Ind., said he gained great respect for railroad engineers as a guest engineer a couple of summers ago. His kids gave him the experience as a Christmas present in 2010.
“It’s a big piece of machinery, and it operates differently than an automobile,” he recalled. “In a car, you take your foot off the gas and put it on the brake, and it stops. When you’ve got something (as big as a locomotive), it just doesn’t work that way.”
If you go
The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum (574-896-3950, hoosiervalley.org) is at 507 Mulberry St. in North Judson, about 85 miles southeast of Chicago. It’s open every Saturday May through October.
Reservations for the Guest Engineer program can be made online.
Museum admission is free. Tickets for the train rides are sold online and in the depot. The English Lake trip is $11 for adults, $9 for children 6-15 and $5 for those 5 or younger. Tickets for the longer LaCrosse ride sell for $19, $13 and $7, respectively.
