As we waited to go on one of our favorite rides at Lagoon, I saw the beautifully preserved steam locomotive housed in a shelter in Pioneer Village at Lagoon Amusement Park.
When I saw it, I thought it was Engine 999, but when I got home and looked at a photo album, the train in the picture was much smaller than the one on display at the park. I'm sure Engine 999 is somewhere--perhaps in storage, but back in the 1970s when Pioneer Village was new, that little engine chugged around the buildings and other sights in the huge 1800s museum.
I had no idea until decades earlier that my mom's grandfather once worked on that same Engine 999 back when his other job was working on normal-sized trains in Ogden, Utah.
It's a cool legacy.
Yes, I thought it was the same train, but I was wrong. I'm wrong about a lot of things. Good thing we have photo evidence to keep some things from being forgotten.
Since the 1980s, I've worked several seasons at Lagoon. I've picked up trash, planted flowers, dressed as a large raccoon, and even fallen thirty feet into a pile of straw as a wild west stuntman, but I never operated one of the many steam engines the park has operated over the years. Just as well--my great-grandfather did many years ago.
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