Bakercityherald.com: Working on the railroad

Okay, so what would you do after flying airliners? Jayson Jacoby of the Baker City Herald found one former pilot who now helps run a narrow gauge railroad in eastern Oregon.

...Six months ago [Dale] Olsen piloted a vehicle that could hardly be more different from the Sumpter Valley Railroad's steam-powered locomotive.

He flew 747 jumbo jets.

Olsen, 60, retired last year. He lives in Palmer, Alaska, and he has worked as a volunteer on the Sumpter Valley Railroad since 1983.

On this sunny May morning Olsen is the fireman on the seven-mile, 45-minute run from McEwen to Sumpter Valley Dredge State Park. On board are a few dozen eighth-graders from Vale Middle School. Olsen, as his job title implies, runs the oil-fired boiler.

With one lever he diverts oil into the boiler to stoke the fire, and with another he dumps in water to generate the steam that powers the Mikado No. 19 locomotive's two cylinders.

There are no computers on the Mikado, in stark contrast to a 747, which hauls around enough megabytes to bury New York City in e-mail.

"This is going from one extreme to the other," Olsen says as he peers at a glass window behind which water sloshes.

This instrument, which shows the water level in the boiler, resembles a medieval weather instrument you might find in an English castle. Like the locomotive itself, the water-level gauge is a rolling antique...

At a wild guess, something like 90 percent of the guys reading this will be at least a teensy bit jealous of Mr. Olsen. Yes? (Not that you couldn't volunteer at a historic railway site yourself, you know.)