In my previous post I mentioned that Anthony and friends were riding a mini steam locomotive. The one pictured above is a fully-functional coal-burning replica of a circa 1913 German-made Orenstein & Koppel Steam Locomotive. The model is built by O.S. Engines in Osaka. It's all of two and a half feet long and sits on 5-inch gauge track, yet could pull a bunch of kids and a number of fully-grown adults (me included) with ease. A kit to build one costs about $10,000.
The blue containers in the picture above hold distilled water, and you can see a bucket of coal just above the kids leg. The smoke stack is spewing smoke (which could get fairly smelly at times). This train had all the bells and whistles.... literally (a steam-powered whistle and a normal bell).
There were a total of three locomotives and two sets of track. The locomotive shown in the picture at the top of this post is the smallest; the coal supply hopper above belongs to the largest.
You can see engine's coal-burning fire in the picture above as two small yellow dots in the center (through holes in the fire chamber door). The whole picture is hazy due to the smoke, which normally wasn't really an issue, but at times — when new coal was added? — became a bit stinky.
The engine above, an O.S. Super-6, is the mid-sized of the three that were on hand (about a foot longer than the shortest). A kit to build one costs about $12,000.