Wow, it's going to be hot! 99 today 102 tomorrow. I want the 80s of South Dakota. Sigh. While we were in South Dakota we rode a steam train of course. :-) It is called the 1880s Train but there is not really anything about it from the 1880s except the station which was an original Burlington Northern from 1889 so barely made it. It was a nice ride but the people were rather strict about not moving when the train was moving even though it was one of the smoothest rides I have been on. I like to be able to move about to take photos and most rides I have been on allow for this. Anyway, it was pulled by a locomotive I had never seen before, an articulated Mallet Tank engine built by Baldwin in 1928. Articulated means it has 2 sets of drivers that are separated and work independently, this is so it can negotiate sharp curves. Mallet is the designation of the wheels arrangement 2-6-6-2. It carries it's water in the tank that goes over the boiler. It was oil fired because they stopped using coal in the 1930s due to trains traveling through the Black Hills Forest. With oil you don't get cinders that could start a fire.
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