On Saturday, I went with my wife and daughter to Baltimore's Leakin Park for the annual Herb Festival. But the first attraction of the day at the park was the trains.

The Chesapeake & Allegheny Steam Preservation Society operates a scale model railroad on the grounds of the park. And these just aren't any model trains–they're working scale model steam engines that run on coal. And you can ride on them around the grounds of the park–for free.

We went for a ride. The sensation of riding on a 2-foot high rail car on a 3-foot gauge track was akin to sitting on a coasting skateboard–a steam-powered skateboard at that. We got held up for a bit at the end, as an engine ahead of us had gotten caught at a switch. It took a few minutes for the engineers and conductors to do the requisite backing and maneuvering to clear the switch, and then we rode the last 40 feet to the depot.

These “live steamer” guys are a great bunch. And it's no mean feat to drive one of these engines either–you've got to run the throttle and the brake, pull chunks of coal from between your legs to feed the boiler, and stoke your own fire all at the same time.