As a child I loved steam trains and one of the places my family would visit was Roaring Camp and Big Trees. Roaring Camp is located in Felton, California within the tall Redwoods. We recently visited Roaring Camp and it still a fun place. Hopefully you enjoy these photos of Roaring Camp.
Roaring Camp has a narrow gauge railroad which is seen in the pictures above. The steam engines that worked the narrow gauge railroads of the 1800's were gear driven which helped them work the steep mountains of the western United States. Narrow gauge railroads with the gear driven steam engines were mostly used for logging. Roaring Camp has numerous of these types of steam engines.
These pictures show the three vertical pistons that drive a driveshaft that turns gears at each wheel, instead of the common steam engine that has horizontal pistons that drive the wheels directly. There are many moving parts on these steam engines and when they are in motion they are very interesting to watch.
The steam trains go up Bear Mountain using a bunch of switchbacks as they wandering through giant redwood trees.
Roaring Camp also has a diesel engine on standard gauge tracks that leaves Bear Mountain and travels down a river canyon to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The Boardwalk is an old amusement park built on the beach.
A few last pictures of some of the buildings at Roaring Camp.
