Hello! I am a railfan, model railroader, and, yes, a real life train enigneer!

So you could consider me a bit of an oddball railfan. I not only am interested in the trains that once did and still do ride the rails today, I'm also interested in some found in theme parks, automated people movers, monorails, and miniature railroads. You could say that the locomotives that were built for theme parks are purpose-built and purpose-built only, but I beg to differ! For instance, Disneyland's C.K. Holliday and E.P. Ripley locomotives were built by Walt Disney himself along with a team of imagineers. And because they have been built by and have a very strong connection to a man who made history: Walt Disney. 

In terms of model Railroading, I do not restrict myself to collecting pre-war, post-war, MPC-era (I forgot what it was called), and modern locomotives. If it catches my eye, I'll collect it... just as long as I get a good deal on it and it doesn't need too much work to get running again if at all. I have some legos (1 custom-built loco included), Ho gauge (including some On30), G-gauge, and O gauge (my most extensive collection!). 

And as for the engineer part? Yes, that's true. No, I don't work for Amtrak, CN, CP, NS, UP, Metra, or anyone like that, I work in a theme park driving a train- a circa 1976 3ft gauge diesel-hydraulic steam outline locomotive (though possibly once real steam) locomotive. The locomotive is quite an oddball in terms of its design when you look at other steam outlines from Chance, MTC, and others especially considering the engine it uses and how it is powered. I'd go into detail here, but I think that's better saved for a forum post. It runs only in the summer (but the park has employees training (haha) on it during the spring. You could say I'm actually a ride operator, but lets face it: if your dream is to drive a train for a living one day and you're in my position, you'd consider yourself as well (or so I assume)