Media Credit: Ranjana Thomas The Austin Steam Train chugs down the tracks in East Austin. The train takes passengers on a scenic tour around the Texas Hill Country.

Media Credit: Ranjana Thomas Conductor Jimmy Burleson stays after the ride to conduct a maintenance check.

As early as the mid 1950s, thousands of miles of American railroads, which had criss-crossed the nation since the Industrial Revolution a century earlier, found themselves cast in the bleak shadow of post-WWII commercial aviation.

When the Southern Pacific Company donated steam engine No. 786 to the city of Austin in 1956, one year shy of the great space race, the gesture was likely more emblematic of a declining industry than the major railroad empire's commitment to good will.

After Austin received her, No. 786 sat as a relic in a Cedar Park rail yard for 34 years of painful oxidization while rail transport as an institution became increasingly scarce. But even as the locomotive evolved to represent a bygone era, it seemed there were those who would always love trains.

"Something about trains has always fascinated kids," said Brian Smith, 47, a business analyst at a local consulting firm and event director for the Austin Steam Train Association. "I guess some of us never grow out of it."

In 1988, three Austin businessmen who never outgrew their passion for trains successfully leased steam engine No. 786 from the city.

Arthur Boone, Dr. Henry Renfert and Jim Vaughn united the engine with their own rail cars that had been acquired over the years, and the Steam Train Association was born.

Since then Austinites like Smith have been devoting their free time to preserving, operating and being around trains.

"There are only about five paid positions," said Smith, who estimates ASTA currently has anywhere between 100 and 150 members. "The rest of us work entirely on a volunteer basis."

The original steam engine was restored using more than $800,000 in funds, and the first ASTA-sponsored passenger train excursion, the Hill Country Flyer, departed on a 66-mile, four-hour run from Cedar Park to Burnet in 1992. In the 15 years since, the association has expanded to offer four different tours that run regularly throughout the year.

"We run about 120 to 130 trains a year every Saturday and Sunday," said Robert "Doc" Schoen, a practicing orthopedic surgeon and president of ASTA who started collecting train paraphernalia in college. Schoen has been a volunteer with the association for 17 years. He, like many of his colleagues, enjoys everything from working as a breakman on board with the passengers to using his engineer's license to work on the engine itself.

"It's a unique experience," Schoen said. "We get to do this as a hobby. Where else can you do that?"

In 1999, the original steam engine No. 786 was temporarily decommissioned and shipped out for repairs.

Though a brief conversation with any of ASTA's members will reveal an earnest longing for the engine's return, the association has chugged on with a rare diesel locomotive and a variety of new annual special events such as "Day out with Thomas," which celebrated its fifth anniversary this weekend.

The event centers around a working, full-sized replica of the popular animated children's character "Thomas the train engine."

"It amazes me that this event draws so many kids," said Burt Dockall, 52, in blue overalls and cowboy boots, who worked as a fireman in the specially modified engine that carried 18,000 to 20,000 people over the weekend. "Kids these days are into videogames and everything else, but they love Thomas."

Thomas wasn't popular when Dockall first became enamored with trains, he explained while inside the roaring engine over the wooshing of released air pressure.

Growing up in Rockdale, he and his father stumbled across a train that had just pulled into station, when the conductor invited him to come up for a tour. According to Dockall, his life was changed in that moment.

"I went on to work for the Santa Fe railroad for 35 years," said the retired engineer, detailing his days hauling gold, grain, chemicals and car parts for General Motors.

His favorite trip to make, however, was to the famous creamery in Brenham, Texas.

"We used to make trips to the Blue Bell factory and they would give us all free ice cream," Dockall said with a smile. "We loved going up to Brenham."

From inside the train engine, the 25-minute "Thomas" trip up and back downtown tracks moved at a tortoise's pace, punctuated by the blaring characteristic sound of the engine's horn.

Greg Duepner, 48, an electrical engineer and father of two, demonstrated how to alternate the throttle and brake levers as the world outside the window creeped by at a leisurely 10 miles per hour.

"A lot of people would rather be out fishing or on the golf course," Dockall said. "We'd rather be here."

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