A few photos from Hesston Steam Museum north of Laporte, Indiana. It's a neat place to see and ride behind steam power.
This two-foot gauge locomotive was built in Czechoslovakia in 1940, and the workers at the factory hid it under a straw stack to keep the Germans from getting it. It stayed hidden for years after WWII, and came to Hesston in 1988 via a collector in California. When the museum got it, it had never been run.
The train on the right is 1/4 scale, and runs on 14-inch gauge track. It's part of a very large and diverse collection that came to Hesston from the estate of publishing magnate R.R. Donnelly
Another two-footer, this locomotive was built in Germany in 1938 by Orenstein & Koppel, survived WWII, and worked in East Germany into the 1960s. It's the fiercest two-foot locomotive I've seen; it's designed and built like the big ones, with eight drive wheels and superheated steam.
The small train on the left runs on 7-inch gauge track and is 1/8 scale. There are several of these live-steam locomotives that operate at Hesston, and their detailed authenticity and craftsmanship are marvelous to see. They're also a lot more powerful than you might expect, given their size.
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