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With an easy swagger, baseball cap and blue-and-white striped Dickey overalls, train engineer K.J. Thornton was ready start the show. He had been leaning on the waist-high metal fence along the tracks. Having chatted about his job, he excused himself, scanning the covered cars brimming with riders.
"We have to get rolling before the other train reaches that trash can," he said, pointing up the way to the approaching train and stepping into the conductor's seat. "All aboard!"
The high-pitched railroad crossing bell rang joyfully as the train lurched into motion. The sweaty but smiling children sat two or three abreast and cheered on their much-awaited ride through Brackenridge Park. It was a Wednesday in June at 1:30 p.m., the usual 100-something degree "severe clear" in San Antonio.
On a busy day, as many as three trains run continuously, leaving the depot in 15-minute intervals, making one or two stops along the way during the 20-minute ride. The train ride, opened in 1957 and owned and operated by the San Antonio Zoo since 2001, continues to please all ages. The tracks and the 342-acre park are owned by the city.
Thornton arrives at work as early as 7 a.m. to inspect the miniature 24-gauge trains and prepare for the rides starting at 9:30 a.m. The propane-powered trains are one-third sized replicas of the 1863 Huntington locomotive, and can carry 100-150 people. The shiny, blue or black locomotives pull the lipstick-red cars across the San Antonio River twice, along the parched wooded walking trails and past the Witte Museum, the San Antonio Municipal Golf Course and driving range, the Tuesday Musical Club and the Sunken Garden Theater next to the recently restored Japanese Tea Garden.
The train pauses across from the Japanese Tea Garden to let visitors off and pick them back up when they show their valid ticket stubs.
Right past the Witte Museum and parallel to Broadway, a 150-foot tunnel is the most ear-splitting part of the journey. Thornton encouraged the children to "scream and shout to scare out the critters."
Six-and-a-half year-old Laura Hood said that besides the train whistle, the tunnel was her favorite part.
Hood sat on a stone bench at the depot, next to her mother, Sarah, and her sister, Evan, 4, resting after spending all morning at the zoo. The native San Antonians wore matching red T-shirts and the heat-worn look, still determined to enjoy this last leg of their family outing.
Several school groups returned from their train trip and soon boarded their buses. Suddenly, most activity on the park lawns ceased.
In 1957, Audie Wenzlaff opened the train attraction here. In just two years, 1 million visitors had already ridden the new attraction. Back then, the train started at the site of the driving range, which was used for gentleman's polo on Sunday afternoons.
Paulita and Joe Montalbo of Brackettville guided their grandchildren, Jaime, 2, and Alyssa, 3, off the train and through the turnstile. Joe worked for the railroad for 43 years and still likes to ride. The Montalbos had brought their children years ago and enjoyed the ride on many other occasions.
This was the grandchildren's first ride on the former Eagle. (The train has been renamed in honor of a regular rider, Donald Lawrence Henckel, who came so often, he was hired to drive the train.) Alyssa revealed her favorite part.
"The whistle. It's loud," Alyssa said, swinging from her grandpa's arm. Paulita added that the children liked screaming in the tunnel, too.
Train engineer Thornton said the train was held up in the tunnel in 1970 by two men. No one was hurt.
"They got five years of prison because it was considered train robbery," Thornton said.
Prices are $2.75 for adults and 2.25 for children 3-11. Children ages 2 and younger are free, Children less than 42 inches tall must be accompanied by an adult.
Operating hours are 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. in summer and 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. in winter. The train does not run in inclement weather.
The main depot is located across from the San Antonio Zoo at 3903 N. St. Mary's St.
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