Sex is no barrier - women, too, sign up to drive the locomotives Nor is age - the oldest person to book so far is 82. The contract runs until 2007, which marks the centenary of the depot that houses the half-dozen operable steam locomotives.Fringed by a thick belt of trees on the edge of town, the engine shed exudes an atmosphere that only decades of coal dust, cinders, steam and hot oil can create. Howard had a background in tourism and developed the idea of offering authentic driving courses while taking groups around the remaining steam railways of Eastern Europe. In 1945, the Germans were replaced by Poles displaced from the Ukraine by the westward movement of the USSR/Polish border.Nearby lakes make the town something of a tourist attraction, but it is the Wolsztyn Experience that has put it on the map thanks to brothers Howard and Trevor Jones. The small town of Wolsztyn lies in western Poland in the former Prussian province of Ostbrandenburg, and the older buildings reflect the time when the town was named Wollstein.
Railway company posters even sold the prospect of summer holidays using the admiration of the young for steam locomotives and their crews, a child gazing up in awe at the romantic figures of the driver and fireman.Today, there is only one place in the world where you can enrol to drive or fire an ordinary service train hauled by a steam locomotive, in a setting that has changed little in 100 years. Imagine finding out that your morning train was being driven by a foreign visitor on work experience. That is what commuters in western Poland have to deal with on a regular basis. "More coal," urges Marek, as I feed the insatiable inferno, burning so fiercely that I can't see the back of the vast firebox. I had already discovered that turning over the soil in a typical British back garden was hardly preparation for getting rural commuters to work on time. Miss the fire-hole and the shovel hits the back-plate of the boiler, scattering coal everywhere. This, in turn, invokes muttered imprecations from Marek, who grabs a lump hammer and straightens out the dented shovel with slightly disconcerting vehemence.Remember a time when every boy wanted to be an engine driver and children waved at trains as a matter of course? When the end of the platform at every major station would have its knot of schoolboys toting Ian Allan Locospotters' books, multi-coloured biros and satchels of Tizer and Smiths crisps with their blue paper twist of salt.
The cost includes car rental and accommodation.WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?Contact Travel Oregon on 001 800 547 7842; .. Air travel from London is inclusive in the £1,329 cost of a Complete North America (0115 950 4555; ) 14-night trip to the Pacific Northwest, taking in Seattle as well as Cascade Range and Hells Canyon. US luxury coach operator Tauck ( ) offers an eight-day Oregon Explorer tour starting and ending in Portland from £1,195 per person through Bon Voyage (0800 316 3012), who can also arrange flights. For more on their history, visit the Favell Museum of Western Art and Indian Artifacts (001 541 882 9996, open 9.30am-5.30pm Monday-Saturday, adults $5/£2.64) in Klamath Falls, or, northwest of Madras the Museum at Warm Springs (001 541 553 1161, ; closed Mondays/Tuesdays in winter; adults $6/£3.15).WHEN ARE THE BEST TIMES TO VISIT?The mountains stay snow-covered for much of the year but unless you're going for the winter sports, the most popular months to visit are late-June to September. Even when the rain stops there can be dense coastal fog.HOW CAN I GET AROUND?Renting a car or motorhome is an ideal way to tour the state: this is superb driving country. Traffic is generally light and roads are good, scenic and often empty Package deals to the area can be good value.
