For many pre-teens, getting a driver’s license is one of their biggest dreams.
Not so Lei Johnson who just made 11 years old.
Lei, daughter of Scott Johnson, the engineer at the Grove Farm Homestead Museum, has been dogging dad’s footsteps as he worked on restoring and operating trains.
“I want to be able to drive that one,” Lei said, pointing to “Paulo,” one of the restored steam locomotives in the stable of the GFHM.
Scott said that at 11 years old, Lei is only the second-most experienced train operator he knows of after himself.
Taking advantage of no school this week, Lei was on hand to help Scott operate the trains as Aaron Stennett and volunteers from Boy Scout Troop 345 helped clear the railroad’s right-of-way between the Kalena Street boundary through Wa‘a Road in Lihu‘e.
“It’s pretty easy to drive this one,” Lei said, while deftly working her tiny hands at the controls of the yellow diesel locomotive that is on loan to the GFHM.
Lei said a joystick controls the locomotive and one pedal makes the train go faster or slower similar to the gas pedal of an automobile.
Another lever controls the locomotive’s drift, she said. “It’s real easy.”
Lei, who has been helping Scott with the locomotive from the days when it was housed in the Puhi yard, said she learned by doing a lot of the chores involved in making the trains run.
Some of those chores involve moving firewood for the locomotives firebox, oiling up the various joints, and helping get passengers on and off the restored cane cars that are now equipped with benches.
On Friday when the scouts and volunteers came to clean the proposed future rail beds, Lei was in the cab of the diesel locomotive as she went ahead to find the group that was enveloped by the lush vegetation in the Lihu‘e gullies.
Scott, who is also working with Sam Maehata to learn about trains, said training for locomotive operation is done by each railroad setting its own standards and training program.
An engineer’s safety glasses adorned Lei’s face. “You need the glasses because if one of the pipes explode, you don’t want all that oil and stuff all over your face,” she said. “This one is the prettiest one I have. And, it’s the only one that doesn’t have scratches (on the lenses).”
Recently, when the Cub Scouts spent a Train Day at the Haleko junction, Lei was on hand to help explain the workings of the locomotive, displaying a bottle of ball, joint and bearing oil that, in today’s environmentally conscious world, is now sporting a “biodegradable” label.
Lei said the biodegradable status means the oil breaks down in 10 days, mimicking Scott’s words to the scouts.
The father-daughter banter continues on Train Days when school is not in session.
Otherwise, Lei is in the classrooms, dreaming of the day she can control the throttle of the steam locomotives. “I know what to do,” she said. “It’s just that I’m too short right now.”
