Der Hochbeinige at Busch Gardens The Old Country in Williamsburg VA. Railway steam powered 2024 July

One of three 2 /3 scale replicas that run on steam on the Busch Gardens Railway. This one was built for the park it's name meaning long legged one in German, was created by Crown Metal along with Balmoral Castle (the blue locomotive) which opened with the park in 1975. This year the white trim has been painted black. Also her orange trim on the coaches exterior rows of seats has been removed., unfortunately. Once a live narrator used to accompany each journey, but sadly was replaced with a recording and much of what made the train ride special, such as Old Bill for instance back in the mid 90s telling riders all about the park is no more. He used to say to move all children to the middle of the cars while crossing the Rhine River Bridge and Loch Ness Tressell, and would thank us for not smoking while on board since it may bother others. Plus the locomotive is powered by propane (a
s not to pollute our environment) the old Anheuser Busch owned park used to say. There was only one locomotive in operation Tues. June 5, 2024 as the park closed very early for summer time, I nodded to the engineer and fireman and began to tape the empty train as it has dropped off it's last passengers at Tweedside Station and began its journey back to Caribou Station to go to sleep for the night. Busch Gardens used to be open every night until 10 PM since the late 80s, so we were SHOCKED to hear the park was closing at 7pm in the summer. All and all attendance was low, and park was understaffed in general, but that's for another time.