Волонтер из Джефферсон-Сити готовит паровоз Big Boy к прибытию и делится любовью к авиации

In retirement, 62-year-old Jefferson City native Carl Haake has found two main ways to spend his time -- trains and planes, both passions that run in his blood. For the past 15 years, he has served as a volunteer liaison between the city and Union Pacific, providing assistance whenever its historic steam engines pass through the Capital City. Most recently, he assisted with setting up the water supply for the world's largest operating steam engine, Big Boy No. 4014, which is due to roll into town on July 20. Haake stepped into this role in 2010, when he was still working for the Jefferson City Fire Department as a firefighter and ladder truck operator. That year, Union Pacific was bringing a steam engine into town. The city needed a liaison, and the fire chief asked Haake to do it. "The chief knew I was a rail nut, more or less, as they put it," Haake said. He still remembers which locomotive it was: The Challenger, which had a 4-6-6-4 wheel alignment. Haake's role, which he performs with his friend, John Caples, comprises lots of logistics, from coordination with a local water company to set up the locomotive's water supply to paying fees and ensuring the water is soft enough. "They treat those steam engines like babies, but I don't blame them," he said. His role may be in a volunteer capacity, but Haake said there are still perks to the job. He has had the opportunity to ride on three of Union Pacific's operating steam engines, and once he rode in the cab of the steam engine to Warrensburg, where he visited his son in college. "That's a privilege to me," he said. What Haake does these days is something he, as a young boy attending St. Peter Catholic School, would have never thought he would do. "I had a hard time paying attention to the teacher because they always had us facing and looking out the window," Haake said about his school, which is beside the Missouri Capitol and train tracks. "Lo and behold, what was on the back side of the teacher was the train yard, so my friend John and I would sit there and watch trains go by all day." But his affinity for trains goes deeper than that. His great-grandfather used to work for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, one of America's first railroads west of the Mississippi River, although he died in a head-on collision in 1910 in Blackwater. Haake's parents used to bring him and his siblings to the train station to watch the Missouri Pacific trains pull into the station. The family's love for trains doesn't end with Haake, as he said "it's in the blood." His son works for BNSF Railway, one of the largest freight railroad networks in North America. At home, Haake cultivates his love for trains through the model train layout he started building in his basement in 2007. Today, it measures 15 feet by 15 feet. On it sits model replicas of each of the Union Pacific steam engines that Haake has personally ridden. Although Haake doesn't operate the set much due to his arthritis, his son always plays with it when he is home. "He goes in there for a long time and just has fun, and that's what I love," Haake said. Above the model train layout hangs several planes, a nod to Haake's other love, airplanes. It's something that fascinated him as a child -- after family excursions to the train station, they would go over to the airport and watch Ozark Airlines planes take off and land. He first helped out with programming for the Jefferson City airport's open house in 1989, which eventually led to his role in helping secure World War II-era vintage military aircraft known commonly as "Warbirds" in Columbia's now-defunct Salute to Veterans Air Show in 1990. In recent years, Haake and his wife have taken their involvement with the airshows a step further, sponsoring Warbirds at Mid-Missouri airshows. Among the aircraft they have sponsored are a Helldiver, an A-26, a C-47 and a TBM Avenger torpedo plane. "I want these people, especially the younger generation, to see (that) back in the day, what got your grandparents from point A to point B are airplanes that helped win the war in World War II," Haake said. Haake's love of airplanes is something he also passed down to his children. He brought them to airshows and to watch planes take off and land. His younger son now works as an air traffic controller in the Air Force -- and credits those early trips as the reason for his career, Haake said. Come July 20, Haake will be on the platform when the Big Boy arrives, just like he has been every time since 2010. When asked whether he prefers trains or airplanes more, Haake replied, "That's a cruel question. I'm going to go with probably the trains, but by maybe 2 percent more -- 51 for trains, 49 for the airplanes."